PSA: SNOWBOARDS FOR KASHMIR

[boltonoutlaw]

Yes, I'm click pimping, but it is for a good cause, and you can help without consequence to you or your online privacy.*

Your help is needed for people who will utilize the equipment & coaching our program will provide. And while I openly seek the participation of the large audience the Causes application provides through Facebook, it's especially meaningful to find support at TGR among individuals who also feel deeply passionate about winter sports.

These are people like you, though halfway around the world, who we are trying to help, and here is our program in a nutshell:

1. Purchase & ship a rental fleet to Gulmarg (25 snowboards, 75 pairs boots, 75 pairs bindings) to employ local (Kashmiri) instructors.
2. This rental fleet will be used commercially & charitably. Instructors will teach visitors for profit, and will teach local youth for free.
3. Rental fees from paying visitors will service debt on the purchase of the rental fleet. Rental fees are waived for free lessons.

This is how a simple click will help:

People like yourselves are in the first tier of membership, and may feel the most passionate about this cause, but among the least able to donate financially. No problem. Your foundation supports the second tier of membership from among we are more likely to find a corporate sponsor, or a donor who is impressed both by the cause, but also the audience it has attracted.

Coming soon in real life: Snowboards For Kashmir, A Non-Profit Corporation, will be incorporated as a 501(c)(3) educational, charitable, international amateur sports organization in the State of Vermont, USA. Armed with this and an EIN # from the IRS, SFK will be able to solicit donations, and we 100% intend to seek future financial support.

As members of SNOWBOARDS FOR KASHMIR you would be included in any net cast to solicit funding but you can opt not to donate, that in no way diminishes your support. If you believe that SFK deserves encouragement,

Please click this link & join to show your support: SNOWBOARDS FOR KASHMIR

The crew from 2009:

[samthaman]

I dunno about snowboards, I'd support skis for kashmir, but a snowboarder cut me off once...

[boltonoutlaw]

I'd support skis for kashmir...

Sorry about the DB, but here, you're in luck: http://skis4kashmir.org/

[Imz]

Definitely down with the skis4kashmir- I wonder if they're accomplishing anything- Events and Media section is pretty sparse...

[boltonoutlaw]

12 JULY 2010: Snowboards For Kashmir, A Non-Profit Corporation, is incorporated as a 501(c)(3) educational, charitable, international amateur sports organization in the State of Vermont, USA.

[danimal's dead]

I have several perfectly good snowboards that have been given to me that I never ride, I also have a brand new pair of burton bindings I never use, can i donate that stuff, I'd be happy to send it to you if you guys pay the shipping.

[boltonoutlaw]

I have several perfectly good snowboards that have been given to me that I never ride, I also have a brand new pair of burton bindings I never use, can i donate that stuff, I'd be happy to send it to you if you guys pay the shipping.

Check your Inbox for PM.

[mtl_ripper]

FKNA and giv'er!

[boltonoutlaw]

19 July 2010: Snowboards For Kashmir, A Non-Profit Corporation, has registered its own PayPal account to receive open donations. Thank you in advance. Donations are made to: snowboards4kashmir@yahoo.com*

To go directly to PayPal please click: https://www.paypal.com/

Suggested donations:
$25 - Buys a full-day lift pass at the Gulmarg Gondola (Stage 1 & 2).
$8 - Buys a single-ride lift pass at the Gulmarg Gondola (Stage 2).
$2 - Buys a single-ride lift pass at the Gulmarg Gondola (Stage 1).

*100% of your donation will be channelled to purchase tickets for Kashmir snowboarders in training.

[samthaman]

Bump -

Interesting article in the LA times about the situation in Kashmir right now. Sounds pretty shitty, it's been heating up a lot since I was there in the winter.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationwo...,1994957.story

Reporting from Srinagar, India — Imagine being cooped up in your house for a day, or maybe even a week, unable to work, attend school, buy groceries, visit a doctor. Then imagine months of this, year after year, going back to 1990.

That's the reality for residents of the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir, who have been forced for decades to navigate work stoppages, curfews, militant incursions and crackdowns.

Even as politicians, bureaucrats and bedecked commanders argue, seemingly endlessly, over the future of a divided region that has sparked two wars between India and Pakistan since 1947, it's the ordinary people who have suffered the most.

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"I can't buy anything," said Jalah, 50, a day laborer who uses one name, clutching her few grubby bank notes. "I've gone to the market four times, but nothing's open. And when you find something, the prices are jacked way up."

Constant work disruptions — 1,560 days over the last two decades by some estimates, at $50 million in lost output a day — force Kashmiris to find unique, sometimes ingenious, ways of coping.

Because they never know when government or separatist demands will force another shutdown, many families keep at least a month's supply of rice, flour, sugar and other staples on hand.

Such stockpiling also dovetails with a history of self-sufficiency, born of living in a mile-high valley where snow blocks the passes for months, and with a tradition of hospitality that dictates preparation of a lavish feast on short notice for any visitors who might arrive.

"It's the Kashmiri culture," said Usman Ahmad, an aid worker in Kashmir with Mercy Corps, a charity group. "We're kind of like squirrels."

For the 20% of the population living hand to mouth, however, such a luxury is impossible.

"Stockpiling, that's for rich people," said Mohammad Yusef Mir, 75, a tea-wallah, boiling a vat of sweet milk tea over a gritty Bunsen burner. His strategy: Skirt the shutdowns whenever possible.

When a work stoppage is called, he'll wait a few hours, then cautiously lift his metal gate and start serving tea. Sometimes he pays the price. Last week, police beat the septuagenarian with long sticks, leaving a foot-long bruise on his back, when he didn't close fast enough for their liking.

"What can we do?" he asked, smoking a hookah beside a heap of fried potatoes with an unnatural, near-psychedelic yellow tint. "If we don't work, we can't eat."

Other shop owners, particularly those selling perishables such as milk and vegetables, might open at midnight and close at dawn, while most police and protesters are asleep — part of a longstanding game of cat and mouse. Elsewhere, community and religious charities in the Muslim-majority valley organize food kitchens during periods of relative calm.

But these are stop-gap measures, leaving day-worker Jalah's family and others with little choice but to eat less. "We're getting by on rice and salt," she said.

When the violence ebbs, residents race to ATMs and shops, as happened July 4. After a tight curfew was reimposed the next day, however, Srinagar once again looked as though it had been hit by a neutron bomb, its buildings intact but its streets largely devoid of people, except for an occasional figure scampering rodent-like along shuttered storefronts.

When children are sick or lack milk, residents say, people have little choice but to break curfew. But they're often helped by strangers at a moment's notice.

In Srinagar's Batmaloo neighborhood on a recent sunny morning, a paramilitary patrol crept along an alley. A few hours earlier, its high-powered weapons had killed a government worker walking past protesters on his way to work, according to family and residents. Almost seamlessly, three women in the path of the patrol melted into a walled-off courtyard, out of danger.

"If there's trouble, all Kashmiris let you in," said Mir, the tea-wallah. "It's only human."

Not surprisingly, children cooped up for days grow frustrated and stressed. "They inevitably start going crazy," said Javed Ahmed Rather, 45, a pharmacist.

Faced with frequent school closures, some families hire tutors, others home-school. Some students thrive, such as Faesal Shah, 26, the son of a man killed by militants. Shah earned the top score in India's civil service exam this year. But most parents say their children don't get a good education despite all they shell out.

"We still have to pay the school fees, whether they go or not," said Bashir Ahmed Dar, 52, a hotel worker and father of three teenagers. "It's difficult."

Kashmir's social fabric is also affected by the turmoil, with fewer family visits and more last-minute cancellations of weddings or graduation parties. "Due to prevailing circumstances, the invitation for the marriage ceremony of my daughter scheduled on 7th and 8th July 2010 stands canceled," read a recent notice — one of many —in the Greater Kashmir newspaper. "Inconvenience caused is regretted."

This month, a wedding party was forced to spend the night outdoors at a checkpoint near Baramulla, 30 miles from Srinagar, after soldiers blocked their way despite their reportedly having a curfew pass.

Families say it would be much easier and cheaper to announce such cancellations by text message, but local authorities have sometimes blocked the service as a security precaution. When the Indian prime minister visited Kashmir recently, all 6 million residents of the region had their cellphone service cut, and few homes in India have land lines.

"We couldn't call anyone, even in an emergency," said Saquib Nazeer, 25, a Srinagar resident. "What kind of a life is this? I pay for the service but only get it when the government wants me to have it."

Getting cash can be another challenge. Wary of police restrictions and angry mobs if it used armored cars, J&K Bank bought two ambulances to fill its ATMs. Once filled, machines meant to dispense for a couple of days sometimes empty in an hour.

"If you get hit by a stone, or a bullet, go to the hospital and don't have cash, you'll get nowhere," said the bank's chairman, Haseeb Drabu.

[boltonoutlaw]

27 JULY 2010: Snowboards For Kashmir, A Non-Profit Corporation, has gone live at its site http://snowboardsforkashmir.com

Donations to SFK can be easily made using the PayPal button on the main page.* Suggested donations:
$30 - Buys a full-day lift pass at the Gulmarg Gondola (Stage 1 & 2).
$10 - Buys a single-ride lift pass at the Gulmarg Gondola (Stage 2).
$5 - Buys a single-ride lift pass at the Gulmarg Gondola (Stage 1).

Snowboards For Kashmir, A Non-Profit Corporation, is a 501(c)(3) educational, charitable, international amateur sports organization registered in the State of Vermont, USA.

*100% of your donation will be channelled to purchase tickets for Kashmir snowboarders in training.

[abonello]

The situation isn't improving in Kashmir as yet, but the commentary points out that Kashmir has these cycles. I know a few of the Kashmiri boys involved in Snowboards for Kashmir and I know how stoked they get on powder. Here's hoping things settle down and you can get that gear over there.

[mc_roon]

The situation isn't improving in Kashmir as yet, but the commentary points out that Kashmir has these cycles. I know a few of the Kashmiri boys involved in Snowboards for Kashmir and I know how stoked they get on powder. Here's hoping things settle down and you can get that gear over there.

shit just hit the fan. 6 dead, 20 injured, christian missionary school burned in TANGMARG.

For those wondering why is this is news, Tangmarg is the town one before Gulmarg on the road, the place to get groceries and to ski into through the trees during storms. Its far removed from Srinagar, where the violence normally happens, which is why this is so bad. The few Kashmiris ive been able to talk to recently say its the worst they have ever seen.

Most of the workers in the hotels and almost all of the ski patrollers live in Tangmarg, I hope they are ok...



http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/...ow/6548922.cms

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationwo...,6796370.story

[boltonoutlaw]

shit just hit the fan. 6 dead, 20 injured, christian missionary school burned in TANGMARG.

Additional news source: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129826540

From Dar Mushtag's mobile uploads on FB, The Biscoe School in flames:

[boltonoutlaw]

Here are the results since the last update (10 July 2010):

Snowboards for Kashmir (SFK) were able to purchase 17 snowboards, 20 pairs boots, 20 pairs bindings from donations received since July 2010. Thank you to all who made this possible, and to individuals at the Burton Snowboard Company who were instrumental in sourcing some nice product for our program. (Photo below shows board range).

We are currently sourcing a freight forwarder to ship the equipment to Kashmir, and SFK are still soliciting donations to pay for this shipping, and to purchase lift tickets at the Gulmarg gondola this winter (for the local students & teachers).

Here is our program in a nutshell:

1. Purchase & ship a rental fleet to Gulmarg to employ local (Kashmiri) instructors.
2. This rental fleet will be used commercially & charitably. Local instructors will teach visitors for profit, and will teach local youth for free.
3. Rental fees from paying visitors will service debt on the purchase of the rental fleet. Rental fees are waived for free lessons.

It is especially meaningful to find support at TGR among individuals who also feel deeply passionate about winter sports. Please "like" our fan page at Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/pages/Snowbo...50692344951604

If you can afford a donation at this time we are most grateful. Donations can be made via PayPal at our website: http://www.snowboardsforkashmir.com/ Thank you!

Snowboards For Kashmir, A Non-Profit Corporation, is a 501(c)(3) educational, charitable, international amateur sports organization in the State of Vermont, USA.

[boltonoutlaw]

Fresh since the last update (10 November 2010):

SFK has sourced a freight forwarder to ship the equipment to Kashmir, and that should go out next week. Here is the gear, mainly packed for shipment:

17 snowboards (130 lbs):




18 pairs of boots & bindings (190 lbs):




Also making the trip is one sweet pack, donated by a mag. Thank you!




If you can make a donation at this time we are most grateful. Donations can be made via PayPal at our website: http://www.snowboardsforkashmir.com/ Thank you!

Snowboards For Kashmir, A Non-Profit Corporation, is a 501(c)(3) educational, charitable, international amateur sports organization in the State of Vermont, USA.

[_Aaron_]

Nice work dude!

[mc_roon]

way cool. when are you heading back?

[boltonoutlaw]

Next week.

[boltonoutlaw]

Currently mired in red tape as the new ROI tax code is being uploaded into national gov't. database, and no duties can be assessed until that event is complete. So, while conditions are finally good at Gulmarg, we are milling aimlessly in Delhi. In the meantime, the heli I was hoping to get into has flown off for the season, so that plan is SOL. FYI to anyone that imports to India - mark your goods as new, since there is a penalty for importing used goods (even for a non-profit corporation).