Three women who share an apartment at 50 Grand St. in Manhattan, decided to raise $50,000 for a charity. From left, Margot Weber, Gesche Haas and Jaclyn Mitleide. Chang W. Lee/The New York Times
October 14, 2011,
The New York Times
By JAMES BARRON
Imagine what they would have had to do if they lived, say, a mile away, in the 400 block of Grand Street. Pay attention to the number 400.
As it was, the three women live at 50 Grand Street, between West Broadway and Avenue of the Americas. One does not have to be a math major to see that the number 50 is smaller than the number 400.
That made things easier for the three women, who are in their mid-20s and share a bright apartment on the third floor of 50 Grand Street. After they had their first brainstorm — let’s raise some money for charity — their next brainstorm was to set a goal of $50,000. Fifty grand from 50 Grand: It had a certain ring to it. They began calling themselves “the 50G girls.”
It was not what they would have had to aim for if they had lived down the street in the 400 block. Still, they figured they would need two years to get that much money from friends, business acquaintances and anyone else they could think of.
“Fifty grand — $50,000 — sounds like a lot to three girls who don’t have a lot in their bank accounts,” said one of the three, Jaclyn Mitleider, a trader in a financial firm. “I mean, we have student debt and business debt and every other kind of debt you can imagine.”
But on Tuesday, six months and 250 donations after they started, they reached their target. They said the last $1,100 came from a former boyfriend who had promised a donation months ago. On Tuesday, when he saw on their Web site that they were approaching the $50,000, he decided to put them over the top. That took the total on the Web site to $50,050.
The money is going to the Project Futures arm of the Somaly Mam Foundation, which fights human trafficking and exploitation. It was started by Somaly Mam, a Cambodian woman who survived the sex trade there. She was sold to a brothel when she was a girl, but escaped when she was in her early 20s.
Her story has attracted attention from celebrities like Angelina Jolie, who wrote an essay about her for Time magazine’s issue on “The World’s Most Influential People” in 2009. The Times columnist Nicholas D. Kristof wrote the foreword to her book, “The Road to Lost Innocence.”
Ms. Mam’s story resonated with the three because they had traveled in Asia. They had met in Hong Kong, when they were exchange students there.
“So many people are unaware of the extent to which these crimes occur,” Ms. Mitleider wrote in an e-mail to friends when the three women began raising the money. “We have all heard peripherally of women and children being sold into forced prostitution, but never could we imagine the degree of cruelty and prevalence.”
When it came to raising money, they realized they could not simply schedule events and invite their friends. They could do that, but as Gesche Haas, an analyst in an investment firm, put it, “Our friends live all over the world.”
They created a Web page, with Margot Weber, an entrepreneur, doing much of the writing. They also set up an account on Facebook. Two friends in Singapore tapped their network of friends to raise more than $6,000.
Then Ms. Mitleider began a no-drinking campaign, abstaining until donations from friends reached a target she had set. “I was not going to drink until I reached $8,000,” she recalled. It was an in-between number: She had considered $5,000, but decided that was too low. She also considered $10,000 but, as she put it this week, “I didn’t want to go that long” on nonalcoholic drinks at get-togethers after work.
She raised her $8,000 in only 13 days, in part, she said, because she had come up with an unbeatable conversation starter. “You’d be at some event and somebody would say, ‘Can I buy you a drink?’ And I’d say, ‘Only soda.’ It was a segue to a whole different conversation.”
Ms. Haas — who had e-mailed 10 women in her office and received only one donation — tried an eating contest. The contestants persuaded friends to underwrite a marathon that involved eating a certain number of chicken nuggets or cupcakes. The people taking part also had to pay — if they did not eat the promised number.
“I ate 42 cupcakes,” Ms. Haas said. “I was supposed to eat 100.”
October 14, 2011,
The New York Times
By JAMES BARRON
Imagine what they would have had to do if they lived, say, a mile away, in the 400 block of Grand Street. Pay attention to the number 400.
As it was, the three women live at 50 Grand Street, between West Broadway and Avenue of the Americas. One does not have to be a math major to see that the number 50 is smaller than the number 400.
That made things easier for the three women, who are in their mid-20s and share a bright apartment on the third floor of 50 Grand Street. After they had their first brainstorm — let’s raise some money for charity — their next brainstorm was to set a goal of $50,000. Fifty grand from 50 Grand: It had a certain ring to it. They began calling themselves “the 50G girls.”
It was not what they would have had to aim for if they had lived down the street in the 400 block. Still, they figured they would need two years to get that much money from friends, business acquaintances and anyone else they could think of.
“Fifty grand — $50,000 — sounds like a lot to three girls who don’t have a lot in their bank accounts,” said one of the three, Jaclyn Mitleider, a trader in a financial firm. “I mean, we have student debt and business debt and every other kind of debt you can imagine.”
But on Tuesday, six months and 250 donations after they started, they reached their target. They said the last $1,100 came from a former boyfriend who had promised a donation months ago. On Tuesday, when he saw on their Web site that they were approaching the $50,000, he decided to put them over the top. That took the total on the Web site to $50,050.
The money is going to the Project Futures arm of the Somaly Mam Foundation, which fights human trafficking and exploitation. It was started by Somaly Mam, a Cambodian woman who survived the sex trade there. She was sold to a brothel when she was a girl, but escaped when she was in her early 20s.
Her story has attracted attention from celebrities like Angelina Jolie, who wrote an essay about her for Time magazine’s issue on “The World’s Most Influential People” in 2009. The Times columnist Nicholas D. Kristof wrote the foreword to her book, “The Road to Lost Innocence.”
Ms. Mam’s story resonated with the three because they had traveled in Asia. They had met in Hong Kong, when they were exchange students there.
“So many people are unaware of the extent to which these crimes occur,” Ms. Mitleider wrote in an e-mail to friends when the three women began raising the money. “We have all heard peripherally of women and children being sold into forced prostitution, but never could we imagine the degree of cruelty and prevalence.”
When it came to raising money, they realized they could not simply schedule events and invite their friends. They could do that, but as Gesche Haas, an analyst in an investment firm, put it, “Our friends live all over the world.”
They created a Web page, with Margot Weber, an entrepreneur, doing much of the writing. They also set up an account on Facebook. Two friends in Singapore tapped their network of friends to raise more than $6,000.
Then Ms. Mitleider began a no-drinking campaign, abstaining until donations from friends reached a target she had set. “I was not going to drink until I reached $8,000,” she recalled. It was an in-between number: She had considered $5,000, but decided that was too low. She also considered $10,000 but, as she put it this week, “I didn’t want to go that long” on nonalcoholic drinks at get-togethers after work.
She raised her $8,000 in only 13 days, in part, she said, because she had come up with an unbeatable conversation starter. “You’d be at some event and somebody would say, ‘Can I buy you a drink?’ And I’d say, ‘Only soda.’ It was a segue to a whole different conversation.”
Ms. Haas — who had e-mailed 10 women in her office and received only one donation — tried an eating contest. The contestants persuaded friends to underwrite a marathon that involved eating a certain number of chicken nuggets or cupcakes. The people taking part also had to pay — if they did not eat the promised number.
“I ate 42 cupcakes,” Ms. Haas said. “I was supposed to eat 100.”
2 comments:
they are beautiful inside and outside. congratulation! you guy are god sent to earth.
So, that's where America got that $50,000 plus to help Cambodian flood victims.
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