Challenge2Society is on a mission. That mission is to compel people to donate their time money and energy to helping out the world's underpriviledged. Steve Gardner, who's the founder, tells Prissy Mag more about it.

PM: So, you’re an American, living in Moscow?

SG: Yes, I’m American and currently living in the Moscow, Russian Federation, and back to being a full time student. I’m working towards an international MBA, and currently in a language (Russian) emersion program, prior to being allowed to attend Moscow State University.

PM: What’s your typical day there like?

SG: I spend six hours in school, two on the metro, two and a half hours of homework balanced by a set of correspondence with India, Turkey, USA (East and West coast) so I’m living in a “flattened world (The World is Flat ) and working five or so hours on Challenge2Society’s website.

PM: And I thought I was busy. Tell us more about Challenge2Society. Your site states your vision as “inspiring and motivating the world to donate 1 billion hours”. Where you were when you came up with this idea and what inspired you to create Challenge?

SG: I spent about ten years in the USMC Reserves, while attending Radford University (Radford, VA) and sent a lot of time helping with the USMC’s Toys-for-Tots community service program. And for three years I managed roughly a third of the state of Virginia. During this time, A Radio Disk Jockey named “Slam” Duncan approached me with an idea on how to get the city of Roanoke VA to help raise bikes for kids for the holidays. We (he and I) would be broadcasting on J93 around the clock for three days, asking the city to donate bikes… the catch? We would be broadcasting from a trailer suspended from a crane, “93” feet in the air at Tanglewood mall. I agreed and about two months later I was looking out of the trailer over a sea of bikes, and our goal had been 93 that year we collected over 500. Year two over 1500, and year three over 3000… It was during these days, that I saw the power of having a single compelling and unifying goal and how a city could rally to support such a cause… and during this, people would come up to me and thank us for giving them a chance to help. They always wanted to help, but just did not know how. It was then I realized that 1.5 MM American based non-profits were having a hard time getting their message out.

PM: So this all started with the bikes?

SG: Yes, originally my plan was to hold a series of concurrent Bike-or-Bust programs across major cities in the US/World. That got put on hold because I could not figure out how to do it. So fast forward to the summer of 2006 when I had an opportunity to visit a Russian Orphanage. A fraternity brother’s brother-in-law adopted three Russian boys 10 years ago, and the oldest 19 wanted to find his mother and since I was living in Moscow, my Fraternity brother asked If I could help. This led us to the orphanage from which the boy(s) were adopted. The Father and son donated bikes, sporting equipments, and we made volleyball net from string (because we could not find one to buy). After visiting this place, it compelled me to take action. And it helps me solidify what I was going to do with the site (Challenge2society.org – which I had reserved a year or so prior to even moving to Moscow). It was the intersection of the past Bikes-or-Bust events crystallizing/juxtaposing with the (then) present and building these two bikes for the 100+ children who would share them as they shared the vary clothes that they wore, but the orphanage owned. It was then I knew my vision had to be bigger than “just” collecting bikes for every child in the world. I had to think ‘World-Big” and figure out how to harness the inherent goodness that was show to me repeatedly by the people of Roanoke Valley, and leverage that and amplify it by the sum total of the world’s people, and then focus it into changing the world.

For more information about how to donate hours to Challenge2Society, please go here .

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