The Giving Challenge

So an interesting thing happened this week. I got a package in the mail that had a letter, a DVD, and a check for $1,000. The letter had a challenge: do some good in Pittsburgh. The only requirement was that I couldn't spend the money on myself.

So it turns out my friends Keith and Mariela Kleiner were inspired by Oprah Winfrey's Pay-It-Forward Challenge. After hearing about Pay-It-Forward, Keith and Mariela started their own challenge. They launched a website for a project called The Giving Challenge. They sent $1,000 checks to 20 of their friends and asked them to Pay-It-Forward. Here's a snippet from their site:

Inspired by Oprah's "Pay It Forward Challenge" we decided to give our friends and family the gift of giving during the holiday season. We gave 20 of our friends and family $1,000 each to spend toward bettering someone else's life, and asked them to make a video documenting their experience.

At first our Giving Challenge was created just for our friends and family, but we soon expaneded the scope of our challenge and invited others to join our cause as donors. This website documents the impact of every $1,000 gift during our 2006 Giving Challenge.

Our 2006 Giving Challenge brought so much happiness to our friends, family, and to those in need, that we have decided to host the Giving Challenge again during the 2007 holiday season. If you would like to get involved in our 2007 Giving Challenge please email Mariela Kleiner here.

Enjoy the videos and get involved if you can!

Thank You,
Mariela and Keith Kleiner

Wow. So I spent a few days bouncing ideas around. How should I spend this money? Well one night it hit me. I went to the SH Eat-N-Park with my friend Kevin and told him about the idea I had. We brainstormed around 2am over milkshakes and buffalo chicken burgers. The next day I launched this website and 100 Robots was born. ...Everything you're about to read was catalyzed by Keith and Mariela's generous gift. 100 Robots would not exist if that $1,000 check hadn't appeared in my mailbox.