Adopt-a-Lock: Results and Pictures

Hi friends,

I'm happy to announce that Adopt-a-Lock campaign was a huge success! The eBay auctions ended last week, and I'm pleased to say that all auctions ended with bids, meaning that every dreadlock was adopted. Since the auctions ended on Wednesday and I was going to Knotty Boy on Friday to get my hair dyed, Thursday was a frenzy of trying to get everybody's color requests. On Friday morning, I went to Knotty Boy on Friday to get my hair dyed, which turned out to be almost a 9-hour process. The Knotty Boy gals were awesome. Not only did they do the entire job for free, but they seemed just as excited as me to be a part of Adopt-a-Lock. They're actually going to make a YouTube video of my visit, which pretty fun (if you want to be notified of its release, join their Myspace or Facebook group).

Okay, I feel like I'm about to start writing an epic novel here, so I'm going to go into bullet-point mode to keep it concise:

- Although the auctions are done, if you still want to give to the Invisible Children (and double the amount through my company's matching program), let me know in the next few days
- So far, over $1800 has been raised through the eBay auctions and people just wanting to contribute. Wow!
- This turns into over $3600 after my company's matching gift!
- Hundreds of people have learned about Invisible Children through conversation, emails, word-of-mouth, Facebook, and coworkers of coworkers of coworkers (true story!)
- I'm going to keep my hair dyed for about 3 weeks, which has been a great opportunity to tell even more people about Invisible Children
- I've attached just a couple photos of the finished product, but check out this web album to get the whole story.

- Read this: in a few weeks, I'll be having a party at my house and will be showing the Invisible Children movie that started it all. This is the movie that introduced me to the dire situation in Uganda and has been on my mind ever since. If you'd like to come, let me know and I'll make sure to invite you once the details are figured out.

Thanks again for all of your help, support, and prayers. Your generosity will change lives.

AaL featured on Invisible Children!

So I'm too tired to say much about it... just check it out: http://www.invisiblechildren.com/blog/2008/07/16/use-what-youve-got/. I like their title, "Use What You've Got." It reminds me of the story Jesus told about the 3 servants who were given money to invest while their master was gone. What that story means to me is that one day, we're all going to give an account about what we did here on Earth with what we had (talents, treasures, time). We have what we have for a reason. I know this might sound crazy to some, but I really hope that I've been given some opportunities that I never would've had if I didn't have dreads. I've talked with people that were probably drawn to me by the fact that I have dreads. A simple example is telling people trying to sell me drugs that I don't need them to be happy, which seems to confound most of them. Simple things, perhaps, but I think they're significant and haven't just happened by chance. I think I've also gotten more free food since the dreads, which is probably nontrivial in the scheme of life but still pretty awesome! :-) So much for a short entry...

Who is peppermintcpatty?

So I've been checking the status of the auctions these past few days... a LOT. It's been exciting to see them start to get bids, 1 by 1. Most of the eBay names I have a pretty good idea of who they are (thank you all!), but one that I don't know is peppermintcpatty. But the story goes even deeper, my friends. She (I'm assuming it's a she... sorry if it's a guy named Patrick who really likes his altoids!) is actually bidding on two locks right now. One a few days ago, and another one today. Who is this mystery bidder? Do I know her? And will she bid again tomorrow to complete her trifecta? Stay tuned folks...

The auctions are up!

Check out this link. If you want to be added to the email list, just let me know!

Email Synopsis

Hi friends,

If you haven't heard yet, I'm putting together an awesome event to raise money and awareness for Invisible Children. They were the first group that brought the sufferings of the Ugandan people to the American consciousness. Since their beginning in 2003, Invisible Children has been working to helping to free some of more than 30,000 children that have been captured by militia groups and forced into becoming soldiers. Recently, the level violence has been receding, but over 1.5 million people are still living in refugee camps. These camps are ridden with disease and malnutrition, but the refugees are virtually trapped because they lack the resources they would need to return home. Invisible Children continues to help these people by providing schooling and other resources to enable them to return to their villages with their needs met and hope restored.

After hearing about these children, I have been looking for a way to help. This what I came up with: in order to raise money for Invisible Children, I am going to auction off my dreadlocks on eBay! "That's crazy!" you might be saying, and I'd agree with you :-) But crazy or not, it's true. I have been in contact with Invisible Children, and they have shared their enthusiasm about this novel fundraising method. So here's how it's going to work.

- I'm going to put up each of my dreads up on eBay, so there will be 35 individual auctions. I'll be starting the auction on Wednesday, July 16th.
- Then (here's where you come in!!!) donors bid big money on eBay. Once I put the eBay posting up, I'll send you the link.
- If you win a dread, congratulations! By adopting a lock, you can tell me what to do with it: dye it whatever color you want, send me beads/charms to put on it, ... be creative :-)
- On July 25th, I will be going up to Knotty Boy salon up in Vancouver, BC. I have told them about Adopt-a-Lock and they're so excited about it that they're going to dye all my dreads for free! They will dye each dread according to its winner's choice.
- I will then keep my dreads all crazy-colored (1-3 weeks depending on how much is raised, see my blog for details), and then cut them off.
- I will donate 100% of the profits (only subtracting the eBay fees) to Invisible Children.
- Also, the company I'm interning with this summer will match the gift amount 100%. So $1 raised = $2 for Invisible Children.
- Finally, all the auction winners will be emailed an official Adopt-a-Lock adoption certificate including a picture of their adopted dread and a personal thanks by me! Kind of like adopting a star, but way cooler. Come on, there are bazillions of stars and only 35 dreads! But similar to adopting a star, I'm not planning on actually sending my disembodied dreads to the winners. I'm kind of betting that most people won't actually want to be sent one in the first place. But that being said, if you really want your adopted dread, I will be happy to send it your way.

I think that sums up the Adopt-a-Lock campaign fairly well. For more details, please check out my Adopt-a-Lock blog or shoot me an email. I'd love to hear any questions/ideas/comments you might have. Once I get the auction up and running, I'll send out another email. If this email bugged you and you don't want any new messages, let me know and I'll take you off the list. Conversely, if you were sent this message by someone other than me and you want updates, send me an email! I won't send out a ton of messages: probably just one when the auction starts and a summary message when it's all done to tell you how much Adopt-a-Lock raised!

Finally, please forward this to everyone you think would be interested and blog/Digg/Facebook/Twitter my blog!

Thanks,

Brian King

The hair colors!

So here are the hair colors! Note: it looks like Knotty Boy will be able to do one color per dread. But if you want more than one color, feel free to buy as many dreads as you want :-)

(starting with the bottom row from left to right)
1. Bad Boy Blue
2. Mystic Heather
3. Electric Lizard
4. Pillarbox Red
5. Electric Lava
6. Atomic Turquoise
(second row)
7. Ultra Violet
8. Vampire Red
9. Tiger Lily
10. Purple Haze
11. Flaming
(third row)
12. After Midnight Blue
13. Enchanted Forest
14. Shocking Blue
15. Cotton Candy Pink (top row)
16. InfraRed
17. New Rose

And we're in business!

So I've been looking for a place to donate their hair dyeing services for the cause, and I'm happy to say that Knotty Boy lock shop up in Vancouver BC has stepped up! They were actually the ones who created my dreads in the first place. Not only are they a really nice group of people up there (is it just me, or are Canadians way more friendly that Americans on average?) but they want to use their talents and resources to make a difference in the world. When I told their manager about the idea, she was stoked about the idea! They even want to make a YouTube video about it. So I'll have more details to come, but in the meantime, tell all your friends! The auction will be starting later this week!