Plain and simply, my goal is to give 100 people the gift of clean water by reducing the amount of money that I will spend on a car.

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Dear Friends, Family, and Supporters,

As you ALL (I'm sure) know by now, I have wanted to own a Focus ST ever since February, 2009, when I started working on it in my Product Marketing job at Ford. I placed my order for one a few months ago: a Focus ST with Tuxedo Black paint and Performance Blue-accented seats... I knew it would be expensive, but I was do whatever it took in order to afford the car that has been my dream for the past 4 years.

Well, the car arrived at the dealership, with my name on it--and I didn't buy it.

Now, I know what you're thinking: "WHAT?! I've been waiting for pictures of your ST to show up on Facebook...and I wanted my test drive! What happened??"

Over the past 3 months, I have dedicated an enormous amount of time and energy to training for my first half marathon and also to raising money for charity: water. In the course of fundraising, I asked people to look at their spending and to make a one-time change that could help give someone clean water for the rest of their life. I asked questions like, "Could you eat dinner for two at home and donate $20 instead of eating out? That’s one person’s life changed for good right there."

Thinking about this more, I looked at my OWN spending and, as I looked at what would have been my largest and most impractical purchase decision of my life, I now ran into a conflict. I was going to put $5,000 down on the Focus ST to get my monthly payment down to one that I could manage. But if I bought something less expensive, I could save money AND make a $2,000 donation to charity: water, giving 100 people better lives.

After making a couple phone calls to ensure that I wasn't COMPLETELY off my rocker, I called the dealership and told them that they could sell my car to someone else. I couldn't say “no” to 100 people just because I want to drive a cool car.

As for the ST, I'll still own one...it'll just have to be later, when I have enough income to own one and still do the other things that are important to me--like donating to charity, traveling, and otherwise enjoying life outside of my car.

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I feel more alive when I am spending my energy to help solve the water crisis than I feel doing most anything else! As Martin Luther King Jr. once said:

"An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity."

I feel like I have realized the magnitude of humanity's broader concerns and I am committed to being a positive force in solving a big one: the water crisis.

Happy giving!

Brad