Good Faith Business Practices: WeDrink Bottles for America's Economic Health

In 2005, Americans spent $9.8 billion on bottled water, according to the Beverage Marketing Corporation analysis.

Image Source: Google

That's right, I'm gonna go ahead and use the CNN/NBC/FOX tactic to let the weight of big numbers really fall by reiterating that this is 9,800 Million dollars we are wasting on a product that isn't even any better than tap water.

Yeah I said it, Tap Water! It costs $0.002 per gallon (up to 10,000 times less than bottled water), and has stricter safety and health standards than bottled water!

If there's anything that's gonna pull America out of the economic rut we've found ourselves in, it's by thinking of ourselves as one big family unit, with money coming in and out amongst other countries. And the more we can trim from our family budget, the better off we'll all be.

This is one of the main reasons that Dan and I founded WeDrink. We didn't want to start a business that would ultimately just move money around between folks, creating little net value.

I'll spare you all the rant full of econ jargon by keeping it short and sweet: We wanted to build a business that would also have an immense positive net impact on the economic health of a great many Americans.

By choosing to boycott the waste of plastic bottled water, and instead drinking tap water and taking it to go in a reusable stainless steel water bottle, you could be saving $1,000 to $2,000 per year on bottled water costs for a family of four.

And that's just the beginning. We have yet to discuss the environmental impact of choosing stainless steel bottles over plastic (see: The Great Pacific Gyre Garbage Patch), or let alone the immense charitable benefits of WeDrink (the sole characteristic that lets us stand out from all the other stainless steel bottle companies).

But those are all stories for another day. For now, let's just think about all the money we could be saving.

Best,
-Andrew Read More

Goals for the New Year

Never really have been one for absurd and ultimatum-esque New Year's resolutions (ie "I'm gonna eat X servings of veggies, do X pushups, give X dollars to a homeless dude, and hug a baby; EVERY DAY this year") . I think we can all admit stuff like that doesn't last into February.

No, no. I'm more of a Goal kinda guy. Realistic heights to jump for. So let's see what we've got.



WeDrink Goal: Establish a concrete marketing strategy. Not just some promotions, I'm talking a variety of channels that drive continuous quality traffic to the WeDrink website, helping to spread the good word of the stainless-steel water bottles that raise money for water-relief charities.





Physical Fitness Goal: Be able to do the 30-muscleup (no that's not me) Crossfit workout in 4 rounds or less. OK I admit this one will be tough, probably gonna come down to the December 31st wire here... If this ends up being not humanly possible, I'll settle for by the summer being able to do a good iron cross.



CMP Goal: Launch the CMP Campaign. Collaborative Micro-Philanthropy. This really is the heart of all that I do and think about nearly every day. The problem is, it takes a good 2-3 hours to even begin to explain all the philosophy, economics, and even religion that goes into CMP. The past 9 months I've been working on bringing that down to a 3 minute conversation. I've saved up enough money to only work my day-job for 3 days a week, and devote the remaining 2 and weekends to putting this all together for the next 2-3 months. Be expecting some CMP posts in the near future.

Talent Goal: Reach the point of playing piano fluidly with both hands. Broke out my late-90's Casio keyboard not long ago and started playing whenever I had the free time. I know it'll be something I'll need to dedicate a little more to, but having a roommate in love with guitar should make the overall music learning process easier.


I suppose I can think of a few other things I want to accomplish for the year, but these are definitely the big ones. And I'll definitely be posting updates whenever a milestone is reached, so keep an eye out!

-Andrew Read More

4th Annual Lafayette River Santafest

Santa Wakeboarding YouTube Video

It started as somewhat of a dare. Well, sort of.

Chris Molligan, stubborn a-hole as he can be, has been one of my best friends since we were just 4 years old. He's actually saved my life. No joke, but that's a story for another day.

Wakeboarding has always been a serious hobby of ours, and every year we'd stretch our limits on dealing the cold, starting sooner and refusing to retire the boats later and later each season.

We eventually reached the point where December and January were the only months we had yet to get in the water.

Four years ago we decided to bridge this gap.

"Come on man we gotta do it. It's December, so I'll wear like a Santa hat, it'll be sweet," I told Chris. Not 10 seconds later: "Wait no, no forget that. I'm buying a Santa SUIT."

And thus, the Lafayette River Santafest was born.

Yes, I admit, there is a wetsuit hiding under the Santa Suit to keep me from dying if I fall in the water. But that doesn't do jack to save my hands and feet from ending up in terrible, terrible pain...

After a couple years of doing this we decided "Hey, we could really make something special out of this. Really do it right."

So last year we turned it into a charity fund-raising event. We'd do it every Christmas Eve at 2PM~ish, and we would leave fliers at every single house on our section of the Lafayette River, letting families know when and where it would all go down, and what charity we were helping.

Last year we raised money for The Park Place School, a small privately-funded school for high-risk youths. This year we supported The Elizabeth River Project, an organization that works on multiple fronts to restore the quality of the Elizabeth and Lafayette Rivers.

We don't personally collect any money for it, just give the organizations' web address, so I have no idea how much, if any, money we've actually raised. But the crowds of kids on the docks get bigger every year, and I have an absolute blast doing it, so it won't be ending anytime soon.

-Andrew
Read More

When Faced with both No Options and Unlimited Options: Where to Go?

So, I don't know if you all had noticed this, but apparently theres been this weird, inexplicable decrease in job availability. Something about consumer confidence and credit-markets not looking as fit as they used to... (but seriously, if I hear one more commerical start off with the tagline "in this economy...", I'm gonna lose it).

Long story short, the post-college job and both backups I had lined up all fell through. The last two months have consisted of me scrambling to pull together a decent day-job and place to live, while squeezing as much time in as I can for WeDrink.

But it isn't all so bad. As long as I make enough to feed myself and have a place out of the rain, and I can put time into WeDrink, I'll be happy. With so little required, my options are wide open.

The question is: Where will I go, and from where will the journey begin?

My only limitation is that I need occasional internet access to run WeDrink; and with internet cafe's gracing even the streets of Mongolia, I don't think that will end up being much of a limitation. So where to go and what to do? I've considered working in body-shop learning to fix motorcycles, then biking across America, or even the Silk Road through Asia. The Peace Corps is looking rather promising as well. I've also thought about hiking the Appalachian Trail, or even just straight up copying the guy from Into The Wild.

Cliche? Yes. Still awesome? Totally.

The furthest front-burner adventure idea, however, involves not open roads or mountains, but oceans.

Basically, 4 buddies and I are thinking about restoring a 50 foot sailboat, sailing down the East Coast doing various jobs and giving back to each community as we go. And here's where it gets interesting: once we pass Florida we'll make stops at various ports in the Carribean on down to South America to build low-cost, high-efficiency houses for those less fortunate.

"But Andrew, this sounds like a rather inefficient method of getting charity work done." A valid point, and one we're sincerely evaluating. I'll elaborate more on our plans and goals in a later post, but I just wanted to give you all a taste of the idea.

I warmly welcome any thoughts or suggestions for the sailing craziness or, even better, other ridiculous lifestyle suggestions for me to undertake.

Best,

-Andrew

Read More

How to Eat a Scorpion: and why it makes for great revenge

I'd been planning on doing a post about eating scorpions for some time now.

Long story short, a couple months ago I had a really bad reaction to a spider bite. I also just so happened to know a local tapas bar(Bardo in Norfolk, Virginia) with a scorpion dish on the menu. So I figured, what better way to exact revenge on the spider population than to eat one of their arachnid cousins?

Apparently it's really not that bad. They're served all intact, just like a crab or lobster, and taste almost like a shrimp (or at least that's what you're supposed to convince yourself it tastes like).

So some friends and I call to make a reservation the other night, only to discover that Bardo took scorpion off the menu a couple weeks ago.

I was devastated.

The hostess felt bad though when I explained how stoked I had been about the scorpions. She explained that they at least still had the scorpion cage up front, they just weren't cooking them anymore.

After a failed attempt to convince her to cook it up anyway (I'll chalk it up to some health code...), I decide to compromise by returning home and firing up the old SNES.

That's right, I went there

Until next time, join me in the movement to get scorpions back on the menu at Bardo, and I'll put up some video-how-to of this unique treat.

Best,
-Andrew Read More

Adventures of WeDrink at All Good 2009, Day Four: At This Point We're Sleep-Deprived Zombies

Well, this was to be it. The last day, the last chance to spread the word of our charitable stainless steel bottles.




Saturday Night we saw Green-Man running around, so we just had to give him a free Green WeDrink Bottle.




I had gone to sleep somewhere between 4 and 4:30AM after the Umphrey's McGee concert, it having been the first time I'd left the booth since Wednesday. Woken up one final time by the heat and bright morning sun after just two hours of sleep, it was time get things cranking.

Sunday was to be huge. Primarily because it was the last day, and people didn't have to play the stretch-your-budget game anymore.

My new buddy Adam said it best, "well, with this leftover cash, I could either get a shiny rock or a t-shirt from over there, or I could get one of those steel bottles that, wait a second...10 years of clean water to a kid in Africa?! Done."

The charity aspect of WeDrink was finally starting to set in on a large scale. We'd had growing support all weekend long; but on Sunday, people really came through.

"It just makes sense, you know? Why not get something so useful, especially when it gives so much to charity," remarked my friend O.


Not let me tell you about O. This isn't a nickname, initial, or anything of that sort. 20 Years ago he legally changed his name to "O". It's a long, and interesting story as to how this came about, and the exact details of which I can't remember (I blame the sleep deprivation, and don't wanna publish my fragmented version of the story, in case it turns out to be misrepresentation), but it had something to do with his Native-American heritage and the spirit energy of a particular animal.

All Good ended the weekend with Dark Star Orchestra and their world-famous covers of the Grateful Dead.

Suspenders-Man apparently liked Jayne's shoes

I'd been working 20+hour days since Wednsday, and WeDrink ended up losing money on the weekend, but we're still donating the $2922 we promised to our partnered charities PlayPumps International, The Chesapeake Bay Foundation, and Heal the Bay! (FYI, this is more money than Ethos Water contributes after selling over 58,000 of their bottles).

It was an amazing experience and an outstanding success in spreading the word of WeDrink: our stainless-steel bottles with serious donations to charity. I met so many wonderful people along the way, each with their own unique stories and input for helping the cause. But most importantly, I couldn't have done it without the help and support of my friends.

Sam, Jenna, Jayne, and Steve (in the picture at the top) I am in your debt

I look forward to seeing you all at the next WeDrink adventure,
-Andrew


Related Posts:
Adventures of WeDrink at All Good 2009, Day One
Adventures of WeDrink at All Good 2009, Day Two
Adventures of WeDrink at All Good 2009, Day Three

Read More

Adventures of WeDrink at All Good 2009, Day Three: Why You Shouldn't Fear the Weatherman

I had been trying to not think about Saturday as it approached. All weather reports pointed to Saturday being a downpour. And not only that, apparently when it rains at Marvin's Mountaintop, it really rains. I'm talking complete ground saturation and instant mud sinking halfway up to your knees.

"Yeah man, last year was terrible. The rain was brutal for about four hours, but the wind man, the wind...people's tents were blowing around, getting picked up into the trees. We had pretty much been hit by a tsunami."

Damn, a tsunami? The passerby relating this story to us must have meant monsoon, or some other rain-related squall, because the thought of a tsunami in the mountains just blew all our minds for a few moments there.



Pretty sure the last time a tsunami hit West Virginia, Bruce Willis was in space, and Frodo Baggins was still just an amateur astronomer.





However, someone must have been looking out for us, because contrary to every radar continually telling us we were "just about to get dumped on", the rain never came. It got cloudy for a little while, but stayed fairly warm and nice throughout the afternoon and into the night.

This was a huge morale booster for all of us at the WeDrink booth, as a rainy mud-fest wouldn't really have helped our attempts to promote stainless-steel water bottles.

By Saturday we had also really gotten to know some of our frequent-flyer customers. Apparently offering free refills of ice water throughout a hot weekend-long event is a good way to see people a lot. Great people, and their great contraptions:

Wonderful. Just wonderful. I never got tired of seeing Dave and his hand-made WeDrink tote roll up to our tent for refills. He was also one of the most enthusiastic for the cause, telling everyone he could about our charity bottles.

Saturday night was also the only time I left the booth since we'd arrived Wednesday night: Umphrey's McGee was playing the main stage at 1am. They ended up jamming till almost 4am, and I stumbled back to my tent to crash until 6:45 when I'd wake for the last day at All Good...

Best,
-Andrew


Related Posts:
Adventures of WeDrink at All Good 2009: Day One
Adventures of WeDrink at All Good 2009: Day Two

Read More