Bloggers Unite at SobCon09 for The Global Hug Tour
Last week I attended SobCon09 in Chicago. This event brings together the most Successful Outstanding Bloggers from around the world for three days of brainstorming together.
I shared our plan for the Global Hug Tour with the powerful folks in the room and they embraced it. We were all inspired by a recent interview from one of our Inspirational Luminaries from InspireMeToday, Balaal Rajan.
Eight years ago Bilaal was eating a clementine for breakfast when he saw a photo in the newspaper. He was horrified by the devastation of an earthquake in India. He started raising money, by selling clementines door to door to help the children who were victims and he hasn’t stopped giving since.
In the last four years, Bilaal has raised over $5,000,000 for charity. And here’s the kicker- Bilaal is only 12 years old!
After speaking with Bilaal, I realize we’re playing too small. If a 12 year-old kid can raise $5 million, what can I do? More importantly, what can a group of social media entrepreneurs do? After all, we label this phenomenon as “Social Media”, and what’s more “social” than reaching out to one another.
I can’t think of a better way to unite the power of our social relationships than to help the world in a direct, tangible way. Bilall made a comment to me that struck me with the power of his words. “As one person, I can make a difference. But as a group, we can change the world.” He got me thinking in a much bigger way.
Armed with this inspiration and the passion and support of SobCon09, we’ve selected this week- the week of May 11th to unite to make a difference.
You can help us by doing a few easy things:
- Go sponsor a hug! $10 will probably not make a huge difference in your life, but by joining together, your personal donation will change the life of the recipient.
- Share the Global Hug Tour with your tribe by posting a blog, share it on Twitter, FaceBook, LinkedIn and in any
- Help us spread the word. We invite you to put a Global Hug Tour badge on your website.
- Ask your friends, family and members of your tribe to purchase a hug THIS WEEK and to ask 10 of their friends to do the same thing. By the power of exponential connection, we should be able to reach $1,000,000 raised for 50 charities in just a week!
What is the Global Hug Tour?
When my husband and I asked ourselves the question, “What would we do if we knew we couldn’t fail?” the Global Hug Tour was born.
We’re planning to fly 31,000 miles around the world in a small prop airplane on a 5-month tour, stop in 50 international cities to gather inspiration, deliver 100,000 hugs and raise and share more than $1,000,000 with charities worldwide. More importantly, we want to help shift the focus from doom and gloom to one of connectivity and possibility through love.
We developed a plan where anyone can go to our site, GlobalHugTour.com, sponsor a hug for $10 and send it to one of the 50 cities on our path. To make a tangible difference in each area when we land, we’ll deliver the hug and the full donation to the non-profit or NGO.
For example, one hug in Chicago ($10) will feed 3 homeless people, two hugs ($20) in Cambodia will educate a child for a year and one hundred hugs ($1000) in Chennai, India will pay the cost of heart surgery to save the life of a child.
Our goal for the Global Hug Tour was to raise a million dollars for charities around the world, and I thought that was a pretty big goal, until Bilaal inspired me to dream bigger.
Through SobCon and the power of the folks in social media, we can unite to make an even bigger difference. Bilaal is right- “I can make a difference, but together we can change the world”.
We invite you to help us help so many in need. Please share this right now with at least one other person, sponsor a hug and pass it on. Please know that we greatly appreciate your support and assistance. Big hugs to you!
Gail and Darryl
The Global Hug Tour
