Story
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; line-height: 0.37cm; widows: 2; orphans: 2; padding: 0cm; border: initial none initial;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: normal; font-size: medium;">
<div style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri; background-color: #ffffff; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; color: #000000;">On 22 October myself, Mark Gorman and Mark Faulkner will be hitting the hills and waterways of West Cork for the 2011 Innovista Challenge.</span><br><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri; background-color: #ffffff; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; color: #000000;">We’ll be <strong>cycling 25km, running 8km and kayaking 1.5km</strong></span><br><br><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri; background-color: #ffffff; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; color: #000000;">But why, on a cold October morning are we putting our bodies through such pain?</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent;"><br><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri; background-color: #ffffff; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; color: #000000;">Robbie* is a teenager from inner city Dublin. He lives in a community where drug and alcohol abuse is rife and the best paying job prospect for young males is as a drug dealer.</span><br><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri; background-color: #ffffff; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; color: #000000;">Alcoholism and a parent in prison have devastated Robbie’s family life. It is no surprise that he has dropped out of school early and has a police record for violent behaviour. Today his future has ‘prison’ written all over it.</span><br><span style="color: #000000;"><strong><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri; background-color: #ffffff; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But it doesn’t have to be that way.</span></strong></span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="color: #000000;"><strong></strong></span><br><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri; background-color: #ffffff; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; color: #000000;">Robbie is intelligent, talented and influential. He has incredible potential. <strong>Imagine if he used that potential to influence his peers for good, to bring change in his community. Robbie could be a future leader.</strong></span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri; background-color: #ffffff; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; color: #000000;"><strong></strong></span><br><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri; background-color: #ffffff; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; color: #000000;">To do that he needs people around him who will invest deeply in him; who will show him that another way is possible; who will encourage him and cheer him on; who will do what most of us would consider normal.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent;"><br><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri; background-color: #ffffff; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; color: #000000;">Future Leaders is an initiative created for young people like Robbie. We want to break the cycle of hopelessness and despair and help him experience that change is possible. <strong>We want to equip Robbie and his peers with the skills, courage and character to be leaders who change their own lives and transform their communities.</strong></span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri; background-color: #ffffff; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; color: #000000;"><strong></strong></span><br><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri; background-color: #ffffff; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; color: #000000;">Robbie is part of the Future Leaders pilot programme that’s being delivered by Innovista Ireland and a local church.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent;"><br><span style="color: #000000;"><strong><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri; background-color: #ffffff; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There are hundreds of teenagers like Robbie who can become future leaders. Your support will enable us to expand the programme, giving more young people their much needed opportunity to see that there is a better way and become part of the change that’s needed where they are.</span></strong></span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent;"><br><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri; background-color: #ffffff; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; color: #0000ff;">That’s why we’re doing the challenge. Please give whatever you can </span><br><br><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: bold; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If you live in Ireland, or outside the UK</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, </span><a href="http://www.sponsor.ie/sam-moore/event/innovista-ireland-challenge-2011/"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri; color: #000099; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">click here to give</span></a></div>
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