Penny Pounding: Christmas Campaign

Penny Pounding: The Christmas Campaign

NAC has decided to create a holiday giving challenge between all groups. While creating great athletes, we also want to be building better people.  One of our very own coaches and NAC Alum, Dakota Hodgson, works for the nonprofit ProjectR12.  Project R12 is a foundation that stands on: joy, love, selflessness, bravery, boldness, truth, justice, and unity for all people.  The Project R12 goes into villages of Uganda to help orphans, abused, and vulnerable people.  They provide tools, resources, and education to people within the villages to have a better and self-sustaining life. A better life for these people is very different than the better life of a NAC swimmer.  A little bit of money and resources goes a very long way for these villages.

We are asking the athletes to donate their OWN money towards a gift for the village families.  Each athlete is to donate spare change that they may have from their allowance, birthday money, etc. If a handful of pennies is what each athlete can donate, that’s all we ask! There will be buckets at practice for the athletes to drop their change. We will be collecting money for 19 days – December 11 thru December 29. On December 30, the coaches will count the money!

What’s the gift?

The coolest part, there are several different gifts we can give, based on the amount of money that is raised.

For $20: 55 lbs. of beans and 55 lbs. of corn – this is enough seeds to plant half an acre! Seeds will allow families to produce crops to feed themselves and others! This is a major step for the average Ugandan family to become self-sustaining.

For $50: 1/10 of a healthy adult cow [cows are $500] – cows produce milk and manure which can be sold at a local market. Milk for the people and manure for fertilizer of crops!

For $60: 1 full grown goat – Goats breed quickly which provides a family with enough offspring to produce milk and meat.  The products can also be sold at the local market.

For $70: 1 mattress, soft blanket, pillow, and sheets – Most children and adults sleep on concrete floors, piles of straw, or the ground.  They are prone to many rashes and diseases from sleeping on the dirty floors and bug infested straw.