BTG Donates $400 to The Uncultured Project

July 7th, 2008 BTG Posted in Everyday I Learn Something New, People Saving The World |

He’s not asking for my money…but he’s getting it anyway!

In honour of our Zero-th birthday (BTGNow.net officially relaunched with a new design and layout on July 1st 2007! Hooray!) BTG has decided to give a gift of $400 dollars to The Uncultured Project.The donation will come in two installments of $200 dollars, one on the 7th of July, and on on the 7th of August 2008. The reason we have to break up the donation like this is that this is all that can be alotted for the next two month’s budgets. We wish we could give more, and one day we will.

So there’s the who and the how of our birthday gift to shawn: what about the why?

Why BTG Decided To Donate To The Uncultured Project:

1) Shawn’s story is laudable: I’ll let him tell it himself:

Shawn was so inspired by Dr. Jeffrey Sach’s lecture that he liquidated his savings and MOVED TO BANGLADESH to try and help the people there. I always promised myself that when I was rich (which god knows is relative), I would seek out self-less, hardworking people and worthy causes and support them. Of course, I thought I’d be 50 and a millionaire before I would be able to make a difference, but hey, I’ll take $400 bucks and early twenties too!

2) Shawn showed me that poor people are people. In this video I saw a poor woman LAUGH.

LAUGH. How often do you see that on those TV spots that make you feel so guilty that you refuse to watch the commercial?

3) Shawn has openened my eyes as to what being poor means. His descision to offer translations of what people are saying has been a very wise choice on his part, and a real eye opener for me. For example, in this video, watch for people throwing aid back into a bus because they are insulted as to the indignity of how the hand outs were organized.

4) The final straw? Shawn liquidated his XBOX savings to buy books for kids in Bangladesh. I LOVE VIDEO GAMES, and after seeing Nerdfighter Hank Green donate $250 because of Shawn’s personal sacrifice, I figured the least I could do was also donate to the equivalent of a RETAIL Xbox 360, about $400 dollars.

So for all these reasons and more (be sure to subscribe to the Uncultured Project Youtube channel and help spread the word!) BTG is more than proud to give our birthday gift of $400 to The Uncultured Project!

Everyday I Learn Something New, and this is what Shawn has taugh me:

It’s an old saying, but appropriate: you have to be the change you wish to see in the world. Put another way, Shawn taught me to

Just. Do. It.

Stop thinking about it and just do it.

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