Passion.  If it is passion with purpose even better.  See this gives me energy, the influence of these things and the subsequent ideas and inspiration that comes from them is a piece of my why.

When it finally came time to find something new and start my own firm the search for how I would do it began.  Somewhere along the line I caught this article in Mens Journal.  Shortly there after I did some more research and read this piece  and was even more hooked.  I now had some more ideas thanks to Yvon Chouinard.   Then I sat and watched 180 South , in my case this was one of those movies that was on in the background and quickly grabbed me.  These stories as well as some more positive influence from Clif and Gary Erickson helped me decide that one of the first steps of my company would be that a piece of the foundation would include 1% for the Planet .

Fast forward a bit and it is time to make a donation.  My household and subsequently my business will not donate to general funds.  We are not against them, I suppose they serve a purpose,  I just want to know that my money is specifically influencing a project.  Last year it was helping a school bus of kids have a field trip.  This year I focused my money to the Joppenbergh Mountain project.  Fortunately Friends of Shawangunks, a 1% not for profit partner, is a partner in this cause.

See I drive through this area frequently which helps but I also live in Poughkeepsie and have seen first hand the massive impact of  The Walkway .  Which is essentially a massive re-purposing project that has positively affected the environment as well as the economy.  If it works here it will work in Rosendale which is where Joppenbergh is located.  I also see the uphill battle that the passion filled supporters have ahead of them and gain a huge amount of energy from their determination, persistence and passion.  See charity is wonderful, supporting not-for-profits is nice and I do that as well but when I support a project that is essentially run on passion that is what works for me.  That is why I directed most of this years donations toward this cause and look  forward to my walk over the trestle as I look out at the creek below.

P.S. I also adopted some goats after reading about it on the 1% blog.  That is just another example of passion with purpose that I was thrilled to support.  Hopefully Fullmore and his kids did a great job 🙂

Thanks for reading, stay well.  Just some thoughts.