The FewDoIt project

 

This book ("Balloon-O-Therapy") is developed for you under the FewDoIt project. I did not write about the project in the first three editions of this book. It was and still is hard for me to write about a project that is developing. However, over the past few years so many questions have been asked about what, how, and most importantly why we do it, so I feel obligated to write about at least some of the concepts and ideas we follow.

Lack of either time or/and money are the two main reasons why I personally would not help someone. My guess is that this is also true for many of us. We all are born with kind hearts, we do want to help; however... 

It is hard to find a spare hour in our schedule. Especially it is hard to find time for regular volunteering work. Volunteering to help is a commitment. I have volunteered with a few different organizations at various times. A good share of my time was wasted for filling out some "required" papers. We have solved this time issue at the FewDoIt project in a very simple way: we volunteer when we have the time. There is no need to spend my (and your) valuable time to register, to travel and etc. I can twist balloons and teach it in any public place at any convenient time for me and so can others.

The general idea of helping is to give money. People give to those who dare to ask for it. 

However ... 

There are many more people who don’t dare to ask for help, even those in desperate need of it. Maybe they are to proud, too shy, or just have no idea that they need and can get the help. And by the way, money is not the only thing we need; simple, shared smile is the most wanted among all our untold needs! FewDoIt for you. And yet, how much would $10 help a beggar? It helps to buy some food for a day or two. It does not solve the beggar’s problem. It takes about ten minutes to teach 3-5 people to make a couple of simple balloon sculptures. It cost less than a dollar to pay for the balloons. The simplicity of the math! One needs a very little money and some very basic balloon twisting skills, not magic skills, to earn $. It is that simple. 

And yet ... 

There are many people like me, who don't need a middle man to help us to help someone. Do we really need these charitable, non-for-profits (with a six digit salary for CEO and some other office expenses) organizations that helps to help? Few do it. 

How long have we been in business? 

Officially, we established the FewDoIt project as a family project in 2007 with the publication of the e-book "Balloon-O-Therapy" and the website: www.fewdoit.com. I had also worked as a balloon twister before we started the project. 

What do we do? 

We teach balloon twisting (free instructions). We give balloon sculptures to people at (free outdoor workshops). We do it all for free. We also encourage people, not just professional balloon twisters, to do it in the same-free fashion. 

How do we do it? 

We publish balloon twisting instructions in this book. We publish the same instructions in different media formats on many Internet sites. We teach balloon twisting and provide free balloons at free workshops in open public places. 

Do we have expenses? 

Yes. We are modest and very reasonable in our expenses. We don't have anyone on payroll. We don't have an office. We pay for our website hosting, balloons, office equipment and etc. 

Where do we get money to pay all expenses? 

We pay all expenses out of pocket and from profit we make selling balloon supplies and commercial copies of instructions. We appreciate donation though we never ask for money. We try to earn enough cash to make the project self sufficient. 

Is the FewDoIt project a non-for-profit organization? 

No. The project does not have the official status of non-for-profit. However the idea of the project is to help-that is to give. There are a number of technical and ethical reasons why FewDoIt does not register as a non-for-profit. I don't believe in pure non-for-profit. If there is no money, then there are other benefits. Otherwise it makes no sense. It's one point. Non-for-profit projects that are based mostly on donations are very vulnerable in their existence. It's the second point. The bureaucracy! It's done for good reasons. I can do the project alone. Though it would need at least three people to supervise my activity under existent rules for non-for-profit. One of the beauties of the project is the ability to run it by a single person. I need no help to help others. 

We do it. I do it for myself. It makes me happy. People like what we do. 

I love the world I live in and I accept our world as it is. We change it to better every day. And it is never enough. We have to do it now and again with the help of our children. They have more to our dreams than we do. 

I have many dreams. I wish for them all to come true. 

My most crazy dreams... If our mind was opened for other people to read or somehow understand on some telepathic level our thoughts or just if we were not able to lie at all; the word we live in would be so.... it would be very, very different! In the mean time I chose at least to keep my words as often as I can and to trust people, to a certain extent.

Have fun and happy twisting :)