Team,
We hope all is well and that you enjoyed the opportunity during the Holidays to recharge and spend some quality time with your family, friends and loved ones. This is the perfect time to reflect on our accomplishments, our challenges, our careers, our race events, the lessons that we have learned and those wonderful activities that make our lives more fulfilled and enjoyable.
As the year kicks off, we wanted to send a note to say THANK YOU!!
We had a successful 2011 and saw first-hand how we are making a real impact with our schools, with our communities around the world and with each other as High Clouders. We feel very blessed to work with such an incredibly talented and passionate group! Because of you and many others, High Cloud was able to carry on its mission to serve more than 3000 children here in the US and around the world. In 2011 we were able to conduct 8 conflict analysis and resolution workshops that allowed us to reduce violence among the families and communities by 46%. Our sports and self-confidence programs improved self-defeating behaviors and our educational programs allowed students to make a positive transition to higher levels of education with more than 62% of the children (ages 6-17) achieving better grades in elementary and high school and improving school attendance by 72%. Similarly, High Cloud has provided much needed funding to: our schools in Peru to completely re-build the school and bathrooms, our orphanages in India are providing clothing, food and extracurricular activities to the High Cloud children, and our micro-finance projects in South America have expanded and single mothers who have lost their husbands are now completely managing their own businesses and supporting their families --this microfinance program grew to more than 30 families benefiting from the program. Also, in Washington DC and Northern Virginia, our at-risk youth have been supported with funding, food and clothes and we have served many homeless people most recently through the High Cloud Snapple Homeless Hat Run. If you get a chance, check the High Cloud Ning page to see pictures and videos from all of these amazing programs.
These are just a few examples of what we have done throughout the year and a small proof of our collective humanitarian efforts. We should all be proud of these great achievements! You have contributed to the success of High Cloud, our humanitarian efforts, educational / microfinance programs, local community projects and race management operations. This is truly amazing, we have a great Team! Below is a video of the most recent High Cloud humanitarian trip in South America. Thanks so much to High Clouders Jamie Van Vuren and Andre for making these dreams come true! Without Bee Line, Vending for Health and their support, we would not have been able to deliver so many toys, clothes, soccer balls and school supplies to our High Cloud children:
http://animoto.com/play/dypCAZ7OdBX7ggitGaSJNA
Warmly,
Adriana and Matt