Campaign By the Numbers

I love numbers.  I love statistics and data.  It might have stemmed from the math exercises my Dad used to make me and my sisters do while picking up rotten apples in our Connecticut orchard when I was a kid.

A word problem drawn from my Dad’s real life went something like this…”How many boxcars of beer, that’s train box cars, have I drunk in my life, if I started drinking when I was 16 and drank an average of five beers a day?”

Forget the issue of my father telling us he started drinking before he was legally able or that 5 being an average meant some days it was more than 5.  What he taught us was what questions to ask and what data did we need to figure out the answer.  How old was he at that moment?  Did he start right on his actual birthday?  How many beers does a boxcar hold?  (The answer to that was it’s own math problem, there are 24 beers in a case, a pallet holds 144 cases, the boxcar can hold… You get the idea.)

All this is the lead up to a report on the pledge numbers so far.  To date 117 of you have made pledges.  Thanks to each and every one of you.  The largest single pledge is for $20.00 for each pound I lose and the smallest is for .50¢.  The oddest number is one for $11.73. When asked for the significance I was told, “Everyone else just gives round numbers.”

The total pledged for each pound lost is $352.73, so far.

Now I like round numbers.  And I really like big numbers.  So to satisfy those two things I am trying to find enough people who are willing to join my team to pledge so I can get $1,000 per pound.

That is a really big number.  Now multiply that number by each pound I lose.  So if I can lose 50 pounds I can turn each .50¢ pledge, added to the $3 pledges and the $20 pledges and turn it into $50,000 for the Food Bank.

Feeding America say that when you give a dollar to the Food Bank of CENC, they can turn it into $10 worth of food.  So now that $50,000 can be turned into $500,000 worth of food.  That is a big number.  A number my Dad would like almost as much as beer.

So here’s the call to action.  I need you, and your sister Doris and your neighbor Hank.  I need you all to pledge so I can make this math equation work.  Please let them and any other really nice people know about this project.  Your generosity inspires me, but more importantly it helps someone who really needs a meal.  Won’t you pledge and pass it on today?