Wow, I sat down at my laptop on my lunch break and opened up my email to quickly check it while I inhaled my sandwich. With a splatter of ham, cheese, tomato, spinach and mayo (I’m pretty sure it was mayo) on the screen I gained the news that the Final Continent Expedition (FCE) charity Bicycles for Humanity had been donated $2,500!

The generous donor was Avonlea Minerals, a Perth based Exploration Company that has a presence in Namibia. Managing Director, David Riekie found out about the FCE cause after friend Sam (I owe Sam, he got me my current job, and has also personally donated his children’s university fund to the FCE charity) forwarded him on an email from me about potential company donations. David already knew of the great work that BEN, Namibia (the charity that receives the Bicycle for Humanity sea container in Africa and implements them as bike workshops) does and was a big fan of them. It also turns out that David is a keen cyclist, so if all falls into place he may join us for a little pedal when we pass through Namibia.

And to answer your question that I have already been asked “do I have an ethical issue with having a mining exploration company donate?”. A simple answer, NO. Firstly, I would be an absolute hypocrite, because I have worked on the oil rigs and I’m currently funding my personal expense of the expedition by working my current job for an exploration company. But this is the reason I’m doing the African continent human powered (admittedly I am flying there – I’m not the strongest of swimmers), I want to take responsibility for my previous jobs, and I want to give back. Give back to the people’s generosity I have received over the years of my working the world quest by helping an African community in need. I also want to give back to the environment, most notably try to off-set my working in Antarctica on that floating monstrosity of over consumption known as a cruise ship by having minimal carbon foot print for Africa, hence cycling and decreasing my farting.

So like myself, I think it is great that Avonlea Minerals are taking responsibility for their actions and supporting a charity that will have a positive impact on the local environment in which they work, I think more companies need to take a leaf out of Avonlea Minerals book. And if you are a company with money lying around in need of a great cause, I think you will find it by going to this site.

And hell, it isn’t like bloody Bin Laden is donating money to me –I tried to google his contact details but couldn’t find them. If you know of any organic daisy farmers willing to donate, the FCE will be more than happy to accept their pesticide free money.

As great as it is to receive such a large donation, and I may have done a little dance and pelvic pumped the air, the little donations mean just as much. If I remember one thing from bible studies at primary school – I’m unsure why my school had bible studies as it wasn’t religious- was a story about Jesus or some other pretty cool biblical dude who was asking for money for something (maybe for a sea container of bikes) and a millionaire came up and donated thousands of dollars and the crowd went wild, but Jesus instead went to the homeless man that was donating his apple and thanked him, because that apple had more worth to the homeless man than thousands of dollars did to the millionaire. OK, so I can’t remember the exact story but you get the picture. Every little bit counts. Please note that everydayhero.com.au does not accept apples.

I would like to take this time to thank the other new donors that have donated since I last made a mention; Brendan and Krista, Judie Wurm, The Rando family in Brazil, Mum and Dad, Fi, Hap (that’s a weird name), Sam & Hannah & Minka & Lola, Venture Tasmania crew, El and Avonlea Minerals.

THANK YOU!