ACE Recap!

Hello, friends! 

A few weeks ago, I posted about our Alumni Communication Extravaganza (ACE) that I was leading for our Region. We were going to be contacting alumni up to 10 times over 3 weeks, asking them to consider starting or increasing a recurring gift to their alma mater's chapter accounts. We'd procured a $20k matching grant, so every pledge would be matched for the first year. When I last posted about ACE, we had about a week left and had raised just over $10,000. Things were moving but they were moving a little slower than I would have liked. 

Our ACE Coach from InterVarsity National told us that things would look like a step up graph. We'd get a lot of pledges in the first few days, then things would go kind of slowly during the middle chunk before really ramping up the last week, particularly the last 24 hours. Our graph looked a little bit different, as we had a slow start but a consistent middle chunk. I was cautiously optimistic that we'd hit our $20k goal by the 23rd, but I was also preparing for us to fall a little short. 

Friends, God showed up in a big way! Just over the weekend before our Deadline week, we saw our pledges jump from $11k - over $16k. We started the 23rd (Deadline Day) with $18k matched and immediately saw 2 more gifts come in to bring us past the finish line. Praise, the LORD, we'd done it! (Well, God had done it and we got to benefit from that. =0).).

BUT, God wasn't done yet! We passed our $20k goal so early in the day that we were able to find another $5k match to still hopefully inspire alumni. Then we passed $25k and had another decision to make. We ultimately decided that we would just tell alumni that we would guarantee to match any pledges made by the end of the day and go find the money later. 

Praise the LORD, by the end of the day on Friday, we had raised OVER $30,000!!! It was so great to see how alumni were inspired to give and how many connections were made. Our staff team was encouraged and everyone was glad we gave it a shot. 

Saturday, I was in a bit of a stupor all day. I was physically tired from having to hold so much tension for the past 3 weeks. I've definitely been sleeping well since, so glad to see God come through and to see a major project come to fruition. 

Have an excellent day! 

~Adam

Welcome to Scout Camp!

Hello, friends! 

Last weekend, I had the pleasure of taking the older kids to Cub Scout camp. For Ezra, it was his second trip to Camp Amikaro but this was Thaliea's first trip. One of the most fun things this past year was seeing how much Thaliea enjoyed being in the scouts. This camp definitely solidified her love for scouting. 

Ezra rode a horse!

Thaliea got to participate in the camp-wide morning flag ceremony

Thaliea and another scout wrote a skit that was performed at the camp-wide campfire on Saturday night

The counselors taught the scouts a few new dances

Pool time!

Thaliea's target after our unit on shooting. She took 2 shots and decided she didn't like it, but she still took credit for the target that I shot. =0). 

Ezra's target

Learning about animal habitats

Learning about static electricity

Rock climbing! Both Ezra and Thaliea made it to the top of the wall!

Hay Ride!

Thaliea really liked getting her camp shirt

Greetings from Pack 481! This is actually just half of the pack. Due to scheduling, we had to split our pack into 2 camping dates. The second group will go camping in July. 

Playing games with the camp couselors!

Hanging out with Conrad, who is in the same grade as Thaliea. 

Overall, it was a really great experience. The kids slept better than I thought they would (which was a blessing). Since our scout master wasn't there, I acted as the de facto leader for our crew along with another parent. At this age, all the scouts need to be accompanied by parents, so it was a lot of good collaboration. 

I was joking with another parent that I hope our kids remember these fun times later in life when they're complaining about their parents. =0). It really was fun and I'm glad I get to share these memories with them. 

Have an excellent day! 

ACE Time!

Hello, friends! 

This month, I'm leading a project for our Region called ACE, or the Alumni Closing Extravaganza! The tl;dr is that we have $20k in matching grants available for any alumni who set up recurring gifts to any of the campus accounts in Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, and Missouri by next Friday. Praise the LORD, we've already raised over $10,000 of our match. It's also been a joy getting to connect and reconnect with InterVarsity alum from all over the place! 

Friends, ACE has been a LOT of work. In order to cast as wide a net as possible, each of our staff has a list of 20-40 alumni (depending on if they're full time or part time) they are contacting. Since everything is happening in such a tight window, our staff are contacting each alumni 2-4 times each of these weeks too. I've sent so many text messages that I'm pretty sure Google Voice suspended my account... =0). 

And yet, we've seen some really cool things happen! A lot of our staff have reconnected with alumni with whom they haven't spoken in years. It's been so great to hear about how our former students are doing and the impact that InterVarsity had on their lives. It's been such a blessing to see that students are continuing to follow Jesus and that they want to continue to see InterVarsity happen on their campuses. 

So, want to be apart of our ACE?! If you are and alumni of a school in Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, or Nebraska and want to be a part of seeing the Gospel go to every corner of your campus, click here to search for your campus and please do let me know if you decide to give! 

If you're not an alum in the Central Region but still want to give, that's totally cool too. You can also tag friends or family who are alum to let them know about this great opportunity. 

Either way, would you be praying for us? Pray that alumni would be responsive, that staff would be filled with strength, and that our campuses would be blessed by the work we're doing now. 

Have an excellent day! 

~Adam