Kiwi resellers charity diary: Part 2

As the campaign to encourage more technology companies than ever before to front up for the 2013 Great Adventure Race to Cure Kids heats up, Jen Rutherford tells us why the race is a must on your calendar.

“YOLO”, my kids keep saying to me, thinking they are so cool with the concept of ‘You only Live Once’, and seeming to use it as an excuse to get away with anything!

The concept that we are only here temporarily is not a new one, and depending on your philosophy when you consider this you either:

a) ponder the meaning of life,

b) consider your contribution to the world, or

c) think about how many fun experiences/parties/outrageous activities you can squeeze in before you depart this world.

I have always been a fan of having as much fun as possible, but as I get older I contemplate the contribution I can make in any meaningful way.

Yet I’m not ready to commit myself to saving the world by going and working for the United Nations or something, and I don’t feel I can contribute to solving any of the world’s political war and peace problems.

The ability to contribute however through funding scientific research has taken my fancy. Here is something I can do. I can’t actually do the research, but I can help to fund someone who has the brains and tenacity to make a real change in the world.

And although my own personal dollars are not going to solve these problems, if we get together and leverage our fabulous industry, then IT can make a real difference.

Of course we know IT has a great opportunity to change the world by using technology to solve all sorts of issues, to communicate, to network knowledge; but as a relatively lucrative industry we have a wider opportunity to draw our collective contribution into research, and get behind big projects.

The more we can draw together and get a significant amount of money behind some serious projects, the sooner we will have cures for illnesses that we believe are incurable today.

If we can fly to the moon, if we can split an atom, we can find the reason that our bodies succumb to illness... we just need to get money to research to the right people who can do this.

Companies who get teams involved in this event will experience the amazing side benefits of feeling that sense of contribution as a company and for all the individuals who get involved.

Add that to the fun crowd who are living the dream of YOLO (You only live once!), and they will have a huge amount of fun through all elements of this event, and a good excuse for a good knees up at the end ;-)

To read Jen Rutherford's previous posts, click here