FORTUNATELY, ROOM TO READ’S NETWORK OF VOLUNTEERS CONTINUED to grow in lockstep with our programs. By 2005, we had added chapters in Atlanta, San Diego, and Washington, D.C. International chapters had started in Milan, Paris, and Sydney.
A spirited competition sprang up to be the chapter raising the most funding. It started gradually, when Chicago raised $75,000 in an evening, and the New York chapter vowed to beat them. They did, upping the ante to $82,000. A few weeks later, in November of 2004, the San Francisco team planted their flag by generating over $90,000 at a “Reading Room” event with facsimiles of four libraries (from Nepal, Cambodia, Vietnam, and India), one in each corner of the room. Within weeks, the London chapter hosted a private dinner for high-net-worth individuals who collectively pledged over $100,000. It was all done in a spirit of friendly competition, and it was fun to watch the mails fly around the world as the bar continued to be raised.
The Hong Kong chapter treated the British record as though it were made to be broken. Our chapter leaders jokingly told me, “The Brits take forever to make decisions. Here in Hong Kong, we move quickly. We’ll definitely get the crowd to donate more than $100,000 at our next event.”
I asked when their next event would be, and they replied with a casual “When can you be here?”
Within six weeks, I was once again on a trans-Pacific flight, wondering when this pace of travel would kill me. As with our initial Boston event, I was taking this one on faith. The only difference was that the flight was more than twice as long. Our previous Hong Kong chapter leader had moved to Singapore, and we had an almost entirely new team. I had met two of the chapter leaders, Robin and Robert, for breakfast. Grand total of time spent together: two hours. The third chapter leader, Fiona, I had met the previous summer in a café in Louangphrabang, Laos. After she’d asked what I did for a living, she’d signed on to do whatever she could to help raise money for our impending Laos expansion. Grand total of time spent together: one dinner.
I was, quite literally, living on a wing and a prayer.
The Hong Kong event was held at One Bar and Grill, a trendy open space of wood floors and polished marble. After presenting my slide show, I announced that the Hong Kong team wanted to beat the Brits, who currently held the fund-raising record. The target was $125,000. Who was willing to help us?
Three people yelled out to me that they would donate immediately. “I’ll endow a school for $10,000.” “I’ll do $2,500 for a ten-year girl’s scholarship.” “I’ll give $1,000, and my employer matches charity donations.” Three more people shouted that they would endow long-term scholarships. A guy I’d briefly met earlier held up five fingers and mouthed, “Five.”
“Five hundred?” I asked.
“No, five thousand.”
As our guests yelled out their numbers, my mental calculator put us at over $75,000. Just then, Jacques Kemp, the CEO of ING’s Asia Pacific headquarters, announced that they would donate $70,000. Yes, we had beaten our goal!
But there was no way to announce this, and to do so would have been counterproductive. People were still yelling out numbers. Two more offered to endow schools, and another said that his family foundation would donate $15,000. It was as if we had a hundred versions of Don Listwin (“Count Me In, Don”) in the room. All of them had traveled in developing Asia, had seen the poverty, and had wanted to do something. Tonight, they responded to our solution.
Other guests who were more diffident about their philanthropic giving made their way to the donation tables. The final tally: $330,000! It had been a philanthropic feeding frenzy. The team took a photo to share with the other chapters to let them know that Hong Kong was now “wearing the crown.”
OVER THE YEARS WE’D HEAR FROM DONORS AND VOLUNTEERS WHO stayed abreast of our progress via our Web site (www.roomtoread.org) and quarterly newsletters. My phone would ring with updates from the open road from the global travelers who supported Room to Read. I’d hear at least annually from Bruno Rodi, the Italian Swiss climber who’d decided at Everest base camp to endow two schools in Nepal. He’d be on a business trip to India, or at his home in Montreal, or cross-country skiing to the north pole with his two sons. He was like a philanthropic version of Where’s Waldo?
One night in June of 2003, about a year after Bruno had originally made contact with me, I was having dinner with friends. I usually have a cardinal rule: never answer a phone call during a social meal. But on this evening, when my phone rang, something told me that I had to take this call, even though I could not tell from caller ID who it was. I excused myself and left the table.
“Hello, John, it’s Bruno Rodi. I’m calling you from Kathmandu.”
“Hi, Bruno. It’s nice to hear from you. To what do I owe the pleasure of a phone call from Nepal?”
“Well, three days ago I was standing on the summit of Everest. John, this year I made it. Last year I was very disappointed, and the only thing that made me feel better about not summiting was that Alison talked me into building two schools. And now, to celebrate being on top of Everest, I want to endow two more schools in Nepal. Can you send me the same information as last year, and I will have the money wired to you?”
Amazing. Bruno kept pushing the limits, both in life and in giving. Despite my lack of a pop-chart voice, I wanted to sing and shout on this one. Smiling, I returned to the dinner table, eager to explain to my friends that this had been a call worth taking.
NOT EVERYONE IN THE ROOM TO READ NETWORK WAS A SUCCESSFUL global industrialist. During the same month that Bruno called me from Kathmandu, I received an e-mail from Tennessee outlining how a slightly younger donor wanted to get involved:
To: john@roomtoread.org
From: Kapila Devkota
Re: We Want to Build a School
June 19, 2003
John Wood
Chairman, Room to Read
The Presidio
P.O. Box 29127
San Francisco, CA 94129
Dear John:
We read about your Room to Read project in Suskera (a Web site for Nepali-Americans) last October and were very impressed. We have a daughter named Kripali who is eight years old. She loves to read. She just completed second grade, and so far, she has read over 500 books. She wants to buy books all the time. After knowing about your project, we informed Kripali about it. We suggested her not to buy as many books as she would want for herself, instead save the money to create more meaningful and long-lasting opportunity to other less privileged children in Nepal to read. As Kripali has access to computers and good libraries, she could easily do so without compromising her desire to read. Since then she has been saving her “pocket money” for a Room to Read project. It is very exciting to see our daughter engaged in such a good cause.
This year, during her summer break, we have asked Kripali to focus on raising funds from our friends and families. We are helping her, in every possible way, to get the initial funds for the project, prior to her returning to school for another session. In our understanding, we have to raise $8,000 for one school. We are optimist[ic] about collecting that amount by the end of August 2003.
We therefore request you to educate, and advise us as to whether we are moving in the right direction, and if there is anything specific that you expect us to do or to focus on. Please let us know.
Hoping to hear from you soon, and looking forward to working with you for this cause.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Kapila Devkota
Girija Gautam
I was amazed and in awe when I read this mail. “This girl has seriously cool parents,” I thought, as I pictured them being actively engaged in helping her learn the joy of reading, and the satisfaction of service to others.
I forwarded the mail to a dozen of our most dedicated volunteers to let them share in a heartwarming story. And then it dawned on me how lucky I am, to be working in a role that provides so many examples of basic human kindness. I have a near constant interaction with people who believe that in education lies independence, self-sufficiency, a better life, and progress for humanity. Best of all, they are willing to take action, rather than sitting around talking about the problem. Sometimes I get so caught up in the day-to day parts of running the organization that I forget how extraordinary this network of supporters and volunteers is. To Kripali and her parents, I wanted to simply say thank you for the reminder.
EVERYDAY HEROES:
KRIPALI’S NEXT SCHOOL
The school in Nepal sponsored by Kripali was finished in 2003. We sent photos of the students and teachers standing proudly in front of the new building to the family. Her parents e-mailed me back immediately to say how happy they were to see the results of Kripali’s read-a-thon. They also asked if I could call them in order to speak with Kripali. “You are her hero,” they said, “and it would mean so much if she could talk to you. Also, she has an idea that she wants to share with you.”
I was quite nervous about calling. If a small child views you as a hero, well you really don’t want to screw it up. I wrote myself some briefing notes for the call, as though preparing for a meeting with Bill Gates.
Her voice at the end of line was shy and quiet. I thanked her for the work she had done raising money and told her that so many hundreds of students could now have a better life through the education they’d receive at the new school. She was still quiet, so I went to the second of my “talking points,” telling her that everyone at the San Francisco office knew about her and was impressed by her ability to raise so much money. Her voice then broke through at a slightly louder volume: “I want to do more.”
I reminded her that she had already done a lot, certainly more than most adults. But she repeated that she wanted to do more.
At this point, her father, listening in on the second line, explained that Kripali already had plans to raise money for a second school. The family would be attending the annual conference for Nepali-Americans living in the southeastern United States, and that Kripali was planning to sell raffle tickets. She had already convinced local merchants to donate a microwave oven and a DVD player, and her goal was to have at least ten prizes. She’d sell raffle tickets at $10 each and hoped to get each of the 800 people attending the conference to buy at least one.
“You’re going to go up onstage, aren’t you, Kripali?” her father asked.
She assented in a quiet voice.
“She is nervous about being up in front of so many people, but we have convinced her that the easiest way to sell tickets will be to get onstage right before the keynote speech. I’ve assured her that I will be up there with her. We’ll be back in touch afterwards to let you know how it went.”
I decided that heroism could be a reciprocal thing. I was in awe of Kripali and her parents and promised to buy some raffle tickets. I hung up the phone and shared the latest installment of this inspiring story with my team. Erin jokingly suggested that we “call Harvard and tell them to save a spot in the class of 2018 for Kripali.”