Team Hoyt!

October 28, 2008

Respect!

After writing about Nick Vujicic’s life without limbs last year, I have another compelling story to tell. Well, actually, I was introduced to this amazing story by Sofie Vanhoutte and she wrote me a message that sounded like this :

A son asks his dad:
“Dad, will you run a marathon with me?”
Despite the fact dad has a heart condition, he says : “Yes!”
They run a marathon together.

Then the son asks again:
“Dad, will you run another marathon with me?”
The dad says “Yes!” again.
So, they run another marathon together.

One day the son asks his dad:
“Dad, will you run the Ironman with me?”
(fyi : the Ironman is a triathlon : approx. 4km swimming, 180km biking and a marathon running)
And his dad agrees again.

Now, this story as such is not so spectacular unless you actually see this YouTube clip:

It moved me! It gave me an enormous extra boost to keep on contributing to the world. In fact, I also learned that Rick has graduated from high school and university. He lives in his own apartment. He shows how you can overcome tough challenges in life. “I CAN” is his motto!

Closer to home, Sofie Vanhoutte is running her own charity : Chalkline (Krijtlijn), a non-profit organisation, which helps people with a handicap to get access to trainings, workshops and coaching in order to find the strength and motivation to get a better life. Get in touch with this brave lady in a wheelchair to see how YOU can help…

So, what did you learn from all this? What challenges are you facing lately? And what will you do about them? Time for action!

Enjoy every day,

Bert Verdonck
Create, Connect & Contribute

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Go Bananas!

July 19, 2008

Today I updated the Go Bananas website. Our contribution to a wonderful initiative by Kevin “Banana Man” Allen. He’s an extraordinary man who was touched by a documentary about AIDS orphans in Zululand, South Africa. He took all his savings, bought a ticket and just went there.

He bought all the fruits from local merchants and started to feed the children, who nicknamed him the Banana Man. Once back in the UK he took on a second job to continue his contribution to save as much children he could. He started a charity and I felt like stepping up and give Kevin a hand with his big yellow mission :-)

Lets Go Bananas and save a life!

Let's Go Bananas and save a life!

So, Tonia and I will participate at the Dodentocht (”March of Death”) on the 8th-9th of August in order to raise money for Banana Appeal, Kevin’s charity. Many people think we are nuts taking on a challenge of walking 100km in 24 hours, so that’s why we created a special website called Go Bananas! Let’s go bananas and save a life!

Our goal with Go Bananas is to raise money for 100,000 meals! Impressive, but if you know that Banana Appeal needs a mere 0.07 Euro to feed a child for 1 day, what’s keeping YOU from stepping up as well? Donate money today to this charity and also buy Kevin’s book, a unique Go Bananas ballpoint pen, a Banana Guard or taste our Award winning, genuine Banana Beer!

With just € 0,07 Banana Appeal can

1. Feed a hungry child fresh fruit for a day at school.
2. Help them gain an important education, as they attend school to receive the food.
3. This provides the children with a more stable environment at school.
4. Being fed regularly brings the children away from begging or prostitution.
5. This helps stop the children from contracting AIDS from infected adults.
6. This has a positive impact on the children’s mental and physical health.
7. Combined this gives the children hope of a better future.
8. It also provides many of the parents dying of AIDS a little comfort that their children won’t be left alone to fall into a cycle of poverty and abuse - but be fed, educated and looked after, once they have passed away.
9. The project also provides much needed trade to the local fruit sellers.
10. All whilst uplifting the spirits of an entire community.

Check out the website and start contributing NOW! For as little as 0.07 Euro (also £ and $ will work just fine!) you can help one child for at least 1 day. So, start giving and contribute to a really great cause…

Thanks for helping out the forgotten children in Zululand! For them it really makes a big difference…

Thanks for your support,

Bert Verdonck
Create, Connect & Contribute

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Voorbereiding 100km

July 13, 2008

Vandaag stappen we 45km ter voorbereiding van de Dodentocht. Deze keer zullen we in Merksem, bij Antwerpen trainen. De weersvoorspelling is niet super. Hopelijk blijft het toch redelijk droog…

Zoals je weet, doen we mee om het GoBananas-project te steunen. Kevin Allen, alias de Banana Man, heeft dringend ondersteuning nodig. Vele AIDS wezen in Zululand, Zuid-Afrika zitten zonder opvang en sterven uitgehongerd. Lees er hier meer over…

Help ons om de Banana Man te steunen, zodat hij de vergeten kinderen van Zuid-Afrika kan helpen!

Ik heb gisteren ook een speciale Banana Deals-pagina gecreëerd. Verschillende sponsors doen extra moeite om ons te steunen. Geniet vandaag nog van hun uitzonderlijke kortingen!

Let’s Go Bananas,

Bert Verdonck
Create, Connect & Contribute

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Download Day

June 16, 2008

Tomorrow is Download Day!

Be prepared, be ready and be part of a new world record!

Download Day FirefoxHow? Simply by downloading the new Firefox 3 brower. If you want to step up, go to SpreadFirefox.com and pledge to download the browser. Of course, you can find all kinds of banners and extra info to join a growing number of Firefox aficionados.

Several people are organising local events and have started groups. I just found out, there is one in Belgium too!

Why is Firefox one of my favourite browers? Openness, innovation and freedom of the Internet. Also a large number (3000+!) of fantastic plug-ins that facilitate my life as a lifehacker tremendously!

Enjoy every day,
Bert Verdonck
Lifehacker

 

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Best wishes!

December 31, 2007

Best wishes

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Going from ‘to see’ to ‘foresee’!

October 11, 2007

Lately, I am so lucky to go through several amazing experiences! For some people hard to believe, for me an (almost) every day experience! Just (dare to) ask and it is given…

During the creation of my new vision in life I came across several keywords, issues, plans, intentions, feelings and dreams. I destilled a list of “things” I really like to do and others I really dislike. The latter was thrown away, in order to focus completely on my positive list. I only want to do what I love to do, living with passion and enjoying every day!

Visualising is a very important practice. I defined my concept of 2C (to see), creating and connecting. This way I can maximize my non-stop creative mind and help people in a practical way solving their issues. I concluded that selling myself as a creative consultant is an excellent way to act upon this fun activity of creating ideas, new products/services, new applications, new markets, …

I also like to talk to people, listen to their story, build relationships and truely help people. Everyone is always looking for something or someone in particular, right? By connecting people, I am actively helping people solving their issues or challenges. This activity resulted in becoming a professional networker. For some of my friends it was obvious, because to them I am a natural networker. Some even suggested it to me as the perfect road (thanks Martijn & Bert B.) !

These 2Cs, create and connect, started to become part of my vision, “to see” my perfect future!

During my power-sabbatical, earlier this year, it became clear that these 2Cs are part of a higher element : contribute. I want to contribute to a better world. I want to help the people that are living in less fortunate circumstances. My dream is to start up my own charity foundation.

I also want to contribute to the lifes of the people around me, both private and professionally. This brings me to my fourth C : coaching.

My four Cs (4C) allow me to help others to visualise their perfect future. I inspire people. By creating, connecting, contributing and coaching, I help them “to foresee” and realise their dreams!

How may I help you?

Enjoy every day,

Bert Verdonck

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The “Banana Man”…just go bananas!

September 21, 2007

“Wow! Respect!”

These were my first two words after reading the story of Kevin “Banana Man” Allen!

Kevin saw a documentary about AIDS orphans in Zululand (South Africa) and quite literally went bananas. He watched in horror as a young boy witness his father die of AIDS in front his of eyes. He had to walk miles back to his home, a filthy mud hut with no running water, gas or electricity. Distraught and starving, he soon broke down in tears - so did Kevin. His mother had already died of AIDS a year early and his brave sister, aged only 11, tried to comfort him in vain.

Kevin could not accept this and six days later went to Zululand, bought a taxi full of bananas to offer it to the starving children (hence his nickname : the banana man). He sold his house, went back, giving as much as he could, started a charity fund (Banana Appeal) to initialise a structural way of helping orphans. In the meantime he wrote a book about his story.

He only needs 4p (6 eurocent) to feed a hungry child for a day with fresh fruit! 

His goal is to feed 1 million school meals…so, how can you help? Visit the site, donate, buy the book, sign up as a volunteer, …

Time for action,

Bert 

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A life without limbs

July 20, 2007

This morning I read an article on ‘Survival of the Fittest’ on Ecademy. In this article a link was made to Nick Vujicic. Take a good look at this man, who overcame a lot of challenges we never had to face!

Respect!

Click on the video to see for yourself…

If you’d have no limbs, what would you do? What if it would happen today, how would this affect your current life?

Even if you are physically challenged like Nick, you can still bring a message that inspires a lot of people and contribute to the world!

Something to think about…

Of course, you can still contribute to his ministry, if you like!

Have a great day,

Bert

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Help entrepreneurs around the world!

July 15, 2007

Ever wondered how you could contribute more to the world? How can you help fellow entrenpreneurs around the world? What if they are living in poverty and don’t have enough money to buy that important product for their business? What if you could really make a difference?

Well, the answer is KIVA. Kiva is a non-profit organisation and lets you lend to a specific entrepreneur in the developing world, empowering them to lift themselves out of poverty. Probably you’ve heard about microcredits? Well, through Kiva you can support entrepreneur with microcredits! You can start with as little as 25$ (or 25€)…and you receive reports with updates from the business you’ve sponsored. As loans are being repaid, you get your loan money back. Of course, you can withdraw or better yet lend it again to another entrepreneur and help some more…

So, now you know what to do next…

Have an outstanding week,

Bert

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