Pledge!

Pledging to this bike trip will help make bringing a functioning computer lab to CEG Logozohe a reality.  With your support, students at this secondary school will finally have the means necessary to properly develop their computer skills and begin using them to their own benefit.  Donations to this project are tax deductible and will go entirely towards the purchase of the computers, photocopy machines, and printer needed to equip the computer lab.

Pledges made to this project are not, in fact, done through the BikeBenin website.  This website exists merely as a way to gather support for the project and to share Benin with those interested in learning more about it.  Because this project is being funded through the Peace Corps Partnership Program (PCPP), donations to it must be made through the PCPP web page.

However, that doesn’t mean that you still can’t make a ‘pledge’ here.  For each kilometer I bike, you can pledge a few pennies, and at the conclusion of the bike trip I will send you a personal e-mail with the calculated total.  From there, you can go to the official PCPP and make a donation equivalent to this amount.  To make a pledge, just post a comment on this page with the amount per kilometer, and I will add the amount to the pledge table below.  If you wish to pledge and remain anonymous, feel free to e-mail me at Crawford.david.dmc@gmail.com.

Donor	Pledge (per km)	Potential Earnings (2000 km max)
Alex Clewell	$0.05	$100.00
Billy Hawkinson	$0.02	$40.00
David & Sherry Staub	$0.05	$100.00
Brian Crawford	$0.30	$600.00
Ashley Petersen	$0.10	$200.00
Hildasue Petersen	$0.10	$200.00
Paul Weller	$0.20	$400.00

You can expect the bike trip to be no more than 2,000 kilometers.  Although it is likely that we will have to change our course at some point due to unforeseen obstacles (a road may be washed out, or we decide to go down a different back road), there is no way our journey should exceed 2,000 kilometers. Also, the main rule stands that: If we’re not biking, it doesn’t count.  Some places may require us to take alternate transportation to get to, such as a boat, and this will not be counted in the total distance we travelled.

No pledge is insignificant! Pledging even just a penny per kilometer will go a long way. In total, we are looking to raise $3,850, and this is definitely possible with the combined assistance of many supporters.  And to put some incentive on the table, here are some tempting pledge levels!

Note:
Ok, we’re definitely not using pledged funds to buy ourselves drinks, food, or any other treats – they’re purely going towards the computer lab. The pledge levels are just for your entertainment and satisfaction.

PureWater Pledge Level - $0.05/kilometer (around $100 total)

Equivalent to approximately 25 CFA (the monetary unit in Benin), this pledge is enough to purchase a PureWater – a half-liter plastic bag full of (typically) treated water that is sold in most towns through Benin – each kilometer.  Thanks to you, we definitely won’t be getting dehydrated on this trip!

Donors

• Alex Clewell
• David & Sherry Staub

   

 

 

 

Oranges Galore Pledge Level - $0.10/kilometer (around $200 total)

At roughly 50 CFA/km, you’re helping to provide our team with loads of Vitamin C.  At this rate, we’ll be able to buy a bag of oranges each kilometer; and these bags usually weigh at least two pounds each.  Compare that to your average supermarket price!

(Fun fact – in Benin you’ll be hard pressed to find someone who cuts an orange and eats it by the slice.  Here you peel off the skin, cut the top off, and suck the juice out.  Just watch out for the seeds!)

Donors

• Ashley Petersen
• Hildasue Petersen
• Paul Weller

FanMilk Pledge Level - $0.30/kilometer (around $600 total)

A FanMilk cart - The West African
equivalent to an icecream truck

The king of all pledge levels, at about 150 CFA/km, one can purchase a FanMilk per kilometer.  What is a FanMilk, you ask?  They are the delicious treat of frozen ice cream, sometimes combined with yogurt, that one eats from the bit-off corner of plastic wrapping surrounding it. Highly prized within the Peace Corps community – likely due to a universally held nostalgia felt by Volunteers for American ice cream infused with high-fructose corn syrup – you will surely go down in history with this pledge level.

Donors

• Brian Crawford