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Monday, January 16, 2012

Frequently Asked Questions

#1 WHY ARE YOU DOING THE MONGOL RALLY? ARE YOU CRAZY?!

No, we are not crazy. Unless in your vocabulary “crazy” is a synonym for “FUN”! We are doing the Mongol Rally for a few different reasons:

1. To raise funds (our goal is $15,000!) for our two inspiring charities.

The Stephen Lewis Foundation (SLF), a Canadian NGO which supports community-level organizations that are turning the tide of HIV/AIDS in Africa by providing care and support to women, orphans, grandmothers and people living with HIV and AIDS.

and

The Lotus Children’s Centre, a Mongolian non-profit, non-government organisation that works with vulnerable children and families to provide the basic human rights of shelter, food and education.

2.  To have a completely amazing adventure. We are looking forward to being awestruck, experiencing new countries, conversing with locals, learning about different cultures and sharing our own experiences.

#2 WHAT CAN OTHER PEOPLE DO TO HELP?

You can help us “Canuck the Dots” and make this adventure happen!

There are a few ways to help:

1.   Donate to our charities online or by attend one of our fundraisers – our goal is to raise $15,000 for our two charities!

Online Donations:

Donate to The Stephen Lewis Foundation (Canadian taxpayers can get a tax receipt). More on the foundation here.

Donate to The Lotus Children's Centre (UK taxpayers can get a tax receipt). More on the Centre here.

Fundraisers – dates and details TBC

  • 2 Charity speed-dating events in Ottawa (Date TBC)
  • A “Canuck the Dots” fundraising event in Ottawa

2.   Provide the team with sponsorship – either monetary or in-kind donations are accepted!     

Sponsorship levels

These funds will go towards the cost of purchasing the vehicle and paying for gas along the way.  You will get exposure at our fundraising events, on the web and even on our car! All of the money donated to our charity links is going DIRECTLY to the charity. We are paying our travel expenses out of pocket, but you can help us to mitigate this a little!

Steppe 1
$150-350
·         your company name/logo on our website and Facebook page

Czech this out
$351 – $500
·         your logo on our rally car
·         your company name/logo on our website, Twitter and Facebook page

Crazy plan in the ‘stans
$501 - $1000
·         premium rally car logo space
·         your company name/logo featured at events, on our website, Twitter and Facebook page

Soar to Ulaanbaator
$1001 +
·         large space on our rally car reserved for your logo
·         your company name/logo featured at all events, on our website, twitter and Facebook page

In-kind Donations

For the silent auction at our fundraiser (date TBC)
·         Gift certificates, gift baskets, etc are much appreciated!

For our trip - there are a lot of things we’re going to need, so please contact us if you think that you can help us out. Items include, but are not limited to the, following:
·         A car!
·         Plane tickets or air miles to use towards plane tickets
·         Cell phone with roaming – to use for twitter and blog updates
·         Camping gear – light, collapsible and easy to set up tents, sleeping bags, folding chairs and table.
·         Small Canadian paraphernalia that we can give as gifts or use to bribe people!

Any other ideas are welcome!


#3 WHAT THE HECK IS A CANUCK ANYWAY?

Ca·nuck /kənʌk/ noun
informal : a person born, raised, or living in Canada : a Canadian

We will be representing the maple leaf with pride throughout our sojourn through the ‘stans.

#4 HOW ARE YOU PLANNING TO GET TO ULAANBAATAR?

As the 2012 Mongol Rally website explains:

The Mongol Rally isn't about comfort and it doesn't have a great deal to do with style, what we seek is adventure. The whole point is that it's difficult. Hence the one litre rule was born. To tackle the worst roads in the world you you need a chariot with an engine size of under 1 litre (ish). There is nothing like staring down the bonnet of a Nissan Micra at hundreds of miles of dirt track and foot-high rocks. For the Mongol Rally 2012 your car must be registered after January 2003.

We are still researching to find out which car would be best for us…and keeping our fingers crossed that someone might just donate one to the team!

Potential vehicles include:

Perodua Kelisa, FIAT Panda, Citroen C1, Perodua Kenari, Suzuki Swift, Citroen Saxo, FIAT Seicento, Citroen C2, Volkswagen Fox, Daewoo Matiz/ Chevrolet Matiz, Volkswagen Lupo, Hyundai Amica/ Atoz, Renault Twingo, Vauxhall Agila/ Opel Agila/ Suzuki Wagon R, Daihatsu YRV, Vauxhall Corsa/ Opel Corsa, Volkswagen Polo, FIAT 500, FIAT Punto, Peugeot 106, Nissan Micra, SEAT Ibiza, Toyota Yaris, Skoda Fabia, Renault Clio, Daihatsu Sirion/ Perodua MyVi, Suzuki Alto, Perodua Kancil, SEAT Arosa.

#5 WHAT COUNTRIES ARE WE PLANNING TO GO THROUGH?

The UK-Czech Republic route is fairly standard, but after Czeching out, Mongol Rally teams need to start making the hard decisions about the route (through Turkey? or Ukraine?). We are planning to travel from the Czech Republic south through Turkey and hopefully (depending on the security situation) through Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and finally…Mongolia.

We’ll be keeping an eye on the news and re-evaluate as necessary. Any travel tips or influential hookups for any of these countries would be much appreciated!


We would be happy to answer any other questions you might have!

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