Sponsor me in Hazon’s fundraising bike ride by contributing to a great cause.

Hazon is creating a new dialogue about food sustainability and is creating awareness about where our food comes from, and creating and supporting farming and cooperative food initiatives to connect people with local farmers.

As you may know, I have supported this cause for several years. I am on the Steering Committee for the second year, I started Team Brooklyn, and have donated much time and money to Hazon’s cause of creating a more sustainable world. This year, I have personally matched $1,861 in donations.

Please support me in my goal of raising $10,000 to support Hazon’s important work by making a donation.

Find out more and make your donation here.

Sponsor Me!

Help me reach my goal of raising $10,000. Please sponsor me on Hazon’s marvelous 4-day event, 2-day Ride that takes place over the Labor Day weekend.  You will be supporting a great cause, and getting a tax deduction.

Find out more and make your donation here.

If you prefer, you can write a check made out to Hazon, and mail it to my office at:

Howard Adam Levy
Red Rooster Group
36 East 23rd Street, Suite 301
New York, NY 10010
212-673-9353
howard@redroostergroup.com

Join Me!

And of course, if you would like to join me on the ride (or as crew), that would be fantastic too. The free training rides held on Sundays during the riding season are open to all cyclists.

Learn more about the ride.

Check out the free training rides.

Thanks to my supporters over the past 3 years

• Ed Abel – 08, 09
• David Alpert – 08
• Marissa Anteby – 07, 08, 09
• Natalia Arango – 08, 09
• Greg Barber – 07, 08
• David Behrman – 07
• Itzhak Beery – 08
• Brian Benito – 07
• Andrew Bloch – 08, 09
• Amy Bodnick, 360 Coaching for Kids – 09
• Martin Breslin – 07, 08, 09
• Rebecca Brian – 07, 08
• Ellen Bunin – 08
• Christopher Burke – 08
• Peter Chislett – 07
• Michael Connelley – 07
• Elizabeth Costas – 08
• Richard Dale, Sigma – 09
• Steve Damiano – 09
• Courtney Darling – 07, 09
• Michael Davidson, Board Coach – 07, 08, 09
• Jacques Doueck, Doueck Dental – 08
• Robert Eatroff, Sun Mergers & Acquisitions – 08
• Jenny Eisenberg – 09
• Linda Eber – 07, 08
• Lisa Fawcett – 07, 08
• Beth Forman – 07, 08
• Vicky Foulke – 07
• Jason Gardner – 07, 08
• Gila Gevirtz – 07
• Howard Glassroth – 07
• Robert Goldstein – 08
• Eric Graig – 08
• Becky Gray – 08
• Sue Caruso Green, Resource Development Network – 07
• Lorri Greif, Breakthrough Philanthropy – 09
• Lynn Greenberg – 08
• Carrie Hamilton, Kismet – 08
• Ed Hamway – 08
• Amanda Hirsch – 08
• Tomoki Ito – 07
• Lisa Itzkowitz, JCC of Mid Westchester – 07
• Les Judd – 09
• Deborah Kane – 07
• Jezra Kaye, Communicate with Power and Ease – 08
• Dan Kestin – 09
• Sharon Kleinberg, Symmetry – 07, 08, 09
• Staci Kochmann, Nancy Koltes at Home – 08
• Marcia Kublanow – 08
• Susan Leicher, Thompson & Columbus, Inc. – 09
• Peter Levinson, LevinsonBlock LLC – 08
• Marc Levitt, MSLK – 08
• Allan Levy – 07, 09
• Elliot Levy – 07, 08, 09
• Ike Levy – 08
• Jon Levy – 07, 08
• Linda & Buddy Levy – 08
• Rachel Levy – 07
• Roy Levy – 08
• Francine Lynch – 08
• Cathline Marshall – 08, 09
• Jessica Marshall, Temple Beth Or – 08
• Jeffrey Marston, Resource Centers for Management – 09
• Jill Mendelson – 07, 08, 09
• Abraham Marcus – 09
• Cathline Marshall – 08, 09
• Jeffrey Marston, Resource Centers for Management – 09
• Greg Miller – 07, 08
• Jennifer Mokos – 07, 08
• Patrick Moroney – 07, 08
• E.B.Moss – 08, 09
• Jacqueline Ottman – 07
• Laurence Pagnoni, LAPA – 08
• Mistina, Picciano, Market It Write – 08
• Julia Reich – 07, 08, 09
• Michael Ribicic – 07
• Deborah Riegel, My Jewish Coach.com – 08
• Linda Rodriguez – 08, 09
• Nicole Rose, ODM, Inc. – 08
• David Rosenfeld – 08, 09
• Andrew Sedlock – 07, 08, 09
• Alan Siege – 09
• Cathy Sharp – 09
• Jeffrey Shearman – 07, 08, 09
• Sofia Shemtob – 07, 08, 09
• Steve Shinder – 07
• Alan Siege – 09
• Cynthia Spence – 08, 09
• James Spisak – 07, 08
• Geri Stengel – 07, 08
• Elliot Joel Stern – 08
• Lisa Syron – 07, 08, 09
• Judith Weinstock – 08
• Janice Won – 08
• Linda Wintner – 09
• Greg Zuniss – 07

The Cause

Hazon is the largest Jewish environmental organization in North America and has sparked a movement within the Jewish community to promote environmentalism. It addresses sustainable food production through a Jewish lens and has energized the discussion on the very nature of religions’ role in saving the environment. Since 2000, Hazon participants in their NY and DC Bike Rides have raised over $1.5 million for this cause.

Hazon changes the world by raising environmental awareness and creating concrete opportunities to make our lives and our communities more sustainable.

For example, Hazon started the first Jewish Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) project in North America, in which individuals purchase an entire season of produce from an organic family farm. This supports local farming and gives people access to fresh, organic food from a farmer they know. This supports the local economy, creates markets for organic produce and reduces harmful emissions from long-distance transportation of food. Since 2004, Hazon has launched 19 CSAs across the country. As a result of your donations from the NY and DC Rides, Hazon will launch 13 new Tuv Ha’Aretz sites in 2009 to help transform how this country grows its food.

The money raised from this Ride will also be used to educate people about sustainable farming and food production, and teach children about caring for the environment – connecting a new generation to the earth. Hazon also supports the unique Aravah Institute in Israel, where Israelis, Palestinians and Jordanians study the ultimate cross-border issue: environmental science. Unsurprisingly, conflict resolution is an integral part of this work.

Hazon changes lives by encouraging people to start cycling. As you may know, two years ago Hazon got me on my bike for the first time since childhood. Through their training rides, I got in shape and rode my first Century ride (100 miles in a day). Along the way, I’ve met a fantastic community of warm, committed, wonderful people who enhance my life to no end… and has turned me into an advocate for cycling and transportation alternatives. And I am not alone. Hazon has been turning hundreds of people into cyclists since their first ride in 2001.

I invite you to find out more by contacting me or visiting Hazon’s website at www.hazon.org.

Support Hazon by sponsoring me on the Bike Ride.

My Role

This year, I am back on the Executive Committee, serving as Design Director for the ride, as well as starting Team Brooklyn to galvanize eco-conscious riders in the borough. In addition, I produced a 28-page Ride Guide that explains Hazon and the ride to participants and contains a fundraising guide and training tips. I will also be producing a Fundraising Clinic to help other riders learn how to raise more money. I’m doing my part. Won’t you support me in my fundraising goal? Thanks.

I’ve been very active in Hazon:

• Cyclist Participant, 2007, 2008, 2009 Rides
• Executive Committee, 2008 and 2009 Rides
• Design Director, 2009 Ride
• Founder and Captain, Team Brooklyn, 2009
• Grant Allocations Committee, 2008
• Top Ten Fundraiser, 2008, 2009

Some comments from donors are telling:

“I lost a considerable amount of income this year, but I figure what I have will last me, and my situation is much better than that of many other people right now.”

“It’s one of the few funds where a New Yorker can feel they’re helping another New Yorker.”

“I can’t solve Wall Street, but maybe I can keep somebody off the street.”

WAKE-UP CALL: The lesson here is that people want to help, they just need to be shown the best way. The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund has been successful in creating a sense of community among New Yorkers. Here’s how:

1. Keep it close to home. People identify best with those in the areas they are familiar with – in this case New York. The “paper of record’ helped create a sense of community through the concept of a shared city (i.e., “helping your neighbor”).

2. Use case studies to personalize and dramatize the need. The editorial format provides the luxury for showcasing individual stories, as well as the journalistic context to provide credibility. Nonprofits can use their websites and newsletters to tell in depth stories, and can go a step further in using videos and other interactive media to evoke emotional responses.

3. Connect your donors with those in need by drawing parallels between the two groups. Donors to the Times’ cause are the working and middle-class who relate to the core needs of the poor. The Fund did a good job of showing how people share the same basic needs in housing, healthcare, education and the desire for the opportunity of advancement.

SOURCE: In a Time of Crisis, More Donors Decide to Give to the Needy