Our Director was recently invited onto tbs eFM's Koreascape program in Seoul to talk about GCE. Have a listen, please. You can download the podcast here.
GCE hosted its 3rd annual Yo' Mama Haiku Battle last night, a pretense to raise money for our scholars, both present and future. Congrats to Alex Sigrist for taking home the crown with incisive commentary such as this: The upshot of that burn is people will at least believe our Director now when he says his mother never got down with Bill Cosby.
Last night was also the culmination of our online raffle drive, the prize being half the proceeds donated to the charitable cause closest the winner's heart. Since we sold $735 worth of tickets, that means $367.50 to wherever... ***Official Raffle Drawing*** ...Mat Dolata tells us to send it. Congrats to him and his charitable preferences, which he has indicated is a toy drive his workplace hosts every holiday season for children from low-income households. Stunt Bonus Update If you recall, our Director promised to get a mullet if we raised $1000 through our raffle. Unfortunately, $765 doesn't quite do it. Sorry But wait! As a result of our online panhandling, we received an additional $1600 in contributions that the donors asked not be part of the raffle. So in the same spirit as your and their giving, our Director will be visiting the beauty salon this week. That's fine: he magically cannot unlock his 1983 Pontiac Trans Am without said mullet. Special thanks to Mike Gora, Randy Digges, Daniel and Heejoo Duch, and Greg and Eileen Duch via the Community Foundation of New Jersey for their donations, not to mention all y'all who purchased raffle tickets. Additionally, a round of thanks to those that helped us with the Korean half of our fundraising efforts at last night's haiku battle: The Southside Parlor for being wonderful hosts, as always; Casablanca Sandwicherie, Magpie Brewing, Ruby Sodas, Southside Parlor (again), Vatos Urban Tacos, and Vertex Chicken for their raffle donations; and Alex Sigrist, Austin Vinas, Jeewon Kwon, and Johnny Yu for setting their moms up to get dissed all night. This blog generally goes quiet for whole months at a time but will be mildly active in the weeks to come, as Namibian students have recently taken their JSC exams and are awaiting results that are expected to be released this week. Please check back to meet our new group of scholars! In the meantime, Merry Christmas if you celebrate Christmas and enjoy the day off from work if you don't.
Since Thanksgiving has come and gone, we here at GCE have finally started stirring in regards to our annual plea for your spare change. This year's version is that same as last year's, a Yo' Mama Haiku Battle that we are calling Ol' Girl Just Keeps Getting ________er. The battle will be held January 19 at The Southside Parlor in Seoul, Korea. Most of you won't be there because durrrrr, South Korea is really far away. It's also next to North Korea, and CNN says don't go there that place is crae. (It's really not.)
We usually ask for your support via a raffle, which we are doing again this year. However, instead of prizes, this time we are holding a modified 50/50 drawing: Rather than the winner getting half the pot, (s)he will instead designate a charity for us to share the proceeds with. Basically, half to us, half to the cause nearest your heart. Obvious restrictions apply. As in no, they're not going to find Kony. Nor are we going to donate the money to your hastily assembled GoFundMe page so you can pay your phone bill. Any designated charities should have legal non-profit status in the countries they do their thing. If they don't then they need to be legitimate, e.g. who's going to say no to a small child who needs cancer treatment? Not us, that's for sure. Tickets are $10 each or 3 for $20 and can be purchased through our PayPal button: If you live in Koko then everything's the same, except 10,000 and 20,000. You can either wire your wons to KEB account #620-189798-483 or, better yet, come to our fundraising par-tay December 19 and buy your raffle tickets there. Do it before 11:00 since that's when we will have the drawing. When buying tickets, please specify the organization you would like to benefit in case you are the winner. You can either leave a note on the checkout form or email us at [email protected].
Special Stunt Bonus
If we sell $1000 worth of raffle tickets our Director will go to the beauty salon and ask his stylist, a legend named Min, to cut everything that's not the top or back of his head. Basically, a muh-lay: You know how they do in Koko: 사업 in the 앞, 파티 in the 뒤. Only took 20 months but now we have photos of our 2014 scholars. Well, two of them: And since we're feeling rather productive today, here is what half our 2015 scholars look like as well: Apologies for taking so long to acquire and publish these. If you're wondering why pictures are such a logistical nightmare for us - and we're positive you are wondering - it's because our man on the ground works on roads projects, which in Namibia means connecting villages forgotten by time to the rest of the modern, paved world. Needless to say, our man is off the grid for whole swathes of the year considering the roads come first and the wifi second, so as always, thank you for your patience.
Here's the road he spent most of the last year working on, just to provide some perspective: GCE and friends got on the Seoul Train last night to help raise funds for future scholars of ours. The plan was to film a short episode of Seoul Train that we could blast out onto the internet, but logistics were, unfortunately, logistical, and we failed. We didn't, however, fail to raise money, and that's the most important thing.
Monster thanks to Dojo Lounge for hosting, the DJs listed in the above flyer for shoveling dancing coal into the steam beast all night long, and most especially the Seoul Train Gang for helping us raise a bit over $500. Peace, love, and Seoul to you and yours. GCE is proud to announce we will be supporting 11 new scholars in 2015, an organizational record. We would also like to congratulate our 10 scholars from the 2013 intake for recently graduating high school. With your support, of course. 2015 Scholars Immanuel Ester Matheus Gabriel Matias Vilho Nangombe Fredson Petrus David Sakarias David Samuel Ernest Sheepo Sakaria Sheepo Sakeus Shilunga Beata Uugwanga Martha Pictured above from left to right are Samuel Ernest, Sheepo Sakaria, and Nangombe Fredson. In Owambo culture, if you're happy then you smile, but if you're really happy then you stick a lollipop in your mouth and pretend you aren't smiling.
As promised every year before failing to deliver, we will hopefully have pictures of the rest soon. But so you don't think we're incompetent, the process of pulling teeth that look like photos usually goes something like this: GCE: Can you take photos of the new scholars for us? Someone that side: Yes. GCE: Thank you. [Three months later] GCE: Can you take photos? STS: Yes. GCE: Thank you. [Four months later] GCE: Photos? STS: Yes. [Five months later] GCE: Congrats to our newest new scholars. We will have photos soon. Your mom graciously to be slandered last night at GCE's second annual Yo Mama Haiku Battle, and once the final calumny ricocheted off her very, very thick skin, we noticed there was $873.49 more in our bank account than a couple weeks ago. Big thank you forevers to all the haiku battlers last night; Magpie Brewing Co., Surge Dance Intensive, and La Mer Collections for their raffle prizes; the Southside Parlor for their donation as well as being marvelous hosts; all of y'all who bought raffle tickets; and most especially your mom for being such an easy target. Congrats to Johnny Yu for winning the battle and Georgia Phelan, Marie Quasius, and Claudia Alas for walking around with new watches on their wrists, eventually, since off to the post office later. Further congrats to posterity: Thanks again for everyone who supported us during our holiday fundraising spamathon. We here at GCE appreciate your kindness and hope you had a very Merry Christmas.
It's once again that special time of the year when GCE hosts a gathering and calls it an annual fundraiser. This year's go at everyone have a good time is our second Yo' Mama Haiku Battle, subtitled Ol' Girl Is Even _______er than Last Year. Same as last year, and possibly even the year before that, we are raffling off watches from La Mer Collections. The drawing will be December 24 in Seoul, Korea at the aforementioned haiku battle. Winners, as always, can live anywhere there's a government that employs men and women to sort and deliver mail. If this does not describe your living situation then we will hire a donkey cart to ensure you receive your prize. These are the three watches we are giving away: Raffle tickets are $5 each or 3 for $10 and can be paid for via PayPal. In case you are the first or second raffle winner, please specify the order of your preferences - powder pink, deep mint, or emerald green - when donating, either by leaving a message in the PayPal checkout form or emailing [email protected]. The checkout form is probably easiest. If you live in Koko then everything's the same, except 5000 and 10,000. You can either wire your wons to KEB account #620-189798-483 or, better yet, come to our fundraising par-tay December 24 at The Southside Parlor and buy your raffle tickets there. Limit one watch per winner. Special Stunt Bonus
Similar to last year, our Director has promised to modify his physical appearance if our fundraising reaches certain thresholds. This year's version of Please, Puh-leaze, Plz, Plz, Plz is a hairless pate if we somehow raise $1642 between our online campaign and holiday get together. The single caveat is that our Director is in the midst of moving from his sub-tropical island paradise to the slightly more busy Korean mainland, so until he secures employment he must maintain the sort of conservative appearance Confucius himself would approve of when making hiring decisions. Afterwards, though: a reckoning with destiny's own electric razor. Kristine Rouleau has been raising money for GCE the past three months via her marathon training. Now that 50 people have supported her journey with both kind words and their hard earned dolla dolla bills, y'all, the day to keep her end of the bargain has finally arrived: We wish Kristine all the luck in the world today as well as thank her for her kind generosity. We also thank everyone who has supported her by donating to GCE. Kristine's pledge drive raised $1440 in donations, a solid $1380 to help fund our scholars once PayPal has finished extracting their pound of flesh. That is an extraordinary amount of money for a small mom and pop do good organization such as ours!
Otherwise, some advice for Kristine to think about during the marathon: It's not the destination, it's the journey. Unless it's a marathon, in which case it's the destination and the first beer afterward! UPDATE - Congrats on finishing! GCE is très excited to have a new logo with which to replace the old one, a pile of nondescript letters that, when strung together in random order, spelled out "Gosen Community Effort" in a font wholly dependent on whatever web editor we used last. As for the official unveiling, here is a curtain: We will now pull the curtain back to ta da you with our officially new official look: BOOM!
Super big thank you forevers to Ashley vonClausburg for donating her time and design skills to our mom and pop outfit. We are grateful not only for a design we couldn't possibly be any happier with, but also for her patience in walking our visually incompetent Director through the design process. She spun magic out of his uhhh's and errrr's, and now we feel far more official than the IRS ever made us believe we were. Speaking of the IRS, we are a tax-exempt organization, so donate lots of money to kick your family down into a lower tax bracket. Feel good and get rich! |
|