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Join Us! (Maria's Appeal)
By Project Dream Forward Blog | July 23, 2010 at 09:09 AM EDT | No Comments

In the 80’s we had Live Aid.  In the 90’s, Farm Aid took off.  Now we have Project Dream Forward, and this Dream is ours. 


This is real.


Our momentum will increase, and curiosity – about what we are doing – will flourish.  Consult your Rolodex.  Think about who you email, who you call, who you chat with at the water cooler.  Look at your Facebook account and your Twitter feeds.  Tell everyone.  And join us. I want every person in our growing network to ask “Who do I know?  How can I help?”


Project Dream Forward is tapping into America’s human potential.  Every single thing I have done on this – including that very sentence – has been with the help of someone else, and the inspiration of another.  And I want you to join our Dream.


I started this and it has been very personal for me.  This has been the most humbling experience of my life so far. I have been stunned by the momentum, inspired by the support, and blown away by the power of the human connection. I am dreaming, I am doing – and relying so heavily on others to help carry this dream forward. 


Project Dream Forward is happening.


And the process - getting to that first concert, the first Dream Expo, the first speaker telling a story on all of our behalves - has been very personal for me.


Marketing packets have been sent.  We are soliciting sponsors and securing our first venue.  “We” are a growing network of people doing this because we believe in it.  There is a tremendous team of people – experts from a collection of directly relevant fields - and none of them have taken a dime for their work here.


“Community” is a concept that conveys specific interaction and shared beliefs.  In the age of the internet, that concept has no geographical boundaries.  Paradoxically, in the age of the internet, we are forever in danger of losing the humanity of our human communities.


Project Dream Forward challenges that notion and is already proving that the timing is perfect for another sea change.  Social entrepreneurship, and the limitless possibilities of human connection, is being used to great results here… and must be directed further for us to all to connect in real ways, and to help each other.


Each of us has something to contribute to a national conversation.  While we are telling it, we are living it.  Each of us brings our individual experiences, each of us has our stories and own social network built from the characters in those stories.  No two are an exact match.

 

Initially, I didn’t ask for money.  I presented the concept as a giant, fully realized event,  and I asked for help.  It came in huge, humbling waves. I dug deep.  Not into my pockets, but into my Rolodex… metaphorical and actual… and responses came.  Positive responses, positive action – from people all over the country. 


We now have tentacles that stretch coast-to-coast and all points in between.  We’re all involved for different reasons.  And for the exact same reasons. 


Who do you know?   What can you bring?  What do you want?  What is your dream? If you are interested, or intrigued, or want to be a part – join us.  I couldn’t be more receptive.  I have all the excitement I had at the very beginning – and then some. 


We want your help shaping what it is we do with all this potential.  We want your ideas.  We want your stories.  We want your energy.  And we want your contacts.  Spread the word.


Dream Forward with us.  And together, we can discover America's human potential. 

 

Building our own Fortune
By Project Dream Forward Blog | July 13, 2010 at 01:29 PM EDT | No Comments

"Quisque faber suae fortunae," Appius Claudius Caecus purportedly said in what is called the first ever recorded political speech in Latin.  


Each is the architect of his own fortune. Appius Claudius should know - as he went on to build the 132-mile Appian Way - one of the most important roads in Rome -, and Aqua Appia, the first Roman aquaduct.  That was 'architecture' in it's true form - industry against the odds.  Imagine 132 miles of road construction, before roads - before "construction,' at least as we know it.  Finished in 312 BC, some 2322 years ago, The Appian Way was so sturdily constructed, employing such long vision, that it is still recognizable as a road.  It is indeed possible to walk a very long distance on the Appian Way now.

The statement, however, was meant to inspire.  A new idea at the time, it was introduced while Appius Claudius was a dictator, a politician from a wealthy patrician family.  From his position of power, he saw promise and strategic protection in the masses.  He wanted the support of the lower classes, and to that end is credited with first allowing sons of freed slaves to serve in the Senate, extending voting privileges to men in lower tribes and introducing other measures to support the landless lower classes. 

Today, in our country, thousands of years later, we assume that truth as part of the fabric of our society.  Taken one-on-one, the reality is more difficult - we are all faced with obstacles.  But we do have the freedom to overcome, and if we look hard enough, we have institutional and personal support networks to, indeed, build our own fortune.  Each of us.  

Let's do it.  

Garden Gumballs
By Project Dream Forward Blog | June 29, 2010 at 02:13 PM EDT | No Comments

I love the optimism in this piece from The Daily Dish by Andrew Sullivan on the Atlantic website:  Guerilla Gardening.


Greenaid takes old gumball machines and gives them new life.  Instead of dispensing potential sidewalk-ruining (shoe-ruining, day-ruining) gumballs, these machines now dispense sidewalk brightening "seedbombs."

From the Greenaid site:

Made from a mixture of clay, compost, and seeds, "seedbombs" are becoming an increasingly popular means combating the many forgotten grey spaces we encounter everyday-from sidewalk cracks to vacant lots and parking medians. They can be thrown anonymously into these derelict urban sites to temporarily reclaim and transform them into places worth looking at and caring for.

I love that!  We should all be so lucky, to enjoy a transformative re-definition -and brighten little spots of someone else's world.

The Ask
By Project Dream Forward Blog | June 28, 2010 at 07:12 PM EDT | No Comments

Early on, before this was a project... when it was still a concept... we came to an important realization:  everything starts with the ask.


Look around, and think about what you might want that could be within reach if you identify the questions, and figure out to whom you should direct them.  

We tell our children that the key to happiness is to go help someone.  Think about it.  It works both ways.  Ask for help.  Seek support.  Friendships are dependent upon our ability to provide something for someone else that they need or want.  To get there, we have to know what our friends want.  

Doing something for someone else feels great.  If you need something.... ask.  Give someone the chance to help you.  And feel good about the ask.

Growing.
By Project Dream Forward Blog | April 26, 2010 at 04:57 PM EDT | No Comments

The "Dreaming" part is easy.  The "Forward" part, though... that's tougher.  "Forward" means, by definition, movement.  And that part takes grit, determination, momentum, and a big support network.  

In almost every case, we don't do anything alone.

I used to watch "Behind the Music" and any celebrity biography I could find with my remote. There's a rhythm to them, and you realize so many carry the opening theme of "everyone said we couldn't do it..." or something to that effect. 

The 'overcoming the odds' part of the message is a good one.  But the 'everyone said we couldn't do it' part has not, so far, factored into this story.

In this story, everyone, almost to a person, said "wow!  Great idea! I can't wait!"  

For this project, with its grass roots, I propose a metaphor of growth:  the ground is fertile, the seeds have been planted, and the sprouts are shooting skyward.

Let's start with the soil.  Fertile ground doesn't happen immediately.  

Maria is an events person. Years and years (18, to be precise) of event experience, details, and after-action reports have been composted to create the rich layer of experience and connections that will make this all possible.  

Add the seeds.

Maria, an awards show (the Kennedy Center Honors last November), a speaker (Jon Stewart), a musician (Bruce Springsteen), a business event (a very large loan was called in early for Maria's business), and a return into the complexities of ground operations at two of the largest events known (the Super Bowl, and the Winter Olympic Games) converged and Maria found herself, late at night, obsessed with this idea.  It became, if you will, her dream.

How could she, as a small business owner, take what she had learned about risk, hard work, and connections, and use it for good?  

She started talking then, in January and March.  She summarized her idea and she did some research.  She started circulating her concept.  Right there, around that very network of event carnies, production super stars, old friends, new colleagues, and action junkies.  

"I want you to take a look at something.  I may need your help with it."  

Maria could have been talking about moving a box of T-shirts, testing out a new lanyard, or looking at bus stats. 

Clearly, she wasn't.  

And no one said "no."

...and water and sunshine and nutrients...

Maria has a mission to help others - through utility, connections, encouragement - the gifts of industry and creativity that go beyond charity.

Project Dream Forward™ will be a series of inspirational events. Through music, commerce, and inspiration, Project Dream Forward™ has started a new conversation about the American Dream and the notion that we - as a nation and as individuals - can move forward by virtue of our own momentum.

...and pollinate.

The more we talk about it, the more it grows.

Sometime in the seventies there was shampoo ad where "she told two friends and she told two friends and so on..."  The TV screen filled up with faces of shiny-haired beauties all benefitting from social networking (though they didn't call it that then.)

We are doing that now. Maria's initial conversations (one degree of separation) have expanded to pull in people from all industries, each with a personal reason for being a part of this - each with some factor (beyond Maria's infectious enthusiasm) driving the need to do this.

Spread the word.

This is a social experiment.  Tell friends.  And tell us your stories.  We are looking for inspiration all the time, and we want this to be an open forum where we all benefit from the connections we have made.  We to take this social networking thing to 11.  

Ultimately, the words, the connections, the momentum,  and the action will take us to the Dream, realized.

Come join us.