An amazing year, wouldn't you say?
Strong Towns has a unique, powerful and timely message that needs to be heard in every city, every neighborhood and every home in America. Please help us this week by giving to the max! We need your support -- $5, $10, $15....no amount is too small. Please help us to take the next step in sharing this important message.
As we reflect on this year, we're just astounded at what has transpired. Demand for the Curbside Chat program, which began two years ago as a modest presentation given to just a handful of people, has grown to the point where I have been booked solid -- every week a different group having this important conversation -- for the past nine months. This year alone I've had the opportunity to share our message with groups in:
California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Ontario, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Texas
In my home state of Minnesota, I've made a dozen presentations in cities like Pine River, Mound, Belle Plaine, Brainerd and even today I'm headed up to Grand Marais to speak at the Active Living Summit. We started the Strong Towns on Tap gatherings as a way to bring locals together around the message of resiliency. We're putting out enormous effort to make all of this happen and to share our message with as many groups as we can.
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With all of this travel, we still found the time to publish the Strong Towns Blog three days a week, release a weekly podcast and even started a TV channel called SID.tv to spread our message further. My Strong Towns colleague Jon Commers is coordinating a citizen work initiative with the City of Falcon Heights, Minnesota, the University of Minnesota College of Design, and the Center for Democracy and Citizenship, supported by the Bush Foundation. I even released a book -- Thoughts on Building Strong Towns -- and we've now released the Curbside Chat book for purchase on Amazon. (The Curbside Chat booklet is still available for free on our website, but if you want a really high-quality version you can share, now that option is available through Amazon and their print-on-demand service.)
And here is perhaps the most amazing thing: We've done all of this with a very, very small budget. This is consistent with our philosophy and the principles of the Strong Towns movement. We want to be the high return investment, the place that works incrementally, that tests great ideas and designs them to scale. We want to you to be confident that the money you donate to Strong Towns is going to have an enormous impact.
Whether it is a small amount or something much larger, we need your support. If you are a regular reader of this blog, please consider signing up for a recurring monthly contribution. For anyone that does so this week -- even if it is just $5 per month -- we're going to send you an autographed copy of Thoughts on Building Strong Towns. Everything helps and your long term commitment makes a huge difference.
For anyone wanting to make a one time donation of $50 or more, we'll also send you an autographed copy of Thoughts on Building Strong Towns. If you are able to make a donation of $100, we'll also send you the high quality version of the Curbside Chat Companion Booklet.
CLICK HERE TO MAKE A DONATION TO SUPPORT STRONG TOWNS
While we are very proud of what we have done, we've even more excited about what we are planning to do. Some of that was included in yesterday's kickoff post (Ready for the next step), but we'll have even more later in the week. Until then, please consider helping us meet our goal of raising $12,000 this week to fund the next step.
THANK YOU TO SOME SPECIAL FRIENDS
John B. of Portland -- Wow! Thanks so much. Got two books coming your way.
Darla L. of Florida -- Your book is in the mail!
Peter F. of Massachusetts -- Did we meet? Thank you for the support. Sending you a book too.
Aaron N. and Joanne N. -- Your generosity humbles us all. Thank you.
Alex P. of Maryland -- Thank you for the kind letter along with the donation.
Who's next?
And finally, our Give to the Max theme song as suggested by my daughter. Keep on getting stronger, everyone. Let's turn all of your places in Strong Towns.