Go Inspire Go is proud to present a weekly blog series written by GIG Board Member Connie Chan Wang every week leading up to our 50 Stories in 50 States Indiegogo Campaign launching on April 24. Our goal is to give you a behind-the-scenes look into our world as we prepare for our crowdfunding campaign and to inspire you to join us on this revolution — this movement to inspire!
Flying is Robin Petgrave’s first true love. He spent decades as a pilot flying celebrities around the world. After years of working out of his hangar in the city of Compton (of “Boyz n the Hood” fame), he realized the kids there desperately needed wings. So he started Tomorrow’s Aeronautical Museum, where kids can earn one hour of flight instruction for every hour they participate in an after-school learning program. A few years ago, Tomorrow’s Aeronautical Museum celebrated Kimberly Anyadike, 15, the youngest African American female to fly across the Atlantic. Robin is inspiring a generation to share his passion for flying and soar.
Over the past four years, the volunteer crew at Go Inspire Go has been highlighting stories of local heroes like Robin whose selfless actions have rippled out into enormous positive impact, inspiring people like you and me to take action along the way.
A few months ago, our fearless leader Toan Lam had a “crazy” idea. What if we highlighted 50 of the most amazing stories across 50 states to inspire the whole country to act? We talked to everyone we knew about the idea to test out just how “crazy” it was. Instead of calling us crazy, people started sharing their stories — of Nico Castro, 6, a pediatric cancer patient who wanted to buy costumes for every child in the cancer ward and Reverend Lemaire Alerte, who wanted to build a school for children in quake-ravaged Haiti.
Along the way, we learned this: These are the stories people want to hear, the stories they want to tell, the stories that inspire them to act. We are now more committed to our mission than ever. To inspire positivity, passion and action.
So here we are, deep in planning mode for our first ever crowdfunding campaign called 50/50: 50 Inspiring Stories in 50 States. April 24 is the big launch date on Indiegogo (shout out to Amy). Until then, we’ll be blogging every week about what we’re doing to get there.
Next week’s blog post will feature the story of our fearless leader Toan Lam.
We’ll hope you’ll join us on our mission to inspire. Inspired to join our movement?
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