Dear Friends,
It is my great pleasure to introduce to you our new homepage for Tour Now & Then 2008: http://www.TourNowThen.org. Please bask in all of its newness and perpetually changing content after reading the following:

State Of The Tour Address

“TNT 2008?” many say, aghast. “I thought those boys were on the road last year.”  But if this is the first you’ve heard of our project, I imagine this moment might seem a lot like Christmas… or any equivalent gift-giving occasion.

Since the end of last year’s tour, we’ve been working on making 2008 another huge success.  We started early and were expecting this second year to be easier. However, true to our magnetic ability for attracting challenges, our plans haven’t been as hassle-free as we hoped.

The dynamic sibling duo of Noah and Zan has grown into a talented team of dedicated performance artists with strong backgrounds in and passion for working with children.  We convinced these brave souls that fail-safe funding was in place for 2008 and they now have foolishly dedicated their lives, free time and finances to the cause – as trustingly as Zan and I did last year.  Strangely, my usual excitement after duping a group of people is overshadowed by a feeling of moral obligation.

The Diabetes Education & Camping Association is behind our 2008 Tour, backing us as a 501(c)3 non-profit organization.  All of our camp visits are scheduled and the administrators are excited.  Our new fundraising T-shirts are in production, this time with the help of one of our crewmembers who happens to be a professional graphic artist.  Filming has already begun on the first of a new round of video updates.  And the show… well, you’ll have to see it to believe it.

This equation for success now only lacks a single variable: funding.  Our plans were to have all (or a large portion) of the fundraising done by this point.  As it is, we have received money from seven generous private donors, but no major sponsors.

All is not lost. The launch of http://www.TourNowThen.org marks the turning point in the 2008 project. The world now has at least some idea of what’s about to happen and the gravity of the situation.  Have no doubt that we will provide the elbow grease and guerrilla fundraising while on tour; we just need to make it to the road in June.

If you are inclined, please make a donation or forward this email to an affluent philanthropist.  If you are a company representative, please shake up your sponsorship/charitable contributions division.  If you are receiving this email in error, please examine the website to decipher this cryptic message. We can’t do this without your help, but the results will go beyond what you can imagine.

Honored to have so many friends,

Noah Moore

Tour Now & Then - Executive Director

http://www.TourNowThen.org

(Editor’s Note: Zan and Noah Moore travel the countryside (cities, too) presenting circus performances and workshops to the diabetes community. Here, Noah checks in with a report on the latest from “TNT.”)