Distribute the Burden! Bee Kind!
Relay of Kindness site leader:
In keeping with our hope that each participating community will be carry a portion of the burden, but no community will carry the entire burden, we ask that each site leader would help coordinate the following:
Distribute the Relay of Kindness document within your community and encourage participation. Consider all of the networks of which you are a part. Though many of us will have a natural community within our churches, please be creative and expansive in how you define your network. A few examples: work, school, club, sorority, fraternity, friends, neighbors. Something we hope to accomplish is an expression of diversity among participants in this relay. Please consider courageously approaching a group that is not like you.
Calculate the number of boxes committed. Site leaders will have access to a common spreadsheet that each of us can use to keep track of the number of boxes we can anticipate collecting at each site. This will be valuable as we determine our transportation needs. As the collection day approaches for your site, you will be able to determine how many boxes are coming your way and how many you will be adding to the relay.
Determine a storage arrangement for boxes delivered before the transfer day. Although I believe the more people gathered on the relay day for your site, the more profound the relay moment will be, I recognize the reality that some will not be able to attend the event and will want to contribute their box early. Such accommodation will require a place to store the boxes.
Recruit helpers for the day of your relay event. In keeping with our desire to distribute the burden, the relay event at your site will be more satisfying if there are too many people to help rather than too few. We hope that most who are contributing a box will be there to help transfer and load the next truck(s). Please keep in mind that we want this to be a blending of the physical and the spiritual. As we are lifting, carrying, and loading the boxes, we are each, in our own way, encouraged to acknowledge the burden we are taking on as we participate and, we hope, the burden of others that we may be easing.
Recruit trucks and drivers to deliver the accumulation from your site to the next site. When I began to imagine this relay, one of the first concerns was the transportation cost. I assumed the cost of driving this curious route would be expensive. But as I considered alternatives, the idea of a relay became compelling. If we recruit drivers and vehicles willing to transport a small portion of the distance, rather than expecting one driver or team to carry the entire burden of the transportation, we will accomplish our goal, distribute the burden, and distribute the joy of participating. The longest distance between any two sites is less than 140 miles and the shortest is less than 80 miles. The number of vehicles and drivers needed from your community is, at this point, impossible to determine. Referring to the collection spreadsheet will help keep you informed as your relay day gets closer.
Don’t be afraid to encourage dollar donations. When I was in Eagle Pass a few weeks ago talking to Becky about this project, I asked her what impact the flood of asylum seekers was having on her annual budget. She let me know that the resource center alone was costing about $10,000 a month! The contribution of boxes will ease the burden for those coming through the center, but I think we can also help Becky with the unanticipated financial strain on her budget. Here is what I propose: If each of the sixteen relay sites contributes an average of $600 and Points on the Wheel contributes $400, these combined will accomplish the expenses for one month of the resource center! Here is a link to the Mission:Border Hope website:https://www.missionborderhope.org/ There is a donation button on the home page.
Hospitality, please:
I will be a constant on this trip. I intend to travel the entire trip. You will notice that on the The Route, the schedule tab the locations for overnight stays are listed. If there is a church floor, church pew or better that I could spend the night, that would be great.
Distribute the Relay of Kindness document within your community and encourage participation. Consider all of the networks of which you are a part. Though many of us will have a natural community within our churches, please be creative and expansive in how you define your network. A few examples: work, school, club, sorority, fraternity, friends, neighbors. Something we hope to accomplish is an expression of diversity among participants in this relay. Please consider courageously approaching a group that is not like you.
Calculate the number of boxes committed. Site leaders will have access to a common spreadsheet that each of us can use to keep track of the number of boxes we can anticipate collecting at each site. This will be valuable as we determine our transportation needs. As the collection day approaches for your site, you will be able to determine how many boxes are coming your way and how many you will be adding to the relay.
Determine a storage arrangement for boxes delivered before the transfer day. Although I believe the more people gathered on the relay day for your site, the more profound the relay moment will be, I recognize the reality that some will not be able to attend the event and will want to contribute their box early. Such accommodation will require a place to store the boxes.
Recruit helpers for the day of your relay event. In keeping with our desire to distribute the burden, the relay event at your site will be more satisfying if there are too many people to help rather than too few. We hope that most who are contributing a box will be there to help transfer and load the next truck(s). Please keep in mind that we want this to be a blending of the physical and the spiritual. As we are lifting, carrying, and loading the boxes, we are each, in our own way, encouraged to acknowledge the burden we are taking on as we participate and, we hope, the burden of others that we may be easing.
Recruit trucks and drivers to deliver the accumulation from your site to the next site. When I began to imagine this relay, one of the first concerns was the transportation cost. I assumed the cost of driving this curious route would be expensive. But as I considered alternatives, the idea of a relay became compelling. If we recruit drivers and vehicles willing to transport a small portion of the distance, rather than expecting one driver or team to carry the entire burden of the transportation, we will accomplish our goal, distribute the burden, and distribute the joy of participating. The longest distance between any two sites is less than 140 miles and the shortest is less than 80 miles. The number of vehicles and drivers needed from your community is, at this point, impossible to determine. Referring to the collection spreadsheet will help keep you informed as your relay day gets closer.
Don’t be afraid to encourage dollar donations. When I was in Eagle Pass a few weeks ago talking to Becky about this project, I asked her what impact the flood of asylum seekers was having on her annual budget. She let me know that the resource center alone was costing about $10,000 a month! The contribution of boxes will ease the burden for those coming through the center, but I think we can also help Becky with the unanticipated financial strain on her budget. Here is what I propose: If each of the sixteen relay sites contributes an average of $600 and Points on the Wheel contributes $400, these combined will accomplish the expenses for one month of the resource center! Here is a link to the Mission:Border Hope website:https://www.missionborderhope.org/ There is a donation button on the home page.
Hospitality, please:
I will be a constant on this trip. I intend to travel the entire trip. You will notice that on the The Route, the schedule tab the locations for overnight stays are listed. If there is a church floor, church pew or better that I could spend the night, that would be great.
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