It's only the second day of October ('Okakopa in Hawaiian) and I've already got a good feeling about this month!
Yesterday Gary and I submitted a diversity grant that I'm really excited about. Soon after we submitted that grant we found out that the grant we submitted a week or so ago was awarded $15,000!!! Super exciting! It may not be a heck of a whole lot of money, but it's still a considerable sum. As Gary put it, "I've been awarded $5 million grants before, but ever since being here in Hawaii and seeing how much of a struggle it is to get anything done AND how long it takes anything to get done, the fact that we were awarded $15,000 from a funding pool that usually funds to the same people every year is a HUGE deal!" :D Gary keeps giving me all the credit for the grant, but frankly, I think he's giving me more credit than I deserve. I'm sure he would've gotten money with or without my help. We also found out about a NSF grant opportunity that due coming up in December. No time to rest, on to the next grant-writing task!
This morning Gary, Karen, and I joined 9 other members from church and participated in the "A World With More Birthdays - Honolulu Making Strides Against Breast Cancer" 5 mile walk from Aloha Stadium, around Ford Island and back. I decided to participate after talking with my friend Vanessa and finding out her mother was recently diagnosed with Breast Cancer. Karen is also a 15 year Breast Cancer survivor. With all the people in my life recently getting, dying of, or beating/surviving ANY type of cancer, I thought it was too much of an opportunity
to let pass. There is not much I can do for my friends, their families, and my family while I'm "stranded" out here on an island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, so this is how I decided to do my part. I helped raise over $525 for our "team" - the Waiokeola Walkers (the church is called Waiokeola UCC), and over $230,000 for the day among all the participants and donations! Itwas a great experience, and for the cherry on top we got to walk around Ford Island which is rarely open to the public (it's a military zone). The bridge that leads to Ford Island goes straight passed the USS Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor, so I got to see and take a lot of pictures of that (you can find them all on Facebook).
Like I said, it's only the second day of October ('Okakopa), and I'm excited for what the next 29 days will hold! :)
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