Hi everyone!
My name is Mason McNulty and I’m at sophomore at Haverford College. I’m co-chair of the Positive Tracks Youth Ambassador Board, and it is such an honor to speak about Positive Tracks’ U23 Challenges Program. I am lucky enough to have piloted the **first ever** 2016 U23 Challenge and am currently planning another one this year at Haverford!
The Positive Tracks U23 Challenge Program, made possible in part by the Cabbadetus Foundation, was born with the belief that every member of my generation has something they truly care about; something that is worth putting in time, effort, and thought (plus, blood, sweat, and tears) into. I can tell you with 100% confidence that I believe this to be true.
This is the beauty of this platform. It can be modeled to fit the ambitions of anyone. This is incredible, especially for someone like me, who feels strong allegiance to a small girls’ school in Peru – not your standard charity.
When I was in high school, I was lucky enough to travel to The Chicuchas Wasi School. The school aims to educated the most impoverished and rural indigenous Andean girls in Cusco, Peru. When I was there, the girls told me that they needed a bus to get to school. Walking wasn’t safe because during heavy rain season the roads would wash out and girls would be left stranded. Furthermore, once the students started missing school, their parents began to value education less and less. That meant that a bus could literally be the differentiator between getting an education or being a child laborer.
Their story convinced me. I had found the thing that I cared about: the thing that I wanted to put my time, effort, and thought into. Although this is quite a dramatic example, almost everyone has had one of those “oh sh**” moments in their life where they realize, “Hey, there are people in need around me, and that makes me feel a certain way…. it makes me feel like I need to do something.”
My first fundraiser for the Chicuchas Wasi School wasn’t supported by Positive Tracks, but it was a huge success! Here’s what’s most important to understand about that experience: my desire to do good for the Chicuchas Wasi School did not die out once I had completed my fundraiser. I still thought about the girls every day. I still knew there were other things they needed. I wasn’t done.
Fortunately, during my first semester at Haverford, Positive Tracks was designing the U23 Challenges Program, which allows youth to choose ANY cause they want to support. I was honored to be asked to design the first ever U23 Challenge. I teamed up with a Dartmouth Student who shared a connection to the Chicuchas Wasi School, and together we designed a dodgeball tournament. It was small-scale, but it proved that every single participant we had was someone who wanted to be there and wanted to do good. They were willing to put in their time for something that really mattered.
There’s an assumption floating around out there that my generation doesn’t really care about anything besides themselves, their Instagrams, how many likes they get on their Facebook profile pictures, etc. This just isn’t true. I believe that my generation innately has the desire to do good – they just don’t know how, or they don’t think that doing good is something to be proud of. What is special about Positive Tracks is that they MAKE room for my generation to show we have philanthropic ambition and compassion. Positive Tracks makes the process of helping others easy. It also makes it cool.
It’s been almost two years since the first U23 Challenge, but my passion hasn’t died out, not even a little. I am so thrilled to be bringing the U23 Challenges Program to Haverford’s campus for our Annual 3K Joe Schwartz Walk/Run to benefit the ALS Association. Especially in college, where there are so many ways to sit back and be disengaged, I see proof that my generation is more than some people may think we are. Our fundraiser is already successful, with people signing up left an
d right for the walk/run and for participation in our side fundraisers. Even more importantly, I have had multiple peers approach me and ask about Positive Tracks because they too have things that they want to fundraise for.
To love Positive Tracks (like I do), is to buy into the idea that the youth generation has the motivation and desire to make change. They just need someone to show them how. That’s what Positive Tracks U23 Challenge does: it gives anyone the opportunity to fundraise for anything on any scale through any endeavor involving motion. My generation develops connections to things we care about very quickly – and that’s often what makes growing up hard. Positive Tracks makes caring easy.
That’s the other thing about my generation…if you make things easy, they will come running.
Mason McNulty, 19, Co-Chair Youth Ambassador Board
Mason In 140 Characters Or Less: Teammate; Cupcake Connoisseur; Never Leave The Office Before Your Boss; Strength To Lead, Faith To Follow