In January 2010 I was inspired by the intra-company “Biggest Loser” contest to shed the pounds I packed on by Holiday/Winter indulgence. After losing 6 lbs. the first week I decided I needed a bigger goal since I thought I had the contest in the bag (I would later be proven wrong). I always admired triathletes and the test of mind, body and spirit that a triathlon challenges. I had been a somewhat competitive swimmer as a kid, I have always run 3-5 miles for cardio exercise, and hell, I know how to ride a bike. So I signed up for my first triathlon consisting of a .5 mile swim, 10.5 mile bike and a 3 mile run. I also set an ultimate goal of completing an official Ironman Triathlon by my 40th birthday (3.5 years from now).
About a month before my race I looked at the calendar and saw that the race was the day before Father’s Day. Instantly I thought not about my father, but about my best childhood friend’s father who was like a second father to me. Sadly, James Scott Airey lost his battle with ALS (more commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease) on March 27, 2004. Jimmy was a fierce competitor and a tremendous athlete. I thought about what a great feeling it would be to run the race in his honor and try to raise money to donate to ALS/TDI, which was the organization the Airey family connected with during their fight with ALS.
So, now I needed to get the word out and try to raise as much money as possible. Thanks to Facebook I had 355 so called “friends” to reach out to and spread the word about my goal, which I did. I posted a group, “Drew Shinderman’s TRI for ALS” and invited all of my “friends” to join. I also set up a charitable registry page on JustGive.org. JustGive.org is a non-profit organization where you can make a donation to any one of thousands of existing charities or set up your own. With every donation, $2 goes back to JustGive.org so they can exist. I also joined their fan page on Facebook and posted my group link there as well. And finally, I joined a triathlon club called the Sandy Hookers (named for the beach town in NJ). They also have a Facebook page so I placed my link there too. In a little over 24 hours I had over 75 people join my group and almost $300 in donations. I couldn’t believe the overwhelming response I received.
I used a network of about 600 people to gain awareness, spread the word and raise money. Now just think of the brands out there that have hundreds of thousands of millions of consumers in their databases that already have positive feelings about your brand. Imagine the power of tapping into that type of network, to spread the word and do some good. We know several major brands such as Coke, Ford, Kraft, etc. carve out a piece of their marketing budgets for “Cause Marketing” in order to create that brand affinity and do some good for the world. The most difficult part is probably deciding what charity to support.
On June 19th, 2010 I completed my first ever triathlon in 1 hour and 20 minutes. More importantly, I raised over $1250 in a 3 week period leading up to the race using Facebook and a couple of emails.
If you would like to continue to support my quest for an Ironman and a cure for ALS, please click here. Any contributions are greatly appreciated.
