From Mimi Nguyen, Director of Development

The success of this year’s Summer White Party at The Hudson Terrace was apparent to all guests and the volunteer “stars” that put on the event. It was impossible not to notice the overwhelming support from a sold out crowd of over 400 guests who showed up in their best whites. From creative costumes to those dressed to impress, the crowd was in the most colorful white attire I had ever seen. Before the event, I thought last year’s Summer White Party would be tough to outshine, but we did it this year. Thanks to everyone who came out!

It was a night to remember. For starters, the venue was impeccable with overreaching high ceilings and glorious chandeliers- hosting an indoor and outdoor bar for all guests.  DJ Tom kept our energy high all night with popular mixes in pop, dance, and hip hop music. Our bar sponsors kept the open bar promise with Vita Coco and Vitamin Water to cool us down on the terrace and summer cocktail concoctions from Bulldog Gin like lychee gin martinis and gin lemonades. Let’s not forget the more than enough Beer Lao, Korbin Kameron wines, and Johnnie Walker Black and Red to add to the festivities. In between cheers, guests shared White Castle burgers, a tradition for a PoP Summer White Party, and POP CHIPS. We also began a fun activity called Pass the Pencil Movement. Our famous oversized Pencil was given to guests as a symbolic representation of the PoP Movement: A Pencil Transforms, and after taking a photo with the pencil, they were asked to pass it to the next person!

There were other ways guests were able to help the cause during night. Stations were set up for participation in the various activities at the event such as raffles, door prizes, T-shirts, Nick Onken Photography, and The Village Rally. These simple small gestures collectively made a big impact for the organization. It was an empowering night indeed.

Pencils of Promise raised over $29,000 in total proceeds to go towards building new projects between Laos and Nicaragua, in addition to implementing sustainability programs in our schools. After giving a heart-felt personal speech, Adam Braun, founder of Pencils of Promise, launched a new donor program called The Honor Roll.  The Honor Roll is a list of donors that are looking for a partnership with Pencils of Promise. Each donor’s annual pledge (in whatever amount they believe they can commit) will go towards sustaining the projects that we build after the four walls go up. For approximately $500 per year ($40/month) we can provide each school with the necessary supplies and teachers to further the development of the children. Donors on The Honor Roll will be given personal updates to each project and be a member of the community abroad. $8,000 was raised from the launch of The Honor Roll. Thank you to all who pledged!

One of the coolest moments in the night was after we made speeches, a young lady approached me and said that she was the ex-girlfriend of our first website developer! She had been invited through a friend and thought it was such a great cause.  She then realized after watching our video and hearing more about the organization, it was the same organization her ex-boyfriend volunteered to work with last year. This was exactly one year ago we celebrated the first launch of a website for Pencils of Promise at the first ever Summer White Party. Boy have we come a long way!

Thank you again to each and every person who has joined The PoP Movement. It’s an amazing thing to know that we can make a difference in other people’s lives. If you were not able to attend this year’s Summer White Party, we will see you next year! Check out our website for upcoming news and events. The next Pencils of Promise event is scheduled for November 2010.

Professional photos from The Summer White Party night will be uploaded to our Events section soon. Please check back soon!

A pencil. It is wood. It is graphite. It’s a perfect cylinder that fits in the grasp of any hand.

It is art and literature, equations and inventions, movements and revolutions.

A pencil is creation. It sketches the images of the artist. It writes the first words of the author. It scratches the first notes of the scientist.

In the hand of a child, a pencil is freedom. It’s the freedom to validate thoughts and discover ideas, to release visions and begin exploring the vast potential of the mind.

A pencil is power. It’s there when you write your name for the first time; when you learn to express yourself and your ideas, when you announce to the world that you are you and that you have something to share.

A pencil drafts the first policies and ignites the first sparks of change. It is agency. It knows no limits and follows no boundaries. It writes in the characters, sentences and thoughts of every language and culture in the world.

A pencil is radically free.

It holds the power to release dreams from minds, to expand and change them into the realities of the future.

A pencil transforms.

I’m in a rural village 9,000 miles from home, accessible only by muddy, unsealed roads. The electricity is sporadic and there is one phone for every hundred people. Yet, I feel connected.

In this village, I feel connected to the PoP movement—the 40,000 passionate voices that have enabled a $25 bank deposit to grow into over 160,000 instruction hours delivered to Lao children by the end of the this year.

I feel connected to our all-female in-country staff members, who are passionately committed to empowering their community and themselves in the process.

I feel connected to the village elders and teachers I am sitting with, who are extending their hands in dedicated partnership to better the lives of their children.

School is out for the summer, but the PoP Laos team is hard at work. We’re finalizing our build plans for four new schools, laying out our 2011 strategy, and constantly scouting for new villages to partner with.

We’re building out our staff, which started with one committed Lao volunteer, to evaluate our schools and deliver our supplemental programming. This growing team of women is learning new skills and gaining the confidence to become powerful ambassadors of change in their country.

We are here, surveying this village, as part of the effort to track and quantify our impact on-the-ground, so that we hold ourselves accountable to our stated mission. This is one of many ways PoP is incorporating leading business practices into our operations to ensure we grow into a world-class organization.

And like a business, we have our shareholders. They are each of you, the Global Generation, connected by the dividends of our investment – the profound social good that we are creating together.

involvement in Pencils of Promise!

Eva, one of the incredible Pencils of Promise interns for the summer, writes about the inspiring PoP Leadership Workshop last week.

Last week at PoP we had our first ever PoP Leadership Workshop (PLW)!  For two days, the interns were led by PoP team members in exploring different issues in all things PoP. We started out with an introduction from backpacker/founder Adam Braun about the history of PoP, including personal anecdotes on how PoP developed from an inspired idea to a realized dream. The experience of hearing the actual story from Adam is just another example of how hands-on everything is at PoP.

All of the workshops were given by the amazing team who were clearly thrilled and knowledgeable about the ways they contribute to PoP. Jill and Hoolie gave us a valuable intro into how to manage a non-profit and how we to conduct research in the best possible way for PoP but also for our future careers. We also learned a lot more about the work of PoP on the ground when we video chatted with Noy and Leslie, who oversee our schools and programs in Laos. Their contagious excitement about being involved with PoP, both with the organization and on the ground shows how interconnected the organization is in all of its parts. Leslie and Noy talked animatedly about Laos to the rest of the team, as if we were all old friends. We were overcome with the warmth and friendliness which we have now come to expect from all those associated with PoP.

The workshop was also an opportunity for all of the interns to bond with the rest of the team. We had fun breaks planned, such as photo scavenger hunts and icebreakers with the incredible Mimi. We were lucky to receive a visit from Jen who provided inside information about start-ups and her involvement in the massive Chase Community Giving Campaign. After we were completely sold on PoP, we all brainstormed ideas with Jocelyn on how to spread the PoP fever to our own schools and communities.

It is truly so great to be working in a place so concerned with inspiring and motivating our generation. This workshop clearly represents that PoP is just as dedicated and passionate about the 49% creating a movement of passionate young people as it is about the 51% working on the ground. It was so great meeting everyone! I speak on behalf of all the interns when I say we all feel even more empowered about our continued involvement in Pencils of Promise!

Adam, Leslie, and Noy at the opening of our school in Bo He, Laos. (Photo Credit: Bryce Eriksen)

About a week ago I sent out an email to our internal team of 100+ members across the country to share all of the recent progress that PoP has gone through. Based on that response, I figured it would be best to share it with all of you as well. We’re new, but we’re growing quickly because you believe in us.

IMPACT

• We have 7 completed schools in less than 20 months of existence! (6 in Laos, 1 in Nicaragua)
• Our 8th school is underway, and we expect to complete 3 new schools in Nicaragua this summer

OFFICE & STAFF

• We have opened our first office thanks to an amazing donated space on 32nd and Madison in Manhattan (149 Madison Ave, 10th Floor). We have a 5-person staff along with 10 HS/college interns working out of the space all summer, feel free to stop by and say hi to meet the team.
• Our 2nd PoP Fellow starts will be placed on the ground in August to support our work in Nicaragua
• Country Director Leslie Engle and Coordinator Noy Keousuvan are now full-time staff in Laos, we’re hiring our own architect to lead independent projects there, and we’ve brought on four part-time local coordinators who work with each of our villages. We admit, we’re secretly obsessed with our Lao staff.

EVENTS

• 6 of 10 sections at Harvard Business School independently selected PoP as a recipient of their Charity Auction Night benefit! This support will collectively raise nearly $30K from the HBS community.
• Fundraisers have recently been held to support PoP in Las Vegas, NYC, Hong Kong and Taiwan
• The Pretty Lights, RJD2 and Chiddy Bang show at Terminal 5 raised more than $5K to benefit PoP
• The Boathouse in the Hamptons recently hosted an amazing night to benefit PoP
• Philanthro Productions has selected PoP for their first tri-city event (LA, SD, SF) later this year. This means we’ll coordinate a one-night event across 8+ major cities in Nov/Dec, stay tuned and let us know if you want to be a part of the planning in your city!

MEDIA & WEB

• We brought film-makers Philip Buiser and Michael Trainer with us to Laos and Haiti on recent trips to document and explore PoP’s work on the ground. Stay tuned for beautiful commercial shorts to be released this summer, as well as a documentary film about Laos to be released later this year.
• Our photographer Nick Onken’s book release party exclusively featured his work with PoP at the Calumet Gallery in Chelsea, NYC. To see some of his images click here
• THE BIGGEST NEWS YET! AgencyNet, one of the top digital firms globally, has agreed to take us on as a pro bono client and is allocating some of their top people across three different offices to head up our digital strategy and website development. Yes, we’re going to change how people give and empower others with the website we’ll release later this year.

This is an organization that was started 20 months ago with $25 and a dream. Thank you thank you thank you for making all of this possible.

-Adam

One of my favorite references when considering the PoP approach to development is a simple fact: The United States wasn’t created through NGO support.

What does this imply? It acknowledges that it takes self-initiated action to create a profound change in one’s quality of life. Giving single-sided handouts to poor populations only perpetuates a cycle of poverty and neediness. There are situations (i.e. natural disasters, refugee situations, emergency relief, etc.) where true aid is needed, but this is not the sphere Pencils of Promise plays within.

We ask local populations not to put a hand up, but to put a hand out that we can meet halfway.

Our model affirms this approach by requiring that:

1. Every single on-the-ground PoP Coordinator is a young woman of the local population.

2. The Education Ministry must agree to assign a local teacher once a school is completed.

3. We only work with local building companies using locally-produced but sustainable materials.

4. Each village must make up at least 10% of school funding. Since they rarely have this in cash, they make this up in raw materials and physical labor. The community itself ends up building and then maintaining their own school.

5. We coordinate, oversee and train key individuals at each step of the process from our staff to the builders, community and teachers. We want to help those we support to help themselves.

This entire process starts with a village visit to create a community profile. Sitting at the table is usually the village chief, elders, teachers, Education Ministry officials, local builders, our local coordinators and myself or Country Director Leslie Engle.

One of the first questions we ask is what they want most for their community. We won’t be giving it to them; we’ll be helping them to create it for themselves.

Photo credit: Bryce Eriksen