Half Marathon

Well, we are running a half marathon on March 31, and we need your help. It's actually to support a really great cause (info below). We only need to raise $100 each, so even a $5 donation would help a ton. We're also probably going to send out an email about this, b/c we don't know who reads this. If you could send a small donation, we'd really appreciate it (and we promise we'll start training!).

Dear Family and Friends,

Well, we've now been in South Africa for over a year! With the holidays now over, we are looking forward to upcoming events.
One of these is the Longtom marathon. It's actually a half- and an ultra-marathon, and we plan to participate in the half, which is 21.1 Km. It's happening on March 31 in Sabie, Mpumalanga Province, not too far from Kruger Park. It starts at the top of the Longtom Pass and goes into Lydenburg. Many Peace Corps volunteers will be taking part, probably over 70 of us, so it's going to be a lot of fun to get together with them for the weekend and run in this beautiful part of the country, which we haven't yet seen.

In addition to having a good time though, the main reason for taking part is to support the KLM foundation. Their website is: www.klm-foundation.org; please check it out. We won't go into all the details of what they do since you can read that on the site, but we’ll just say that the organization was founded by two PCVs (Peace Corps volunteers) who served here in South Africa a few years ago. They decided to use the Longtom marathon as a fundraiser; they fund a worthy, needy child to attend an excellent independent high school in Mpumalanga called Uplands College. That's why we are so excited about helping them to raise funds; what better way to help this country than to educate a future leader? And the child they choose is very carefully selected, going through a four-tier application process. The seven children who have been chosen so far are excelling in all respects. We hope after reading about KLM you will find yourself as supportive as we are of their work.
There may be other projects we encounter along our way here, but this is very worthy indeed, and one for which we are asking your support. Please give what you can; any amount is appreciated. Even if you can only give $10 or $20, it is much needed. And it is tax-deductible. So please go to the KLM website to make a donation, just click on the 'donate' photo. Make sure to put one of our names in the white box where it asks for the Longtom runner you want to sponsor.

The online donation is preferable, but if you need to mail in a check, please make it payable to "Kgwale Le Mollo (US)" and send it to:
KLM Foundation (US)
c/o Bowen Hsu
461 So. Bonita Avenue
Pasadena, CA 91107
Please make sure to include a note that your donation is on behalf of one of us.

Thanks so much for your support, and especially for supporting the child who is chosen next year to attend Uplands College. We let you know how the weekend goes, and how many funds we, Peace Corps volunteers, collected.