The 2009 Exercise Your Spirit 5K Run

On June 6, 2009, St. George & St. Shenouda Coptic Orthodox Church of Jersey City, NJ hosted it’s Second Annual ”Exercise Your Spirit” 5K Run. The race was held on a beautiful sunny day at Nomahegan Park in Cranford, NJ.

In addition to the many returning participants from last year, runners from all over the tri-state area joined us this year to support their sister church.  We hosted some 110 runners and 220 people at the BBQ.  We were blessed with the attendance of our Reverend Fathers, Fr. David Bebawy and Fr. Anthony Basily, who distributed awards to our fastest male and female runners.

Fastest Male Runner – Mena Francis, finishing in 22:30

Fastest Female Runner – Maryann Sous

Also this year, we witnessed the Lord’s hand working as the money raised nearly doubled over night. The 5K Run raised $44,759.05!  Five times the income of last year’s event!  With this in mind, we especially recognize and thank the great efforts of the top three fundraisers:

1. Nasheds (Mark Thomas Daniel) – $6,058.00

2. Safwat Shaker – $4,285.00

3. Ralph Toss – $4,265.00

Many thanks to all those who planned, worked, and labored for this event to be such a GREAT success!  A special thanks to our priests for their support and mentorship.

2009 5K Run Photo Album

Start of the 2009 5K Run Video

2009 Runners Awards Presentation Video

2009 Highest Fundraiser Award Video

Other Sources:

• http://5krun.nihov.org/2009
• http://sneakersandbooks.blogspot.com/2009/06/mena-francis-wins-exercise-your-spirit.html

Members Project – Bottom of the Pyramid – Help the Poor of Egypt

Bottom of the Pyramid – Help the Poor of Egypt: Just a reminder to please vote for the Bottom of the Pyramid project. We are currently #13 out of 847 projects! You can nominate the project at http://www.membersproject.com/project/view/4L32GP by creating a guest account. It literally takes one minute to help out our kin in Egypt. We’re still in stage 1 of this process but, with your help, we can earn 1.5 million for Egyptian aid.

MicroGiving.com

MicroGiving.com Logo

Previously I blogged about Google Checkout and that it was the only way to receive free online donations. Well I recently came across another method using PayPal via a website called MicroGiving.com

Through that website you can receive free PayPal donations.  From what I understand the company absorbs the fees and costs because as we all know PayPal itself is not free.  I have not tried it out because I am happy with Google Checkout but I thought I would put it out there for those who are interested.

Here is a short how to for the process by Austin Spooner – http://www.austinspooner.com/2008/07/microgiving.html

Here is the Website Link for MicroGiving.com – http://www.microgiving.com/

The Exercise Your Spirit 5K Run

“Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it. ” (1 Cor 9:24)

On Saturday, June 14, 2008 St. George & St. Shenouda Coptic Orthodox Church of Jersey City, NJ hosted The “Exercise Your Spirit” 5k Run! It was held at Nomahegan Park in Cranford, New Jersey. It was a beautiful sunny day with the temperature at 88 degrees.

We were blessed by our Reverend Fathers, Fr. David Bebawy and Fr. Anthony Basily who came and attended. We raised over 7,000 dollars in pledges and donations to build our new church. We had a huge turnout of people to support our 57 runners. There was in attendance around 150 people for the race and BBQ. The winners each received an Ipod Shuffle for the tremendous feat they accomplished.

The Winners

First Place for the Men – Ashraf Hanna. Go Uncle Ashraf!

First Place for the Women – Diana Misdary

First Place to Raise the Most Money – David Bebawy

Thanks to all those who planned, worked, and labored for this event to be such a HUGE success! A special thank you to our priests for supporting us and a really big and special thanks to Mr. Antony Gabriel for his vision and leadership to bring this fund raising idea to life.

Watch “Start of the EYS 5K Run“, posted with vodpod

more about “The Exercise Your Spirit 5K Run“, posted with vodpod

Google Checkout for Non-Profits

Did you know that Google Checkout offers free online donation processing for Non-Profits? So your church can accept online donations at no cost whatsoever to the church! The funds will automatically be transferred to the bank account you specify and verify through Google Checkout. TO BE RECOGNIZED AS A NON-PROFIT FOR GOOGLE:

1. Sign up at https://checkout.google.com/sell/

2. When you sign up*:

• Use your 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization’s address.
• Make sure your EIN matches your non-profit organization’s Tax ID number.

*You need the IRS Official:

• Church Name
• Address
• Phone Number
• Church EIN (Tax ID Num)

Also, the: Checking Account Number & Bank Routing Number

3. After you sign up, select Non-Profit (IRS certified 501c3) as your Primary Product Type on the ‘Settings’ page, then click Save profile.

To Verify this in order to not be deducted 2% transaction fee on all donations they require:

Email a scanned copy of the first page of your organization’s latest Federal IRS 990 Tax form or A LETTER OF DETERMINATION from the IRS, plus a cover letter with your merchant ID, to checkout-nonprofit@google.com. You may also fax this information to 888 522 6614. (Takes about 1 Week After Submittal)

VERY IMPORTANT - Scanned copy of most recently filed IRS Form 990 (you probably don’t have this because as a church we are exempt from filing this form) or a copy of a Letter of Determination from the IRS. If we don’t have one of these to verify our tax-exempt status they will deduct 2% from every transaction. If you can’t get one of these, you can fill out the form 990 (The Church Treasurer should be able to do this. The form is readily available online.) or (Church Board Member or authorized party) call IRS number for non-profits (1-877-829-5500) and ask them to mail you “a letter of affirmation” (of the letter of determination) (Takes 10-14 Business Days).

IRS Telephone Assistance for Exempt Organizations

Toll-Free, 1-877-829-5500

Hours of Operation: Monday – Friday, 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Central Time.

4. Complete Bank Verification Process – Specify Bank Account Number and Bank Routing Number

They will deposit some cents into account you must then login and tell them how much to verify that you own this account (Takes about 3-5 Business Days)