Summer Newsletter 2022
July 11, 2022
View the original formatting of this newsletter here!
It’s the first summer season in a few years that’s reminding us of how things used to be. While we’re not out of the pandemic woods yet, our annual cycles for our grant programs and Black Rock City camp are ramping back up with force. While this feels like a welcome relief, we remind ourselves to pause, and continue asking some of the questions that have been present these past years: “Am I taking care of myself in a way that I might be resourced to take care of others?”
“How might my community build the resilience needed to thrive through whatever challenges might come next?”
“What is most important to us as a community? What is most important to me as an individual?”
We know these questions will continue to serve us- because no matter who we are or where we live, our communities will experience a “disaster” again. Let’s find our inner and outer systems of resilience together.This BWB newsletter is, as usual, chock full. Read on to learn about offering programming with BWB in BRC, the first Civic Ignition Grant winners of 2022, ongoing work in Ukraine, a wood shop serving refugees in Greece, our new BWB Coordinator, and more! Stay connected and let us know what you’re up to in the world. Join the BWB Volunteers Worldwide Group for regular updates, and consider donating to BWB. We are community-led, and community supported. Thank you for being you.
Join Us: Collaborate with BWB in Black Rock City: Call for Programming Applications
BURNERS WITHOUT BORDERS – BLACK ROCK CITY WELCOMES YOU HOME
Are you a speaker, maker, or facilitator? A performer, musician, or storyteller? Do you have something you want to share with the Burning Man community? BWB camp invites you to participate in our open programming call!Our camp is a physical manifestation of the 10 Principles of Burning Man. We strive to be a nexus that brings in innovative minds and doers of Burning Man by offering a place to relax and meet others seeking a similar experience. The BWB camp stage holds a variety of programming including speaker series and panels, maker workshops, meetups, performances, and more for all citizens of Black Rock City. If we are not able to platform your programming, we may be able to connect you with other stages and spaces in Black Rock City.Tell us what you would like to bring to our BWB stage in 2022 by filling out our Programming Participation Application form HERE.
Join us: Year 3 Burning Man Sustainability Update 7/20
The climate emergency impacts everything we value as humans and as members of the global Burning Man community. That’s why we published our 2030 Sustainability Roadmap and established our goals to Handle Waste Ecologically, Be Regenerative, and Be Carbon Negative. It’s possible that humans could address climate change and create a new paradigm if every city, organization, and land project established and followed the three goals we’re using.
Join us July 20th for a call on the three-year anniversary of the roadmap. We will host a Zoom call where you can join the chat and stream the call on Facebook Live.Register here or join the FB event
July 20th from 12-1:30pm Pacific Time
Report Out: Civic Ignition Grant Winners Announced
Congratulations to our 2022 Multi Regional Summit (MRS) Civic Ignition Grantees! We received 8 grant submissions. A huge thank you to the local community members who donated an additional $2,000 towards the overall funding pool. These grants were discussed in a consensus-based workshop with 16 participant leaders from the Northern California and Nevada region of the United States with 4 projects receiving funding.
Congratulations to the Grantees:
Jessi Sprocket Janusee’s The Immigrant Aid Print Project
(Reno, Nevada USA)
Doris Romero Baccala’s Community Support Project
(BWB Sacramento Region and community of Perquin, El Salvador)
Find ongoing funding opportunites for this project HERE
Eric Semukula & Issac Mutalimundesi’s Lambano Project
(Mt Elgon Uganda and Bean Grounded Placer County Project)
Sacramento Valley Spark with Tutu’s for Pride
(Sacramento, California USA)Learn more about selection criteria and all of these great projects above HERE!
Report Out: Meet our BWB Program Coordinator- Jaymie aka Sticky!
We are delighted to announce our new BWB Program Coordinator, Jaymie “Sticky” Braun. Growing up along the Highway 80 corridor, Jaymie recalls seeing a strange annual pilgrimage of dust-filled oddities traveling down the freeway. From a young age she had an immediate curiosity, each year asking more and more people ….”Who are those people and what are they doing?” It wasn’t until the early 2000’s that she found out, and it would take another eight years before she found friends that had been to Burning Man and offered to take her. During her first week on playa in 2009, she vowed never to miss another event. She had found her home. Like many other Burners, she found herself fascinated by the demonstration of human potential. Her life outside the playa quickly transformed.
Jaymie is a lifelong traveler who has found herself living and working in Spain, Bali, The West Indies and Panama. In 2012, she moved to Costa Rica and spent the better part of a decade seeking sustainable alternatives to modern life. She has actively volunteered for many different regional community events along with her local BWB chapter and local arts organizations. We are delighted to have Sticky as part of our team as she brings her own style of enthusiasm and fun wherever she goes. She will be camping with us at the BWB in 2022 and hopes to meet and connect with other BWB community members on playa! She loves chatting with people who are actively engaged in creating the change they seek in their community and around the globe…and dancing…she loves dancing.
Report Out: Ongoing updates re: Burners Responding to Ukraine
Since the start of 2022, we have seen Burners all across the Ukraine region (and the world) creatively step forward in their response to the ongoing war in Ukraine. Burners Without Borders is tracking and amplifying initiatives on our Burners Responding to Ukraine community page on our website. Visit this page to learn about grassroots community projects, mutual aid groups and other resources that have been created in response to the problems associated with this war. As we continue to learn about emerging projects and initiatives in the region, we hope you will consider supporting these Burner-lead projects.
Check out three highlighted initiatives below:
Toybridge Corp. Supports Displaced Children by Providing Toys
Toys provide comfort for children when access to recreation and levity is limited by the impact of war. ToyBridge is a delivery service ensuring toys arrive to the children directly. They also support refugee children in nearby countries such as Poland and Romania and provide school supplies to shelters. Toybridge Corp is a Burner- organized, public nonprofit 501(c)(3) that brings toys to kids in Ukraine. Toybridge aims to make a bridge of understanding and peace through the innocence and love embodied in toys for children. They are working to publish a short film about the war and how it has impacted the over 1 million displaced children. Join the Toybridge Facebook group HERE.
Call to ACTION: Volunteers Needed! Toybridge Corp is in need of assistance with logistics and navigation as well as partners who are able to work in operations centers on the Romania/Ukraine border.
The Sails of Freedom Foundation Providing Ongoing Ambulances, Vehicles, and Now Bicycles for Ukraine
Stichting Zeilen van Vrijheid (The Sails of Freedom Foundation) is a grassroots humanitarian organization that emerged in the aftermath of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The Foundation sends ambulances and other emergency vehicles, filled with medicines, medical devices, and other humanitarian aid, to Ukraine.
Since March 2022, the Foundation has sent 80 equipped and loaded ambulance cars to Ukraine including three neonatal ambulances, two pediatric ambulances, one medical bus and one fire truck. Now a severe fuel crisis is raging in Ukraine and many people are unable to buy gas for their cars. The Sails of Freedom Foundation are now collecting Dutch bikes and sending them to Ukraine for distribution across local volunteers and relocated people moving to the countryside. The humble bike has become an important part of their continued efforts in the region.Call to ACTION: To learn more about their needs and to donate please click HERE! WATCH this short video about some of the work they have been doing.Help amplify their work by commenting, liking and following Stichting Zeilen van Vrijheid (The Sails of Freedom Foundation) on Facebook and Instagram
Ukrainian Burners withdraw from Burning Man 2022 Camp, instead, create Kurenivka Kid’s Camp
Kurenivka is a community of Ukrainian artists, makers, musicians, DJs, technologists, photographers, videographers, designers, and other creative people. We are all united by Burning Man culture, as well as a desire to promote Ukrainian contemporary culture in Black Rock City. Instead of Burning Man, we have decided to organize the Kurenivka Kids Camp in the Carpathian Mountains this summer to support children affected by the trauma of war.This is a non-commercial, burning man-style kid’s camp that will include art, cooking, water sports, LNT values, DJ school, carpentry and fun for these children who are being affected by war. We are accepting donations so that this camp will be free to children and their mothers.Call to ACTION: Your donations will go directly to creating this burning man style camp for the children of Ukraine. To learn more about this kids camp and to donate please click HERE.
BWB Regional Updates
BWB Alberta (Canada)On May 14th, BWB Alberta participated in the annual Calgary riverwalk clean up. Our group spent 3 hours de-mooping an assigned area clean as part of a citywide beautification initiative. We proudly removed nearly 8 bags of trash through our efforts and had a great time enjoying the day with our four legged friends too!
BWB Bogotá (Colombia)We are so happy to share that we are expanding the scope of its first project, “Ikigai Explorers”!After five rounds of successful classes aimed at forming curiosity and discovering unconventional career paths, we decided to share three more vocational classes with our 30 beloved teenage beneficiaries: electrical engineering, cinematography, special effects design.All of our efforts are built on respecting the four criteria of the Ikigai (“life purpose” in Japanese). Once the students complete their chosen classes, we will organize one-on-one sessions with the kids to determine which of the eight paths they find most appealing. After this, we will begin a specialization phase, where we put together a three month long project with our Burner teachers!Let’s connect on Instagram: @burnerswithoutbordersbogota
You can make a big difference in our teens’ lives, even if you don’t speak Spanish!We are currently looking for experts in the following areas. Impact measurement, extra-curricular education for underprivileged populations and impactful storytellers for US crowdfunding platforms. GRACIAS COMUNIDAD!
BWB NYC amplifying aligned organization House of Good Deeds (USA)NYC Burner Nonprofit House of Good Deeds Blends the 10 Principles with Altruism. Every month since 2017, we have hosted free community service events in line with our mission: building community, leading by example, and improving the world through Altruism, one Good Deed at a time: everyone, everywhere, every day. We organize neighborhood deMOOPings, blood drives, community education classes, senior visits and more, but are most well known for rescuing and distributing literal tons of clothing, shoes, housewares, electronics, furniture, and food to groups and individuals in need. Every service we offer is free and is designed to encourage Communal Effort, Gifting, and Decommodification. Join us on Facebook and Instagram at @theHouseOfGoodDeeds.
OPPORTUNITY: Support the Habibi.Works Carpentry + Makerspace: serving the Katsikas refugee camp in Greece.
Habibi.works is a multi-use workshop serving community living in the refugee camp of Katsikas, Greece. They are looking for experts to strengthen the team and supervise the different working areas. Are you interested in joining? Please read through the introduction guide to understand better what the work would entail. Subsequently send an email on recruiting@soupandsocks.eu including the following information:-Your skills
-The working area you would like to work in
-Your past experience
-The time period you would like to join (beware, the minimum stay is three weeks)
-Your motivationThey’re biggest need for support is with the woodshop which is in constant, high demand for families and individuals. Can’t join in person? Support Habibi.works by following them and liking on Facebook and/or Instagram.Impact Highlights of Habibi.works:
“The Wood Workshop is by far one of the most frequented working areas. It allows people to create solutions for their daily life needs themselves. Therefore, at the end of a day’s work, a person living in the refugee camp won’t go home only with the object they have created (e.g. a bed for the newborn baby of the family) but also with the feeling of achievement, with the experience of having gotten active and created solutions themselves, with new skills and with new social connections and contacts they made in the process.”OPPORTUNITY: Join the ToyBridge Board (multiple opportunities)The ToyBridge Project (mentioned above) is growing their volunteer board. See below for two opportunities:1) ToyBridge is filling the external audit board. The board members attend an annual meeting once yearly in January in San Juan PR. Interested applicants can message a little bio (under 1/2 page) to info@toybridge.org to learn more. Previous board experience is not required.2) The ToyBridge Experiences Board brings together an eclectic group of 3 to 5 international relief and development professionals with 10+ years experience in any combination of experience of NGO, non-profit, Diplomatic, UN, or military work. This Board advises the 3 ToyBridge Directors on opportunities, challenges, and best-practices related to the mission of ToyBridge as provider of moments of joy to children of war. To express interest: info@toybridge.org.
BWB is on Telegram
Burners Without Borders is always seeking the best communication strategies to stay in touch with our global community.
In 2022 BWB will experiment with this announcement-only messaging group. You are invited to iterate with us. Follow the link to explore. We will share updates, participation opportunities, and emergent responses: https://t.me/+Qs6HhPPJS6owODVh
What We’re Listening To: Dignity Displaced from Solidarity Engineering
Podcast Dignity Displaced focuses on explaining why so many people are making the dangerous journey to the southern US border and what exactly is happening at the border now through sharing stories directly from people living or working in humanitarian crises as well as interviews with experts, leaders, and advocates from all over the world. Listen now on Spotify.
Consider Making a Donation to BWB
BWB is funded through BRC ticket sales and donations. Following two years without ticket sales, we are more reliant than ever on the generosity of those who have the means to share.BWB exists because of YOU. Your generous support and participation over the years enables this creative community to accomplish so much around the world. BWB is known for helping people solve real problems by daring to experiment and iterate in challenging environments.
The unique gifts this community brings to the international stage are transforming what people think is possible. Thank you for all the contributions you bring, money is just one way to support BWB.To continue doing the work, we do need your help.
To donate to the continued success of BWB, click here.
Any amount that you can give will help us each our goals, and lets us know our work has impact.Thank you!- The BWB Team
Stay Connected with BWB:
– BWB on Facebook
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– BWB Soundcloud
– BWB Youtube
– BWB Twitter
– BWB Instagram
– Learn how to make your own BWB Project