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Tony's Black Dog Ride Private Fundraising EventMonday, August 23, 2010 from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM (GMT+1000)Sydney, New South Wales |
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Event Details
Next month I'm joining Steve Andrews on The Black Dog Ride to raise community awareness of depression across Australia and funds for The Black Dog Institute. I'll be combining two of my passions: riding motorcycles and connected media to join over 70 other riders travelling over 6000kms in 15 days, staying in 14 different country towns across 4 states in Australia.
How you can help me
Buy a ticket for $30 to my launch event on Monday 23rd August 2010 at 6pm, Vivo Cafe . Ticket holders can win great prizes being raffled and auctioned on the night. Proceeds from ticket sales and prizes will help me cover my costs for The Black Dog Ride awareness-raising campaign. All surplus funds raised will be donated via my Tony Black Dog Ride Fundraising Page.
Why I can make a difference
Connected media such as Twitter, Facebook and blogs can be used for social good. If you know me, you'll know that I value relationships, community, connecting, sharing, learning & helping others. I am skilled at reaching out to others, building community and connecting people for business or social benefit. I will put these skills to work and amplify awareness for this cause using my dedicated blog - Tony's Black Dog Ride. This collaborative blog is open to everyone to share their stories. Contributions have started appearing and many more are coming. With the support of the community we are going to post, share, "retweet", learn, comment and discuss. Together we will raise awareness of depression (and funds) for the The Black Dog Institute.
I have committed to raising $5000 for The Black Dog Institute, using my Tony Black Dog Ride Fundraising Page.
How will the success of this of this be measured?
We will see an increase in donations for all participants in the The Black Dog Ride as each participant has their own fundraising page, like mine.
We will see an increase in subscribers to my Tony Black Dog Ride collaborative blog and numbers of shared stories (posts) as I work to raise awareness. Already people have come forward privately (after I sent this tweet) to tell their stories and I will post these shortly. I will provide regular updates to the community, sharing posts, tweets and reporting number of subscribers and comments to the blog.
What exactly is ‘depression’?
“Depression” in normal conversation describes distress or unhappiness following an unpleasant event that has happened to us. This kind of depression is a perfectly normal response and usually resolves rapidly. In contrast, "depressive illness" is a much more severe and prolonged condition, with persistent sadness, negativity and difficulty coping, which will affect about 20% of people at some stage in their lives. Both women and men suffer psychological/emotional/mental health issues (Thank you to Dr David Horgan's free community service website for this information)
It's about how we think, which determines how we feel, and how we behave.
Why I want to help raise awareness and funds
Depression has for many years been an illness close to my heart. It has affected my family and friends, and has presented serious life challenges for me and my community. In the process of overcoming these challenges I have learnt much about depressive illness. I feel compelled to share these experiences in order to help others who may be facing similar challenges.
The way that I know I can help is by getting involved in "the Ride to the Red Centre"
The day the realisation hit that I have to do something
My "aha moment" arrived just over a year ago in July 2009. I was speaking to my friend Gavin Heaton at "coffee mornings" about his project called The Perfect Gift for a Man, a collaborative book designed to raise awareness of mental health issues affecting young men aged 16-24 years. I decided to get involved, and published a blog post entitled "Thinking about Manweek". This post explained my personal struggle communicating my feelings to those I care about most. The comments I received were inspiring and made me feel better and more confident.
A couple of weeks later I submitted my own story for the book entitled "The Perfect Gift for a Man – Stories told from the Heart" Once again the comments I received inspired me. Even better, the tweets I posted inspired a corporate client of mine to submit a story which was also published! The book was published in late 2009 and since then has sold over 300 copies and raised over $2500 for the Inspire Foundation, an organisation devoted to helping young people lead happier lives. It was then that I realised blogging and social media was not only fun, educational and good for business, but that it also had the power to do social good, in particular to help people and raise awareness of important causes. I wanted to do more of this!
I first heard about the The Black Dog Ride from my "coffee mornings" friends Raz Chorev, Andrew Blanda and Robbie James who have united together to form Riding4aCause, which will join The Black Dog Ride in educating the community about male depression. This was inspiring to hear, and in July 2010, with the help of a friend from my family's school community, a bike was donated for me to use. What I had dismissed as just not possible for me, suddenly became possible, and here I am today doing this.
Summary
Buy a ticket for $30 to my launch event on Monday 23rd August 2010 at 6pm, Vivo Cafe. I look forward to seeing you there. If you can't be there, you can still buy a ticket and a chance to win.
Would you like to donate a prize for my event? If you or your company would like to donate products or services to be raffled or auctioned at my event, contact me (scroll to bottom of page for details). I'd be happy to support you and add you to my Supporters Page.
Use our mutual connections and your own across connected media to support the cause. Retweet, link and share to raise awareness. Here is the link to the The Black Dog Institute.
If you have any experiences with depression you would like to share, post them straight to the blog, contact me via email, or phone 0410 665 832
Cheers,
Tony Hollingsworth
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When & Where
VIVO Cafe
388 George Street
Sydney,
New South Wales 2000
Australia
Monday, August 23, 2010 from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM (GMT+1000)
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