If you wish to check our current progress visit our homepage: http://teambarton.blogspot.com 

Hi there,

 Thanks for taking your time to check out our fund raising page(s)! As you may or may not know, we (Chris Gardner and Chris Handley) are preparing to participate in the Mongol Rally on the 21st July, 2007. It's a great opportunity to raise some cash for good causes, making the world a better place and seeing a good deal of its many faces in the process.

The Mongol Rally has been running for five years now, increasing with popularity with every event. It runs from London Hyde Park on the 21st of July, ending with a black tie party in Ulaan Bataar, , on the 19th of August. The rules require that only cars under 1000cc and generally considered to be "crap" may enter the rally. There is no backup support, and no guarentee of safety. You're on your own from beginning to end, driving through almost wherever you choose in order to get there. Our team has the added bonus of having little to no mechanical experience as of the moment. We'll also be taking our lucky mascot, Barton the Teddy Bear along with us for the ride.

 The one thing that really attracted us into taking part over all else, was the concept of driving for a noble cause.

 We want to stress the importance of raising money for our charities over everything else and we see this as something where we can really make a difference to the lives of people in need.

   As one of 200 Teams, each team will be raising a minimum of £600 pounds for Mercy Corps Mongolia, run by Mercy Corps Scotland. We hope to hit this target and further it as much as possible.

 Mercy Corps Mongolia supports rural communities to meet their economic and social needs, helping individuals, families and communities to become more self-sufficient, diversified in their production, and better linked to local, regional and national markets. Over the past five years Mercy Corps Mongolia has established a strong reputation across the vast Gobi region, and continues to wokr with business associations and local organizations to ensure a robust economy that preserves ancient traditions.

 Currently they run the following projects in : Gobi Regional Economic Growth Initiatives (Gobi Initiatives), Gobi Forage, Rural Agribusiness Support Program (RASP) and the Training, Advocacy and Networking Programme.

 http://www.mercycorps.org.mn

 Feel free to check out their site to see what they're about.

 In addition to this, we are also currently raising a minimum of £400 for CAMDA, the Cambridge Mongolian Disaster Appeal, which you can donate to by heading to our second fundraising page at this link:

 http://www.justgiving.com/teambarton2

 With all this said, I hope you can understand our cause; we hope to hit these targets and beyond over time. Anything you can give we'll really appreciate!

 We're also slowly raising money for supplies - if you feel there's something you could contribute to our trip to help us on our way, or if you know a friend, please get in touch. If you have any questions also, get in touch through our email address:

 teambarton@hotmail.co.uk

You can also contact us via our team phone number: 07812397402

 Thanks for taking the time to listen!

 Chris Handley & Chris Gardner,

 Team Barton

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http://www.mongolrally.com