Founder and Chief Giving Officer.
In 2008, after moving his family from California to the islands of Bermuda, Ron lost his mother to Cancer. This was the first time in his life that he had lost someone to this terrible disease. In fact, this was the first time anyone close to him even had Cancer.
As he was very close to his Mother, this left him feeling hopeless. Ron wanted to know more about Cancer. He wanted to know if there was anyone else like him, in Bermuda, with the same hopeless feelings. For the year and a half that followed, Ron donated his time to his local Cancer & Health Centre. He began volunteering at local charity events, breast cancer walks, and men’s health awareness fundraisers. Anything that surrounded Cancer or giving back to the community.
At the same time, 2008-2011, Ron was very unhappy with his current job. He began focusing his efforts on ways to bring the Cancer community together in Bermuda and help by giving back when and where he could.
Knowing that he was unhappy with his job, friends and family continued to ask him on a daily basis what his “Plan B” was going to be. “I don’t know….” He would continue to say. He just knew at the time that he wanted the passing of his Mother to help bring awareness and bring people together who were affected by Cancer.
Ron spent over 4 years working with the American Cancer Society in having the Country of Bermuda approved, as a Relay For Life Country. He teamed up with Bermuda Cancer & Health Centre and after months of marketing, presentations, research and conference calls Bermuda was approved. Most importantly, during this approval process, he left his “unhappy” job and started an amazing new job (where the company’s slogan is “where people come first”) and in 2011, launched The Plan [b] Project. A blog that was born to share ways to spread Authenticity, Gratefulness and Generosity.
Working on Plan [b], the first two Relay For Life events happened in 2014 and 2015. Several thousand showed up for these two events.
Since 2014, Bermuda has held 4 Relay For Life of Bermuda events raising close to $2,300,000.00 toward the local Bermuda Cancer & Health Centre’s Radiation Therapy initiative. The fundraising for the 5th annual event will be held in May of 2018 hoping to push total fundraising dollars raised to over $2,900,000.00.
After the continued success of these Cancer fundraising events, many local and overseas nonprofit and for-purpose organizations reached out to request assistance with their organizations.
In 2015, this gave Ron an idea. What if Plan B could do more than just “share” ways to spread Authenticity, Gratefulness and Generosity, but Spread Social Good to individuals, charities and organizations both in Bermuda and around the world?
It could work.
Ron soon became the local Charity Guy or Accidental Philanthropist. But to Ron, a Philanthropist was a wealthy individual that gave thousands if not millions to charity. Ron thought of himself more of a B-Anthropist. Someone who seeks to promote the welfare of others, especially by the generous donation of their time, professional skills and money (when possible) to individuals and good causes. Ron soon became the Chief B-Anthropist of The Plan [b] Project, but mostly called the Chief Giving Officer…because he loves to give! (His time that is….)
In the summer of 2015 Ron began assisting and connecting different organizations and charities from California to Haiti. Helping them fill the gaps and connecting them to help each other. The Plan [b] Project is currently being re-branded as you read this, and Ron hopes that 2018 brings a movement to help those in need. Spreading Social Good should be a habit.
It is very simple now to help someone in your community or across the globe. Social media has allowed me to connect with other organizations around the world.
In September 2017, Ron became an Ambassador for LIVE A GREAT STORY. More information here and more to come.
2017 & 2018 will be exciting years as the Plan B team fine tunes their mission and campaign…but most important, help those in need wherever they may be around the world.
In the words of Henry David Thoreau –
“One is not born in the world to do everything but to do something.”
This is Ron’s something!
