After what seemed to be a long and meandering career path, I have found myself in my true calling...

Public Administration.

I personally feel most at value when I am a part of positive change for our community. I devote myself to increasing civic engagement/participation in the public sector by cultivating trust. Trust develops when individuals recognize their values are honestly respected and that change can be made possible. Through effective listening, learning, and collaboration I pursue a culture of serving rather than steering. That being said, as it stands for a career, I feel confident that I am where I should be and I am “doing the next right thing right thing” each day.

…why this sense of rosey vision?

I know devoting myself in support of my Community is self-fulfilling, but I am finding myself reflecting on all that is current and I am asking myself what more can I do to be a positive change agent.

I would like to say all my actions are selfless, but I know this not to be true. Thirty years from now when a wide-eyed child inquires into my life events I want to confidently say I did more than let everything happen around me.

I can think of so many reasons/excuses as to why NOW is not right. Let it be time, energy, proximity, current priorities, work, the weather, or flatulence there will always be reasons!; however, I think I have come up with a solution that will work and not require uprooting my family and moving across the world.

I got too much stuff...

Honestly, I have so many things that have served me well in the past but have not seen the light of day in quite some time. I have come to the realization that others could make use of my items and the nominal dollar value of these items (net present value) could benefit others significantly more than they would be by sitting in storage. Again, I’d like to say that this is all selfless but I know a decluttering purge will also serve me well.

So in addition to dedicating my day of birth to this cause, I am going to donate 100% of the revenue earned in the sale of my gently to heavily loved items. Items will vary and be sold through a number of channels and include:

Touring bike and equipment
Rowing shell and equipment
Camping supplies
26 years of Magic the Gathering trading cards
Comic book collection
Star Wars figures
Guitar
Banjo
Books
Homemade knives
etc...

If anyone is interested please reach out and let me know (or better yet, connect with my better half as she is great with the social media). As items are sold, I will indicate what was sold and how it has benefited this cause.

Clean water should be an available starting point for all. If you have read this far I strongly encourage you to continue and read about the mission of Charity Water below.
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Many of us have no idea what it's like to be thirsty. We have plenty of water to drink -- even the water in our toilets is clean!

But many people around the world don’t have that luxury. Every day, about 1,400 children die from diseases caused by unsafe water and poor sanitation. But it doesn’t have to be that way. There are simple solutions like drilled wells, spring protections and BioSand filters that help provide clean water to communities around the world.

I started this fundraising campaign to help charity: water build these types of projects around the world, and I'm looking for anyone who can help me.

Please donate to my campaign -- anything you can give is a huge help.

100% of the money will be used to build clean water projects, and when they’re complete, charity: water will send us photos and GPS coordinates so we can see the exact community we helped.