Column: Couples create charity registries
BRAD FOSS
Associated Press
Jen Crane and Tom Frohlich are banking on the generosity of friends and family to collect as much money as possible when they get married - but not for selfish reasons.
In fact, the couple is quite embarrassed at the thought of receiving a bounty of traditional wedding gifts, be they large checks or fancy dishes. That is why they are instead encouraging guests to make donations in their honor to three charities: the Sierra Club, Girls on the Run and Youth in Focus.
Crane and Frohlich, who will exchange vows next month before 80 guests on Orcas Island off the north coast of Washington, are part of a tiny-but-growing group of couples turning their weddings into philanthropic opportunities. It is a trend that is picking up momentum, industry officials said, with help from a handful of Web-based nonprofits that serve as virtual intermediaries between couples, charities and guests.
While these decisions are largely a reflection of couples' altruism and other personal values - Crane, for example, volunteers with the Sierra Club - many who are setting up charitable wedding registries acknowledge more practical motivations. For instance, as the average age of U.S. newlyweds rises and more couples live together before tying the knot, there is not as much need for cookware and other traditional gifts as in previous generations.
"We're in our 30s, so it's not like we need a lot of stuff," said Crane, whose charitable wedding registry is managed by the I Do Foundation, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit that sends e-mails to guests informing them of the couple's unorthodox request.
Of course, there are some things, like a new camping stove, that the couple would be happy to receive. And they know that certain guests, particularly older family members, will insist on buying a gift that can be wrapped and tied with a bow. For these reasons, Crane and Frohlich also set up a more traditional gift registry through the same foundation, though it requires participating retailers, such as REI and Linens 'n Things, to give a small percentage of their sales to the charities the couple selected.
"We were looking for ways to cut back on the excess," explained Crane, who like many brides-to-be these days was astounded by how quickly the costs of a wedding can escalate. "The whole wedding industry is a little bit out of control."
Because weddings are increasingly secular "commercialized" events - Americans spend $26,000, on average - "people are looking for a way to reflect that they are deeper than all that," said Carley Roney, co-founder of the wedding information portal The Knot Inc.
Some couples are making donations in honor of their guests instead of handing out party favors, while others are donating leftover food to nearby homeless shelters. "The wedding was originally a broader community celebration. You fed your entire village," Roney said.
But with more than 2 million couples married in the U.S. last year and perhaps just a few thousand setting up any variety of charitable gift registries, Roney said the trend is hardly putting a dent in the profitability of the wedding industry.
"A greater trend," she said, "is the desire for cash as a wedding gift."
Couples who have incorporated charitable giving into their events said it helped to keep their priorities in check.
Georgia and James Markarian of Los Altos, Calif., felt particularly uneasy last year while planning the details of their wedding so soon after the massive South Asian tsunami that killed more than 200,000 people across 12 nations.
"We were looking at people who had no homes - and spending $500 on sorbet," the 33-year-old Georgia Markarian said, recounting her decision to find some way to use the couple's Napa Valley wedding as an occasion to help others.
The Markarians set up an online charitable wedding registry through JustGive.org, a nonprofit that has collected some $850,000 and directed it to various charities on behalf of newlyweds since 2003.
The Markarian wedding alone netted $5,000 for The Red Cross, Habitat for Humanity, Save the Children and United Way - all of which were involved in the international relief effort following the tsunami that inspired the Markarians to contact JustGive.org.
"It felt like people gave more than they would have had it been a regular wedding gift," Markarian said, conceding that she too would feel compelled to dig a little deeper if she knew her gift would benefit such a worthy cause.
JustGive.org executive director Kendall Webb said wedding-related giving accounted for roughly 2 percent of the $17 million raised in total by the charity-oriented Web site in 2005, though she emphasized that the market has huge growth potential. In 2003, just 120 couples used JustGive's service, compared with 540 in 2005.
By comparison, the I Do Foundation, which focuses solely on wedding-related charity, has raised $1.5 million since it was founded in 2002, with more than two-thirds of that coming in the past year.
Carrie Nixon and Dmitri Mehlhorn of Vienna, Va., used their 2003 wedding to raise more than $4,000 for charities devoted to finding cures for cancer, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, diseases that afflicted various members of their family. But the couple didn't stop there.
Last Christmas, the couple and more than 20 relatives exchanged charitable donations instead of giving more conventional stocking stuffers. "It's an interesting way to introduce children to charitable giving," said Nixon, adding that the kids in the family also got some toys.
This is just the kind of impact that nonprofits supporting charitable wedding registries hope to see. Some officials at these nonprofits said their long-term objective is to help create a cultural tradition in America whereby personal and religious celebrations of all kinds are seen as philanthropic opportunities.
"We're trying to change behavior away from mindless consumerism," said Donna Zaccaro, president of Whatgoesaround.org. "That's the real goal."
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http://www.whatgoesaround.org
http://www.idofoundation.org
http://www.justgive.org
Sunday, July 30, 2006
Single city block hosts world's longest race
Single city block hosts world's longest race
By Amanda Beck
NEW YORK, July 25 (Reuters) - The longest foot race in the world is 3,100 miles (4,988 kms), long enough to stretch from New York to Los Angeles. Those who run it choose a different route, however: they circle one city block in Queens; for two months straight.
The athletes lap their block more than 5,000 times. They wear out 12 pairs of shoes. They run more than two marathons daily. In the heat and rain of a New York summer, they stop for virtually nothing except to sleep between midnight and 6 a.m.
"I think this is what they're looking for: the feeling that you're living life for real," runner Pranab Vladovic said of himself and 13 other athletes now competing in the tenth annual Self-Transcendence 3,100 Mile Race in Jamaica, Queens.
The 51-day event is sponsored by followers of meditation master Sri Chinmoy, who teaches his students to excel mentally and physically. Some swim the Channel between England and France or climb a mountain. Those in the race run under the motto "Run and Become. Become and Run."
They eat on the run. They talk on the run. They use a port-a-potty. One athlete cruised into a podiatrist to have two infected, ingrown toenails removed and was back on the course in two hours. He still ran 60 miles (97 kms) that day.
The athletes brave blisters, bandaged toes, weight loss, limited sleep and a chiropractic nightmare while attempting to stay focused and positive for nearly two months. Theirs, they say, is a gift to humanity.
"Not everyone can climb Mount Everest, and not everyone can run this race," said race director Rupantar LaRusso. "But it's a challenge. It's inspiring and shows that there's no limit to what you can do."
FACTORY WORKERS
All but one of this year's runners are foreigners who left their jobs as postal workers, gardeners and factory workers to run a half-mile (800-metre) circuit around Thomas Edison High School and an adjoining park.
In the process, two worlds interlace: a parade of mostly eastern Europeans laps through one of New York's most diverse neighbourhoods, where Greeks, Jews, Koreans and Muslims live side by side. Most residents seem unaware of the athletes and their moments of victory, agony and inspiration.
"To each his own," resident Shawn Vernon said as the runners neared their 2,100th mile (3,380th km). Meanwhile, a young girl in her underwear balanced on the balcony railing of her apartment complex and two men rolled a piece of carpet across the street. None seemed to notice the athletes in their ear-flap hats and new shoes, still on the move more than one month into the race, which ends on Aug. 2.
The runners seem more observant. They recognise the people catching rides to work every day at the same time from the same corner. They smile at the Bengali man who takes his son to the park most nights. And in running more than 100 laps a day, they come to know every slope and sidewalk crack in this otherwise unremarkable city block, chosen for its proximity to Chinmoy's home and headquarters.
The runners admire its daily sunrise, the 30-foot (nine-metre) pine tree, the fireflies they chase at night. Travelling down one gentle straight was likened to "running on a country road," though it borders the Grand Central Expressway.
"Always in life, you can complain or you can focus on the joy," Slovakian runner Ananda Zuscin said. "This race is all about accepting that you're going to run all day and then forgetting about it."
SWOLLEN FEET
So the runners move on. They arrive by 6:07 every morning to begin another 60-mile (97-km) leg. They run, walk, and run-walk. They work their way through shoes, ripping out the toe boxes, sides and any other fabric that might rub against a foot swelling two sizes in this race of 10 million steps.
They know what to eat and when. They gobble down 6,000 calories daily from a vegetarian smorgasbord, much of it bathed in olive oil. Often, they carry aluminium plates and forks as they move. Their faces light up like children in the afternoon when ice creams are handed out.
"They're like little kids in a way," assistant race director Bipin Larkin said. "Their life is really simplified and to keep them moving happily along you have to keep giving them things."
Above all, they have to stay on the course.
"Every minute, every second counts out here. You have to keep moving," Suprabha Beckjord, 50, said, stressing that the competition was not other runners but the clock. The first place finisher wins only a T-shirt and a plastic trophy.
Beckjord is the only person to have completed the race every year and is still not tired after having run nearly 31,000 miles (49,900 kms), more than the circumference of the earth.
"Something inside my soul just loves it," Beckjord, a U.S. resident, said. "It's like running on love."
By Amanda Beck
NEW YORK, July 25 (Reuters) - The longest foot race in the world is 3,100 miles (4,988 kms), long enough to stretch from New York to Los Angeles. Those who run it choose a different route, however: they circle one city block in Queens; for two months straight.
The athletes lap their block more than 5,000 times. They wear out 12 pairs of shoes. They run more than two marathons daily. In the heat and rain of a New York summer, they stop for virtually nothing except to sleep between midnight and 6 a.m.
"I think this is what they're looking for: the feeling that you're living life for real," runner Pranab Vladovic said of himself and 13 other athletes now competing in the tenth annual Self-Transcendence 3,100 Mile Race in Jamaica, Queens.
The 51-day event is sponsored by followers of meditation master Sri Chinmoy, who teaches his students to excel mentally and physically. Some swim the Channel between England and France or climb a mountain. Those in the race run under the motto "Run and Become. Become and Run."
They eat on the run. They talk on the run. They use a port-a-potty. One athlete cruised into a podiatrist to have two infected, ingrown toenails removed and was back on the course in two hours. He still ran 60 miles (97 kms) that day.
The athletes brave blisters, bandaged toes, weight loss, limited sleep and a chiropractic nightmare while attempting to stay focused and positive for nearly two months. Theirs, they say, is a gift to humanity.
"Not everyone can climb Mount Everest, and not everyone can run this race," said race director Rupantar LaRusso. "But it's a challenge. It's inspiring and shows that there's no limit to what you can do."
FACTORY WORKERS
All but one of this year's runners are foreigners who left their jobs as postal workers, gardeners and factory workers to run a half-mile (800-metre) circuit around Thomas Edison High School and an adjoining park.
In the process, two worlds interlace: a parade of mostly eastern Europeans laps through one of New York's most diverse neighbourhoods, where Greeks, Jews, Koreans and Muslims live side by side. Most residents seem unaware of the athletes and their moments of victory, agony and inspiration.
"To each his own," resident Shawn Vernon said as the runners neared their 2,100th mile (3,380th km). Meanwhile, a young girl in her underwear balanced on the balcony railing of her apartment complex and two men rolled a piece of carpet across the street. None seemed to notice the athletes in their ear-flap hats and new shoes, still on the move more than one month into the race, which ends on Aug. 2.
The runners seem more observant. They recognise the people catching rides to work every day at the same time from the same corner. They smile at the Bengali man who takes his son to the park most nights. And in running more than 100 laps a day, they come to know every slope and sidewalk crack in this otherwise unremarkable city block, chosen for its proximity to Chinmoy's home and headquarters.
The runners admire its daily sunrise, the 30-foot (nine-metre) pine tree, the fireflies they chase at night. Travelling down one gentle straight was likened to "running on a country road," though it borders the Grand Central Expressway.
"Always in life, you can complain or you can focus on the joy," Slovakian runner Ananda Zuscin said. "This race is all about accepting that you're going to run all day and then forgetting about it."
SWOLLEN FEET
So the runners move on. They arrive by 6:07 every morning to begin another 60-mile (97-km) leg. They run, walk, and run-walk. They work their way through shoes, ripping out the toe boxes, sides and any other fabric that might rub against a foot swelling two sizes in this race of 10 million steps.
They know what to eat and when. They gobble down 6,000 calories daily from a vegetarian smorgasbord, much of it bathed in olive oil. Often, they carry aluminium plates and forks as they move. Their faces light up like children in the afternoon when ice creams are handed out.
"They're like little kids in a way," assistant race director Bipin Larkin said. "Their life is really simplified and to keep them moving happily along you have to keep giving them things."
Above all, they have to stay on the course.
"Every minute, every second counts out here. You have to keep moving," Suprabha Beckjord, 50, said, stressing that the competition was not other runners but the clock. The first place finisher wins only a T-shirt and a plastic trophy.
Beckjord is the only person to have completed the race every year and is still not tired after having run nearly 31,000 miles (49,900 kms), more than the circumference of the earth.
"Something inside my soul just loves it," Beckjord, a U.S. resident, said. "It's like running on love."
Love is not a thing to understand.
Love is not a thing to understand. Love is not a thing to feel. Love is not a thing to give and receive. Love is a thing only to become and eternally be. --Sri Chinmoy
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