Construction Recovery Plan

To recover from not getting the 60K construction grant, we are asking our loyalest supporters to contact possible donors for help. Send letters to friends and family, anything which will help.

Here's a sample letter that I (Brianna Kufa) sent to a few of my friends to solicit donations for the construction recovery plan. Feel free to cut and paste whatever you want:

Sample Letter
So as many of you know, I just got back from a farm in Missouri (see opensourceecology.org) where they are changing the world. The idea is to redesign the 50 most necessary machines for modern society and open source them, so anyone can get the plans for free online. Check out the leader Marcin's TED talk to get a better idea of the organization, Open Source Ecology: (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GEMkvT0DEk)

Not only is the movement environmentally friendly, but it promotes commerce as well. People are free to use our plans as they choose and can start a business manufacturing our product. In fact, I plan to start manufacturing the Compressed Earth Brick Presses next year. Theres a lot of interest in our products.

I'm doing all I can to see the movement succeed; Im working with my grandfathers business to prototype the Ironworker, the Well Rig, the Baler, and the Backhoe. I also plan on returning to the farm in January or Feburary to help prototype there. Marcin asked me to email friends and supporters to ask for donations. Anyone who knows me must know how hard it is for me to ask anyone to donate to anything, so let this speak to my confidence in the message and the potency of the organization.

They are about to begin construction of the new workshop and a 3000 Sq.foot house. Almost all of the materials used will be taken from the land onsite (including bricks made from the soil, hay baled from our land, and lumber cut using our new dimensional sawmill) so the estimated construction costs are about 2$ per square foot. This is absolutely unheard of for green construction, and its incredibly insulated, at relatively low man hours for construction. There was supposed to be a 60K construction grant coming in, but it never did, so we are in emergency mode trying to raise the money. We need 4-5K more within the next few weeks to be able to finish construction before winter comes.

If you're the type that donates money, this is the organization to give to. Please chip in. It's not to "save the africans" its to improve the lives of everybody. <embed allowScriptAccess="always" src="http://widget.chipin.com/widget/id/7394541eab8ad73d" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="234" height="60"></embed>

Thanks for your time in reading this, I hope you find Open Source Ecology as compelling as I do. If you have any questions about OSE, Im glad to answer them. Brianna