James Martin

Friends,

On May 4th, Rooted In Community is holding a Bowl-A-Thon to raise money to support their work and I’d like your help! The funds you help me raise will specifically benefit Rooted In Community’s annual Youth and Food Justice Leadership Summit, and I’d love to have you sponsor me.

Rooted In Community represents over 100 organizations located around the country working with youth in urban and rural agriculture, food sovereignty and social justice. The group utilizes peer-to-peer models, the creative arts, social networking, and holistic approaches to empower, coordinate, and activate youth leaders to shift culture, engage in direct action, and advance food systems equity.

To learn more, follow Rooted In Community on Twitter @Rootdncommunity, and check out their Facebook Page here.

This year they will be holding the 15th National Youth Leadership Summit — “Claiming our Land, Claiming our Roots” — in Los Angeles, Calif., on July 24-28th 2013. Young leaders are excited to build off of the momentum of grassroots leadership, cultural resilience, and food freedom to work to amplify YOUTH VOICES for transforming our food system and society. Check out this video about the 2011 Summit held in Philadelphia.

Please support me and Rooted In Community in reaching their goal in raising $10,000 to support national youth and food justice work!

Here’s how it works – I’ll be bowling 3 games and you can sponsor me by the point. I’m not that good of a bowler — I usually bowl about 100 points per game, so your pledge per point would look something like this:

2 cents per point = $6.00
5 cents per point = $15.00
10 cents per point = $30.00
15 cents per point = $45.00
25 cents per point = $75.00
50 cents per point = $150.00
$1.00 cents per point = $300.00
$2.00 cents per point – $600.00

But of course, they will accept pledges of any amount!

And you may also always make a straight donation in any amount that inspires you!

Here’s what your donation will support:

- $25 provides sustainably sourced food for 1 youth for 1 day at the National Youth Leadership Summit
- $50 provides bicycles for 5 youth to travel to farms for a day of service learning
- $125 provides housing for the 5 day National Youth Leadership Summit for 1 youth at USC
- $250 supports 1 scholarship for a youth to attend the National Youth Leadership Summit
- $500 helps support the community BBQ and National Day of Action around the Youth Food Bill of Rights
- $1000 supports stipends for core youth leaders who are organizing the Summit

If you’d like to participate, please email me at martinjames at gmail.com and let me know how much you’d like to pledge by May 1st. Then I’ll contact you after the big day with my final score – I’ll take a picture of my score sheets to share! Payment can be by check (payable to Earth Island Institute, our project supporter) or by credit card via our online system.

If you prefer to make a straight donation, please go to our website and you can donate online – please just include my name and BOWLATHON in the comments section.

I really appreciate your support to activate youth leadership, voice, and power in transforming our food system! Thank you!