SOLE Blog

October 19th, 2011

Doing Good While Doing What You Love

At SOLE, we have the opportunity to work with some pretty great people. Some of them run 350 miles straight (Dean Karnazes, runner), some of them overcome incredible obstacles (Trevor Thomas, blind mountaineer), and some of them take something that they love and do good with it. Enter Mark Vaughn. Mark is one of SOLE's Sales Representatives based in Colorado. On October 9th, Mark ran the Denver Rock'n'Roll 1/2 Marathon with a group of people trying to make a difference. In a donation request letter sent to friends, Mark wrote: I am dedicating my race to helping provide clean water to communities in Africa. I'm kind of nervous about the miles, but I know that training with this purpose in mind will keep me going.

We had a chance to connect with Mark to get the goods on the race and the results.

SOLE: Who did you run with?

MV: World Vision, it's a Christian humanitarian organization and has been fighting global poverty since 1950. World Vision works with children, families, and communities worldwide to help them gain access to some of life's most essential resources. We had just over 40 members on the team; I ran with different members along the race course. The best part of the actual race was coming across team members who were running for the same reason as I was, and then encouraging them.

SOLE: Have you ever run for a team specifically to raise money for charity?

MV: I had not run for a team before. When I learned about Team World Vision, I thought that it would be a great opportunity for me to take a passion and turn it into a way to help people with a real need; a way I could use my gift of running to help others. It was kind of cool to shift my focus away from me and redirect it to the cause - the goal of training was to raise money and not about how fast I would run.

SOLE: Is there any specific reason you chose World Vision?

MV: I have been working with World Vision for years by sponsoring a child and his family in Africa. We help them with basic needs on a monthly basis. This organization does amazing things for those in need all over the world and I have seen the impact. There is plenty of money in the world, and if we would all share just some of what we have, we could eliminate poverty all together. I have always felt that those who have, should take care of those who have not; I try to live that way as much as I can.

SOLE: How much money did you raise?

MV: We raised just under $20,000 and that's enough money to provide clean drinking water for a community of 400 people for years to come. That's a big and lasting impact. We will keep doing this. SOLE also helped by giving each person who made a donation through my web page a pair of SOLE Flips, a great sandal to wear after a long run. I am thankful to SOLE and Jonathan for helping us.

SOLE: Will you participate in something like this again?

MV: Most definitely, I will run with Team World Vision again next summer, and my 11 year old twins Evan and Eliina both would like to be a part of the World Vision Triathlon team next summer. So we are going to be involved with this for years to come. To me, it's so cool to be able to do the things you enjoy while helping others. You can't beat that!

Wow! $20,000 and clean water for 400 people?! It's amazing to see what can be accomplished when people combine passion in their activities with passion for a specific cause.

What's your activity and your cause? In your community alone, there may be:

a homeless shelter
a center for battered women
an organization for the disabled

These groups could likely benefit from the support of new donors. So, why not choose to do good while you do something you love? There's nothing to lose, and as we heard in Mark's case, there is plenty to gain.