10,000 refugees lived in Turkey in 2012. Within five years, as the Syrian conflict raged and destroyed lives, the number of refugees has swelled to over 3 million. The vast majority of these refugees struggle to find the work necessary to support their families and provide meaning in their own lives. They are forced to depend on others for their own well-being. Ms. Hind weaves a Shirvan carpet Sanliurfa refugee camp The Anka Cooperative is a social enterprise created to empower Syrian women refugees by teaching them transferable skills, providing them dignifying work, and enabling cultural integration into their new society through the creation of fine carpets and traditional crafts. We currently empower 250 weavers in two camps. By pledging for a world-class quality carpet through this campaign, you'll allow us to expand into a third refugee camp and employ more weavers. This Kickstarter will sustain our initiative and move us towards our goal of impacting 20,000 refugees by 2020. Join us! One weaver can knot about 10 sq ft per month; this rug will employ these women for nearly a year   Our Rugs We have partnered with Woven Legends, an industry leader for decades, to make the highest quality rugs in the world. Hertz 8x10––Woven in Adiyaman Camp, this rug employed one refugee for over 8 months and contains nearly 650,000 knots   This peaceful Ushak is both calming and inspiring   All our rugs are painstakingly designed and inspired by carpets made in the 14th to 18th centuries   Wool: we only use hand spun, lanolin rich wool sourced from sheep free grazing in Eastern Anatolia. The wool is never treated to chemicals through the cleaning process, resulting in lustrous and stronger yarn, giving the finished rug a glowing aura that will last for a century or more. Dyes: we only use the highest quality natural, vegetal dyes. Naturally-dyed carpets will not fade and the colors will never run––they blend poetically and the color and richness will last for generations. Naturally Dyed Handspun Wool Weaving: we partner with master craftswomen to train, supervise, and instruct our weavers. Progress and quality are examined multiple times per day. Our refugee weavers respond well to the challenge of learning this skill. Finishing: when a rug is finally cut from the loom after months of weaving, we triple wash the rug using cold water, then press it to ensure it retains its intended shape. Over one million knots in this rug have been individually inspected for quality prior to final shipment The Anka Cooperative has already had an extraordinary impact on women’s lives. One of these women is Neriman from Damascus. Neriman is in her early 40s and has six children. Unlike many of her unfortunate relatives, she made it safely to the Adiyaman refugee camp in Southeastern Turkey. Neriman is college educated, and prior to the war she worked for many years as an accountant. But in the camps, of course, there are no accounting jobs, no freelancer websites to apply her trade. Idle time brings painful memories. She jumped at the chance to work at the carpet workshop. It’s a new skill, but she is learning and just as important, she is earning. Neriman is paid the same as her Turkish counterparts. She is saving to buy gold earrings for her daughters, and hopes to save for a home for when they return to Syria. Neriman represents the 250 Anka weavers who have chosen to make the best of their difficult circumstances, and are the reason Anka exists. Where We Work Our workshop in Sanliurfa empowers 25 women in a safe, clean environment Sanliurfa: The Sanliurfa camp has a capacity 10,000 and a current population 14,000 living in containers. The camp has paved streets, lighting, water, sewer, A/C, and even a TV. It's a secure facility but residents can come and go as they please. The weaving workshop is in an activity center that also houses an art room, restrooms and laundry facilities. We employ 25-30 weavers in a well lit and ventilated hall with windows and A/C. Neriman weaves with her daughter after school in one of our six workshop tents in Adiyaman refugee camp Adiyaman: The Adiyaman camp has a capacity of 20,000 and a current population 29,000 living in tents. It has paved streets, lighting, water, sewer, A/C, and TV. It's also a secure facility but residents can come and go as they please. The weaving workshops are in six tents. We employ 225 weavers in a well lit and ventilated tents with windows and A/C. Our future site in the Gaziantep Refugee camp in S/E Turkey Coming in 2017, Gaziantep: This campaign will allow us to expand. We have been approached by camp management to expand our training and empowerment model the refugee camp in Gaziantep, Turkey. This expansion will cost the Anka Cooperative over $100,000 for looms, supplies, training, transportation, instruction, etc. The Three Pillars of The Anka Cooperative Empowerment Through Employment: The weavers love their work, not only for the income, but also because it provides companionship and a place to share laughs and to stay active. As a skilled weaver can weave up to 10 sq feet per month, an 9'x12' rug will employ one weaver for nearly one year. Weavers are paid the exact same as Turkish weavers. These women proudly display this rug they crafted for an Embassy in Turkey Cultural Integration: The Anka Cooperative helps refugees learn traditional Turkish language, culture and customs by learning the craft of weaving and by interacting daily with Turkish teachers. We partner with other charities to expand our reach beyond the refugee camps. Many of our rugs will delight children of all ages Education & Awareness: We use our proceeds to support charitable organizations that tell stories of refugees' lives and struggle for dignity. We further strive to share our fundamental belief that empowerment and dignity comes from work, not a handout. We teach women to fish, we don't give them fish. Teaching Her How to Fish   Rewards   $25: Rug Coasters Reflect on your impact with every sip when you back us at this level     $50: Framed Rug Fragment Show your support for Anka by hanging this handmade carpet fragment in your home or office     $250: Carpet Christmas Stockings Stunning and meaningful Christmas stockings are made from world class handwoven rug fragments. We have a variety of already woven rugs we are offering as rewards. See them below, and click on each tier link to see more options. You will be able to pick your rug during the survey after the campaign. Risks and challenges Our co-founder is Turkish-American and has been training women to weave rugs for 35+ years. We have excellent relations with the management of the refugee camps, and have been working there for 5 years. We currently have over 500 existing rugs that are awaiting a new home. The risk and challenge we may have is keeping up with demand. We're hopeful to take on this challenge as we will then be able to sustainably empower so many more refugees. We feel confident we will be able to follow through, and will keep you updated along the way.

In Upper Jay, New York, on the bank of the East Branch of the Ausable River there is an old wooden building. Four stories high, this old warehouse has been many things in the past—a Model-T assembly factory (built by Henry Ford himself), a pine cone threshing plant, an antique store and an upholstery studio. Now you have the chance to help make the space anew by taking part in an exciting experiment that we, a collective of 13 seasoned artists, are calling collaborative community performance. And we want you to be involved. Here's your chance to partake in a truly revolutionary kind of performance piece, not just with your dollars but with your ideas as well. Who We Are? We are a group of artists—some of whom have worked together in the past, some of whom are just getting to know each other for the first time. We are dancers, actors, writers and musicians. We come from Vermont, New York, Pennsylvania and Oregon. We each inhabit our fields in different ways, and define our craft in our own terms. What we share is a deep commitment to community art making. And this summer we have made an agreement to work together in the spirit of true collaboration—and we want you to be part of it with us. The collaborating artists are assembled and led by Simon Thomas-Train, a dancer and choreographer, and Caitlin Scholl, a poet and musician, both of whom hail from the Adirondacks and currently live in New York City. The other collaborating artists include: Sophie Maguire, John Hoobyar, Emma Wiseman, Emma Judkins, Lea Fulton, Hanna Saterlee, Jenna Riegel, Sophia Levine, Richard Vaudrey, Branic Howard, John Mosloskie, & Philippe Bronchtein. The Space The walls of the Upper Jay Art Center (UJAC) have seen thousands of different parts come together and rise, piece by piece, throughout its long and varied past. Today, they hold and support the work of performers from around the country, bouncing words and thoughts back into the ears and minds of watchful audiences. This place has always been a confluence, a coming together of disparate pieces with the goal of creating something new. The Space We Make will premiere at the Upper Jay Art Center's annual fundraiser, thereby adding yet another layer to the building's already storied walls. We are simply trying to write the next page in that story... to bring together the disparate stories of our contributors in the spirit of creating something new, something more. The Performance A new work of performance—dance, movement, spoken word & song, images and relics from your own lives—in a space with a rich history of creative confluence. We want you to help us fund it. But that is not all we want. With each dollar you push in our direction, your creative impact on the final product will increase. In this, you are not just giving us money and wishing us good luck, hoping that what comes out the other side is interesting to you. You are saying, "I want to be involved in the work and this is how … these are the words I would like you to say … this is how I want you to move. This is something that you should wear. This is my story that I want you to tell." Each level of donation begets varying levels of input into the content of the performance that we—the artists—ingest, mold, and process through our chosen mediums into a cohesive and interactive piece. Then we perform the piece and show it to you via film documentary. Every piece of community input intact, every idea carried through from your mind to our bodies, voices, thoughts and movements. This work will be yours just as much as it will be ours. How To Be Involved Take a look at the video posted above. Think about the unique space in question. Try to imagine the Adirondack Mountains in far upstate New York. And ask yourself if you want to have a say in the performance we’re going to build there. Take a look at our list of ways to contribute, both financially and with your own creative input. Each of your donations will have a real and permanent inmpact on the creative direction this piece takes. And every donor will be able to see that impact by being provided access to the documentary we will be creating, charting the creative process and performance from beginning to end. You will be able to look at the screen and say, “that is there because of me.” For some of the higher levels of donation, admission to the UJAC’s annual fundraiser will be included, allowing these donors to partake in the action in the first person, living what they have helped to create. Where Your Money Goes Each dollar that you give will directly fund the travel, room and board of the collaborating performers. We are not seeking to profit in this, only to not operate at a loss. Any additional funds we are able to raise over our goal will be divided among the performers and donated to the Upper Jay Art Center. That is where your money will go. But with each dollar raised, you will also be given the opportunity to shape the direction, the tenor, and the focus of the piece we are making. Shortly after making a donation you will be contacted by us to discuss your creative input into the performance! Tell us about a physical memory you have....that time you fell off your bike, or watched your mother drink coffee by the window, or stretched up out of bed in the morning light. Tell us about music you want to hear or about some piece of clothing that holds certain memory for you. Send us an object from your past, or from your future. And trust that each piece that you send to us will be carried, intact, from creation to performance. You and your input will be with us from beginning to end. The Space We Make will also, we hope, help raise annual funds for the Upper Jay Art Center; it is part of our mission to help them continue to bring vibrant arts programming to the Northcountry. Tickets to our performance on August 25 will be $50, and are being sold by UJAC. If you want to RSVP and purchase a ticket to the fundraiser event,

At Poplar Wood Farm we love growing high quality produce more than anything. For the past few years, we have focused on doing exactly that. Prompted by an extensive agricultural background and desire to own a business, Poplar Wood Farm was founded by Al Esposito in 2001 in the scenic Highlands region of Warren County, NJ. The farm has since been involved in a variety of agricultural endeavors, challenges, and successes and has evolved into a fertile hub for organically managed vegetables and flowers. Poplar Wood Farm provides this delicious and beautiful produce to customers across New Jersey through farmers markets and a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) Program. We are actively involved in the Northeast Organic Farmers Association of New Jersey. We are also pursuing organic certification through the New Jersey Department of Agriculture certification program. Since we started, we have come a long way, acquiring a tractor, implements, irrigation system, green house, and other equipment and are now one step away from having everything we need to operate efficiently and the capacity to grow more healthy food for the local community. We need to produce a pole barn, one thing we can’t grow ourselves, and we need your support to do it. Why a Pole Barn? The building will serve as the heart of our farm. It will enable us to clean, sort, pack & store our vegetables and flowers in a more efficient manner. It will also allow us to load our trucks under cover in inclement weather, store supplies in a dry environment, work indoors on small building & maintenance projects in the winter and protect our equipment from the elements in the off season . In addition to the activities described above we will be able to host small groups for educational workshops. We are currently limited by the size and location of our existing barn. Because of its limitations, the process of cleaning, storing, and preparing our produce for market is much more labor intensive. The space is undersized and our business is expanding so we are in serious need of a better equipped space. Having the ability to wash, sort, and pack all under one roof streamlines our operation and makes for lots of happy smiling faces when trying to meet delivery deadlines. The barn will house a wash station consisting of stainless steel sinks and drain tables. We will also be building a walk in cooler that will be heavily insulated so that we can keep our energy usage to a minimum. We will be constructing this unit ourselves utilizing a Coolbot to achieve professional grade cooling at a more affordable cost. Coupled with the equipment and infrastructure that we already have, this building will give Poplar Wood Farm the ability to operate more efficiently and the capacity to expand and provide wholesome food to more people. Summary of Project Expenses Pole Barn Structure: $14,480 Permit: $200 Excavating: $1,200 Floor: $2,200 Electrical: $2,475 Wash Station: $800 Walk–in Cooler $1,600 Kickstarter Fees: $2,045 Total $25,000 Join our community Your participation in our pole barn project helps build our community of like minded individuals intent on making a statement about food production in the United States. Our success with this project will enable us to bring more food grown using organic methods to the communities we serve. It will also enable us to bring others to our farm, whether interns, volunteers, shareholders or other farmers to learn about what we do and see how we do it. This connection between the farm and community will strengthen the ties between all involved. The reality is that our region needs many more organic farms, projects like this, and people willing to support them if our local food system is to continue to grow. Food security and safety is a growing concern for many and this project will advance our efforts to address those concerns. Join us today to build this pole barn and build our regional food based community. See what our CSA members think of us Rewards for backing our project (full descriptions in right hand column) Examples of note card images See more from artist Madeline Taranto Market bag and organic cotton tee shirt Name a goat kid (don't worry, you'll get a cute one like Penny) About our videos Our videos were produced by Jan McLaughlin and her team at Sounds Good, LLC. Throughout the process, Jan’s experience, creativity, and flexibility were an excellent guide and an asset to our project. We had a great experience with Sounds Good, LLC and highly recommend them. Risks and challenges There are always risks associated with new construction projects, including the following: Completing the project on schedule – We intend to have the barn complete by May so that it is operational through the heart of our growing season. Weather conditions may slow or stop progress in the early spring. Completing the project within budget. Mitigants Our many years managing landscape design / build projects gives us the experience to manage this project effectively and respond to unexpected changes. We have padded our timeline with a couple of extra weeks to allow for weather related or other unexpected construction slowdown. We have researched construction materials pricing and spoken with all parties who will be involved in construction in order to accurately project all costs.

Join me as I expose the history, politics and secrecy involved in raising money, building & operating presidential libraries. With your backing I will be able to complete my research and write The Last Campaign: How Presidents Rewrite History, Run for Posterity and Enshrine Their Legacies. To do that, I need to visit and examine the six presidential libraries that made major changes in the last few years. As a backer, you'll become part of the final phase of my ten-year journey to research and write this book. THANK YOU to everyone who backed and supported this project! WHAT Presidential Libraries Are Presidential libraries seem like innocuous tourist attractions. The older libraries are modest, valuable repositories that contribute greatly to our understanding of presidents, politics and events. But the modern ones are oversized taxpayer-funded legacy-burnishing monuments full of skewed history...and hundreds of millions of important presidential records that won't be available for decades, if ever. Few understand the hidden history of the libraries - federal institutions operated by our tax dollars - and the level to which money and politics play a role in everything from exhibits, public and educational programs to the choice of location and even personnel. This is because the story of presidential libraries – the documented, historical story – has never been told. Until now. The Last Campaign: it's about our history, and why it's different from how it's told to us. Accountability. Transparency. Freedom of information. And what presidents do to keep us from knowing what presidents do. WHY the book is called The Last Campaign When presidents run for re-election, they often call it their "last campaign” because no future electoral contest awaits them. However, they do engage in the fight to shape their legacy: to rewrite it, control it and enshrine it. For decades, former presidents have seen their approval ratings rise each year they are out of office, due directly to the aggressive, ongoing campaign at their library - and the fact that their most important records are not available to us. There are now thirteen federally-run presidential libraries in the United States, from Herbert Hoover to George W. Bush. President Barack Obama has begun plans for his own, and locations across the country are vying to be selected as the site. The libraries are the greatest sources of popular American history of the last eighty years, through their exhibits and educational and public programs, and the books, articles, theses and films produced using their resources. Yet few books have been written about them, and none has examined the libraries’ politics and political history – especially the role that big, private money plays in their planning, development and operation, and the way that political parties use some of these federal institutions for their own purposes. WHO I Am I'm a recognized expert in presidential libraries. I've managed oversight of the presidential library system for the U.S. House of Representatives, directing hearings and investigations of the National Archives (NARA) for the Committee on Oversight & Government Reform. I've researched the presidential libraries - and this book - for over ten years. See my full bio for more details. WHEN I Have Worked On This Book Since 2003, I've spent about a month in each of the twelve presidential libraries from Hoover through Clinton, and I've taken more than 50,000 photographs - and hours of video - of the exhibits, architecture and records at the libraries. I've interviewed dozens of researchers and historians, and current and former presidential library directors, curators, archivists, exhibit specialists, educators and public affairs officials. I've worked on the book at night, on weekends and in lieu of vacations and financed my research and travel to the presidential libraries with my savings. But in just the last few years, five of the libraries have renovated their permanent exhibits, and thousands of records have been released. And a new library – for George W. Bush – just opened in Texas. I need one more round of visits to explore the records and the new exhibits, see how they tell their stories, and compare them with their original displays – and with the objective histories of their eras. This will be the first book ever written with primary research at all the presidential libraries. HOW The Last Campaign Will Make a Difference In The Last Campaign, I will demonstrate how the influence of private contributions and political parties have radically altered the look and purpose of presidential libraries, from archival storehouses of history to extravagant, politicized showplaces where the goals of the party, the family and former officials intent on future promotions trump the historical – and often inconvenient – facts. This influence also has altered the way presidents and officials create records - or don't - out of concerns over possible future disclosures. And it's altered the process by which presidents release - or hold back - their own records. I will tell the story of presidential records, and how it relates to open government, transparency and freedom of information. And I will reveal major previously-unreported stories about presidents - using their own records from their libraries - shed new light on some well-known controversies, and demonstrate the negative effects of unregulated presidential commemoration on our political process. Most importantly, drawing on my experience as a Committee staffer and Legislative Director in Congress, I will provide a legislative and governmental blueprint for successfully reforming the presidential library system - and returning us to Franklin D. Roosevelt's original goal of preserving and making presidential records available to all. WHERE I Will Visit for My Research To complete the book, I must travel to document the new exhibits and research in the archives at: the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library in Hyde Park, NY; the Lyndon B. Johnson Library in Austin, TX; the Richard Nixon Library in Yorba Linda, CA: the Jimmy Carter Library in Atlanta, GA; the Ronald Reagan Library in Simi Valley, CA; and the George W. Bush Library in Dallas, TX. My photograph of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library, Hyde Park, NY Risks and challenges The vast majority of the research for the book is complete - except for these last visits to six of the libraries. There is little risk that I will not complete the research. I have an excellent literary agent, and we are in the process of negotiating with a publisher. A successfully funded Kickstarter project would enable me to finish my research more quickly, but I will publish this book.  

his request will fund the creation of an open source wildlife tracking collar, developed to protect the last lions living in Kenya. This request will help fund the creation of an open source wildlife tracking collar. The system is being developed to help save the last 2000 remaining lions in Kenya and is a continuation of work done in conjunction with the Lion Guardians Program and the Living with Lions research group. These organizations work to protect the last lions living in Kenya as well as the Maasai herders' pastoral livelihood. The pledged $9000 would help fund the cost of parts, travel expenses for testing and labor in building the prototype. The project consists of two parts, a tracking system that utilizes GPS/GSM technology to locate and track wildlife and the open source documentation of the work. The first $1200 dollars over the target amount will go directly to sponsor a Lion Guardian for a full year in Kenya.This project resulted from a previous trip to Kenya where I, Justin Downs of GRND Lab, built a solar-powered tree-house for the Lion Guardians' research camp. The Lion Guardians program focuses on mediating the conflict between the Maasai herders and the lions who prey on their cows. The Maasai, in retaliation to killed livestock or political conflicts, poison or hunt the lions, causing a disappearance of the lions in the wild.While there, I learned that the conservation techniques having the greatest effect in Kenya are those that look at the ecosystem as a whole. In other words, all information collected about the local environment from elephant data to cattle data - two species that co-exist with the lions - is now integral to the understanding and effectiveness of lion conservation efforts. Because of this it is now common practice for researchers in inter-related fields of study to share data after collecting and analyzing it. This project’s technology and open source development was conceived specifically to address this method of working.How is this tracking collar prototype different from the current tracking technology in use today? It differs greatly because it will remain an open source technology, making it free and easily accessible to the public. This has the effect that if the technology is used by the large community of researchers in Kenya (i.e. lion, elephant or climate researchers) they would be able to share valuable data in real time, rather than delaying the process with incompatible technologies. This would save these foundations large amounts of time and money, while expediting finding solutions to the ecological/conservation problems. Also, by open-sourcing this technology anyone who is interested in data aggregation and tracking (from technologists to small business owners and even artists) would finally have open access, bringing a larger audience into the development of these technologies, reducing cost and speeding up innovation overall.So any help you could give to this venture would be very appreciated and we will keep you up to date on all the changes and status of this project and the wildlife it involves.

public art project that represents the VERY tall tale of Jack and his Beanstalk using tens of thousands of balloons. Who are you guys? We’re 2 artists from Rochester, NY, working collectively under the Airigami, who specialize in making ginormous & awesome sculptures entirely out of balloons. You might know us from our previous (and successful!) Kickstarter project, “Once Upon a Time” or may have seen some of our projects making the rounds on the web. Acrocanthosaurus at the Virginia Museum of Natural History made with 5000 balloons. Mona Lisa - Part of the Airigami Masterworks series What did you two come up with now? We want to continue our exploration of fairy tales and create a full scale installation of Jack & the Beanstalk, entirely out of balloons! We’re talking a four-story beanstalk complete with a Giant’s Castle in the clouds above! We’ll be enlisting the help of community volunteers to help create this massive sculpture and we want you to be a part of this project. Initial sketch for the massive project. A much smaller beanstalk shot in the limited space of our studio. Imagine this on a much grander scale with garden and house on the ground and a castle above. Why on earth? If someone says they’re going to build a five-story beanstalk-castle extravaganza entirely out of balloons, do you really need a reason? Where did this idea come from? One of our most popular projects to date was a series of giant balloon castles. It’s been five years since the last Balloon Manor, and we’ve been begged (that's no exaggeration) to bring it back. This castle will provide a chance for artists and community members to work together, once again, on a huge scale project for everyone to enjoy. What do I get? Above all else, your contribution results in a spectacular public art project that will be built Feb 1-4, 2014, with the resulting sculpture remaining on display through Feb 9. But we do have a series of rewards that we think you'll enjoy. For starters, we're holding spots on the build and popping crews for those that want to join the fun. We also have fine art prints, balloon twisting kits, T-shirts, and other unique items to make your contributions more memorable.   Where's the money going? This giant community art project is going to be open for all of the public to enjoy, free of charge. Therefore, there are a bunch of things things we need to pay for. We’ve set a low goal to cover the bare essentials, but we’re hoping, with your help, to become a Kickstarter dream story. Project costs include: Balloons Location rental Security Rigging equipment Artist fees (if we go above the $6000 we've set as our goal) Aside from the many hours that the two of us will put into this by the time it's completed, there are a number of key crew members that will also be putting an enormous amount of time into the project. We're committed to completing this even without payment, but we're hoping that the Kickstarter community will go above and beyond our goal so that our key crew can be paid and reimbursed for travel costs. How many people are on this crew? There are artists, team leaders, and tech crew that are needed to make this happen. The size of the crew will depend on the amount of funding we receive, in part because the crew will come from our Kickstarter backers, but also because the funding we receive will determine how large this project can grow. In the past, we've had up to 450 people, including artists, and members of the local community, take part in construction. Can I be on the crew? Yes! Please become a backer of this project. At this time, the only way we are adding crew members is through Kickstarter and outside sponsorship. What happens to the sculpture? This sculpture will be built using compostable latex balloons. At the end of the public exhibition we will have a Popping Party to take down the sculpture. All backers, at all levels, will be invited to join in on the fun! Can I come and see the sculpture? Yes, please do. The sculpture will be on public display February 5-9. You can even come and watch us as we build it February 1-4. Viewing of the sculpture will be FREE! If you have the means, please contribute so everyone can enjoy this work. Risks and challenges Every new project is a new challenge, simply because it's an untested design. We know that each small component of the design will stand on its own, but there's simply no way to accurately prototype a piece on this scale. It will be built for the first time in the days leading up to the public display. This is, of course, what makes this such an amazing project. We will follow our design as closely as possible, but in the end, it's a work of art that will take on a life of its own as it grows to its full height. We will continue to sculpt up until the day it opens to the public. Our team of internationally renowned artists have the skills and experience to make it look spectacular, even if the final form is slightly different from the original concept drawing. Constructing something large with balloons requires that everything be built at the last minute prior to displaying it. Years of experience has made it possible for us to build to something of this magnitude with reasonable certainty that it will be completed as we desire. But the short, inflexible timeline always means that equipment failure (balloon pumps and air compressors), damaged product, and mistakes leave us with no head room for recovery. So let's look at each of those: • equipment failure - We have a mechanic on our crew, RIchard Hughson, that carries the title of MacGyver. To date, we've never had a structure or piece of equipment fail that he hasn't been able to get working. And yes, that has even involved duct tape and chewing gum. • damaged product - The folks that make Qualatex balloons have always stood by their product. Whenever we've needed more balloons, either due to damage during shipping, our error, or some other disastrous situation, they've found ways of getting replacement materials to us in time to complete the project. • mistakes - Oh, no! An artist misread the plan and used all of the red balloons while making something four times the size it was supposed to be. That's happened. But we're a creative team, and this is an art project. What's important is that it looks amazing. We can change and adapt and usually use what seemed like a mistake to make things even better. Spontaneity can be fun. In other words, our biggest challenge is time. But we always make our installations work out. The dates are set. We can't move it. It will happen on schedule and it will be awesome!

We’re CORE Foods, and we’re creating the world’s most nourishing restaurant. Literally every ingredient we use is 100% produce. Seriously. Over the past 5 years we refreshed your breakfast on-the-go with our award-winning CORE Meals, and became the 29th fastest-growing company in the Bay Area. Now we're revolutionizing your lunch with the world's first produce-only restaurant. We've secured a prime downtown Oakland location, Whole Foods and the City Council are on board, and we already have health and planning department permits. Come this Fall you'll be able to stop in for the most nourishing lunch you've ever experienced, have us cater your next meeting, or find our most popular items in grab-and-go retailers and food carts around the Bay Area. But we need your help to begin this revolution in fast food - please contribute now! Menu Preview (all ingredients 100% organic) Signature Combinations 12 explosively delicious global cuisine recipes like Thai, Mexican, or Italian served in your choice of container, like: Collard Leaf Burrito packed with potatoes and avocado Stuffed Bell Pepper overflowing with plantains and black beans Zucchini Pasta drenched in freshly cracked coconut lime sauce Grill Items Warm, hearty produce-only meals hot from the grill, like: Sweet Potato Black Bean Patty topped with tangy BBQ sauce Teriyaki Veggie Kebab with pineapple, mushroom, and onions Portobello Pizza with marinara and cashew cheese Everything we serve is at the foundation of your health. No sugar, flour, oil, powders, additives, preservatives—nada. This is the most nourishing food ever created! Launch Plan Our first CORE Kitchen location will be at City Center in downtown Oakland right above the 12th St. BART Station, serving the thousands of people that work for Pandora, Clorox, Kaiser Permanente, and hundreds of other local businesses. We've signed a lease for this space right here! We’ll then be opening locations in major cities across the US. Your contribution today will put you on the ground floor of a national revolution in our food system! Over the past 5 years we’ve grown a nationally distributed packaged food business and we’ve put years of research into planning the CORE Kitchen. To make this dream possible we need:   $120,280+ for construction costs to retrofit the Kitchen in our leased space $90,288+ for specialized equipment like dehydrators and refrigerated prep stations $24,300+ for architecture and engineering design County Health Department-Approved Architectural Plans Funding And Goals CORE Foods is a not-for-profit business, which means your health is the only bottom line. 100% of our profits are reinvested back into our food, our community, and our movement to cultivate a healthier planet. But that also means we need your help. You, our supporters, are our sole investors, and you're the ones that can make this a reality. We need at least $234,868 total for this project. We've secured loans for a large part of it, but we'll still need at least $90,000 to make this happen. Help us meet our initial and stretch goals to grow our distribution even further! Goal#1: Equipment - $90,000 Funds our initial equipment purchases and installation so we can serve you at our City Center location! Goal #2: + Grocery Delivery - $135,000 Fund the retrofitting of our company car, new production line, packaging, and ingredients so we can deliver our items pre-packaged to grocery stores across the Bay Area! Goal #3: + Food Cart - $150,000 Funds food cart equipment, packaging, and permits so we can serve you at other great locations across the Bay Area! Help Make This Vision A Reality Some more info about our rewards: Any of our Lunches in the Kitchen pre-sold for rewards such as the $10 and $25 levels mean you get a Free lunch combo certificate to redeem for a full meal any time after we open! For the Long Distance packages, our packaged CORE Meals are a full bowl of hearty oatmeal shaped into a meal-to-go. Simple ingredients with no garbage, these are perfect for breakfast, workouts, travel, outdoors, busy days, and anytime you need a portable nourishing meal. CORE Meals come in your choice of Almond Raisin, Walnut Banana, and Cashew Cacao flavors! (see below) Special thanks to: Our local workforce partner St. Vincent dePaul Kitchen of Champions Lynette Gibson Mcelhaney, City Council President Erin Harper and the Whole Foods Market Local Producer Loan ProgramJimmy Collins and Giant Slice ProductionsSean Mcdow and DueDrop Productions The countless others who have helped get us here! Risks and Challenges We’ve worked hard to mitigate our risks - a few major points: Getting Funding: We’re diversifying our funding by receiving financial support from Whole Foods, Bank of America, and the SBA in addition to these critical Kickstarter funds. Legal/Permitting: We’ve mitigated a lot of logistical issues already by signing a favorable lease, completing architectural plans, and receiving Health Department approval. Budget/Business Model Viability: We’ve carefully budgeted our model through extensive foot traffic surveys, menu tastings, market research, and supplier pricing comparisons. Our strategy also balances multiple income sources through direct sales in the restaurant, catering, wholesaling packaged food, food carts, and more.

Hand Picked Farm will construct a hoop-house to extend the growing season and provide more organic food to the community year round. StoryHand Picked Farm is the culmination of my growing experience.  From being a child in my Pappou's (greek for Grandfather) garden, to engaging in a full time apprenticeship in Sussex County, NJ, I have grown food with care and love.In order to share this love with the community year round, Hand Picked Farm will construct a hoop house to extend the growing season, and more importantly to increase the capacity of the local food system to feed those in the community.  Pairing my knowledge and the protection the hoop house provides, I will be able to grow some excellent produce every month of the year!The first harvest will be complete by August 2013 which is projected to be 2 tons of organic, heirloom tomatoes.  Varieties include Brandywine, Moskvitch, Red Pear and SunGold.  It does not end there though, once the tomato vines have had their run, zucchini and summer squashes will take over and harvested in late october, providing a taste of summer as the seasons change.  Through the cold winter months I will produce organic greens: spinaches, kales, chards, cress's, asian greens, etc.  Once the greens are harvested transplant production will start for 2014, then tomatoes in the spring, and the cycle continues!$1000 will get all of the material to construct a 15'x65' hoop house, irrigate it using water-saving drip irrigation, and cover all of the fuel cost for driving around getting all of this.  I already have 432 tomato plants in plug-flats ready to move in!  This is a small sum in comparison to the bounty of fresh, organic and unique food that I can produce within the hoop house.I will construct the hoop house over a 5 day period with the help of friends.  I have already tested the soil, spread manure, and tilled the site to a fine tilth.  Your support not only directly helps my efforts, but keeps the agricultural tradition alive by ensuring the viability of farming as a career for a young farmer like myself.  Your pledge is a vote that strongly says "I support small scale sustainable agriculture!"Risks and challengesFarming is risky business - lets be up front! This hoop house and irrigation are a big part of risk mitigation for the farm, as it allows me to control a few of the variables in the growing process. That being said a hurricane could potentially damage the structure, and if we have a serious drought I will have limited ability to irrigate. I have a good deal of experience and endless enthusiasm and love for growing food! 

A special reward for the last 48 hours of our campaign, as we try to reach our stretch goal of $130K: Your choice of a package of Little Lotus swaddles or sleeping bags, or the cozy blanket AND the magical "Spread the Warmth" hardcover children's book, the story of Embrace helping babies around the world (pledge $130 - regular price will be $175)! Keep your baby at the perfect temperature with Little Lotus, a new line of baby products by Embrace Innovations. Each purchase will help a vulnerable baby with the Embrace warmer. Why Moms & Pediatricians Love Little Lotus: "I never thought as a pediatrician I would be so concerned about my baby while she was sleeping. But quickly I learned I wanted to make sure her temperature was just right. Despite being well dressed with other swaddles & sleep sacks, her little hands & feet are frozen in the morning. When she wears the Little Lotus, her whole body feels perfect to the touch. The fabric is made of the highest quality & gentlest material. The best feature for my sleepy daughter at bedtime is that it is easy on/easy off. There is no need to pull anything over her head, just a few snaps and a zip." Elizabeth B. "When I tried the Little Lotus sleeping bag I felt like I had discovered a natural winner. Unlike sleep sacks I have used in the past, it is clearly designed with the practical needs of a parent and baby in mind. My son often falls asleep while nursing…it takes some serious ninja moves to slide his arms through the holes of our usual sleep sack without waking him. The Little Lotus is different. I can just lay him on top of the product and quietly zip him into it. My son had taken some great naps in the Little Lotus and I can only assume that it's because his little feet are always warm. When you touch the fabric of the Little Lotus you can feel the difference Note: Our products include a swaddle (0-3 months), sleeping bag (3-12 months) and cozy blanket (0-5 years). The Little Lotus products are special because: They use proprietary fabrics inspired by NASA spacesuits to keep your baby at the perfect temperature, so they can rest better & you can have peace of mind. Studies show that SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) is linked with babies being too warm or too cold. With Little Lotus, your baby will stay warm without overheating. Our swaddles & sleeping bags have a unique design that make them easier to put on and take off than existing products, with a bottom zipper that allows for a diaper change with the baby is still inside. "When the name of the game is don't wake a sleepy baby, no other swaddle works as well as this one." - Little Lotus mom For every product purchased, a baby will be helped in a developing country by the Embrace infant warmer.The Embrace warmers have already helped 150,000 vulnerable babies across 11 countries. We hope to drive this number to 1 million with the help of Little Lotus. What makes Little Lotus products different than other baby products? Little Lotus products use a proprietary fabric that is super soft and baby friendly. Originally developed for NASA, these materials are designed to help balance your baby’s skin temperature to reduce overheating & cooling. The technology draws excess heat if your baby is too warm, and releases the warmth if they start to cool down. This means less temperature fluctuations and your baby staying more comfortable. Studies show that SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) is linked with babies being too warm or too cold. With Little Lotus, your baby will stay warm without overheating. n addition to the proprietary fabric, the Little Lotus swaddles and sleeping bags have unique features that make them extra easy to use. The bottom zipper and the enclosures on both shoulders allow you to take the swaddle/sleeping bag on and off much more easily than other products. You can do a diaper change with the product still on. The swaddle has wings that can be folded back, when the baby's arms want to be out. Please Help Us Spread The Word! Risks and Challenges Little Lotus Baby has a team with extensive manufacturing experience. Specifically: 1. We have a top tier team with many years of experience bringing new products to market. 2. We have deep expertise creating products for babies. 3. Little Lotus Baby products is the result of detailed planning. We’ve spent a lot of time designing, prototyping, testing, and re-designing to achieve the final designs. Despite our expertise and careful planning, there are risks to the project: RISKS IN MANUFACTURING Although we’ve carefully selected a factory that has a history of producing high quality baby products, this is our first time working with the factory and we can’t anticipate how well their production quality will satisfy our strict QC standards. There may be production delays if we need to address quality issues as they arise. Little Lotus Cozy Blanket (0-5 years) The Little Lotus cozy blanket has a layer of premium cotton on top. The bottom layer, which contains our proprietary technology, has a soft and luxurious texture. The blanket is finished with a satin border.  

Nandita's debut cookbook is a visually rich resource w/ 12 Indian feasts using 100+ unique & personal recipes. Designed for all levels of experience, it includes menu plans, shopping cheat-sheets & practical notes. Now on iTunes, Amazon & Nook A Dozen Ways to Celebrate’ is a unique compilation of 100 decadent recipes that come together as twelve extra-ordinary Indian-themed feasts that you can recreate in your own kitchen. This cookbook: Showcases authentic Indian eats and treats in dynamic and inspired ways with new pairings to create ‘made-from-scratch’ delicacies using simple store-bought ingredients. Explores the Ayurvedic principles of eating ‘well’. Makes Indian feasts ‘achievable’. Inspires both the novice and the seasoned cooks through personal stories, tips, tricks, time-savers and diet-friendly ideas. Celebrates Indian food as a balanced collection of complimentary flavors and tastes. ‘A Dozen Ways to Celebrate’ intends to be a cookbook that breaks away from the repetitive and standardized content otherwise found in typical Indian cook-books for the western audience. It revisits the exquisite and authentic recipes, flavors and techniques of Indian cuisine lost in the gauche and predictable landscape of ‘typical’ Indian fare. Each of these celebrations is a tested collection of dishes of a four course Indian meal that I have featured at a Curry Cravings dinner. With recipes that create wonderful new standards and the suggested adaptations to help readers customize each feast to specific dietary or personal requirements, and a wealth of ideas for making everything, and making it simpler, this book is truly for everyone. Chapter One: Introduction Chapter Two: Common Pantry and Spice Shelf Components Chapters Three through Fifteen: A Dozen Ways To Celebrate(Preview Menus') Each chapter/ menu will comprise of a section each on: The theme (region / season / subculture / pop culture or other) The menu and its parts explained Drinks Appetizers: 1-3 per menu Main course: 2-4 small plates per menu, and wine pairing where applicable Dessert: 1 or 2 per menu Recipes: including estimated calorie counts, alternatives to unusual ingredients & modifications for special diets such as Vegan, Vegetarian, Gluten-free etc. as applicable. Make-ahead treasure chest (cross references to appropriate recipes) Dry spice mixes Wet spice mixes (pastes and masalas) Chutneys / preserves / jams, etc. applicable to the menu Preparation and shopping cheat-sheet Modifying the feast for an everyday meal Suggestions for further reading and related activities Table setting and food styling ideas Stories and myths about this particular ‘theme’ or ‘cuisine’ or ‘celebration’, through suggested readings. Activities and participation opportunities for children and guests. Chapter Sixteen: Cross referencing index Chapter Seventeen: Closing notes Bibliography, resources 'A Dozen Ways to Celebrate' will first be produced as an E-book in multiple formats Producing this book is my commitment towards preparing a technically complete and visually interesting resource book. Every pledge goes directly towards making this unique product worthy of your time, your bookshelf and your kitchen. To keep costs low, I will be bartering services with some of my professional friends. I have the skills to produce a print-ready file and am including those at no cost. I am estimating this project to cost $3,000 as detailed below: ‘A Dozen Ways to Celebrate’, e-book only. Editorial & Publishing Costs: $2500.00 Limited professional photography: $500.00 Food-Photography & Graphic Design (In-house): $0.00 Total e-book cost: $3000.00 Print Book Once an e-book is created, I know that supporters would love to have a print version of it to use in the kitchen. I would too!! For this, I estimate needing additional funds of $3750. If this campaign is able to raise a total of $6750 or more, supporters at the $120.00 level and above will each receive one complimentary, signed, print copy of "A Dozen Ways to Celebrate". Here is a quick snapshot of the rewards at each pledge level. Please review pledge details for more information.   Risks and challenges I am confident that this will be a very resourceful book. It fills a void in the representation of the Indian cuisine. As a first of its kind, I expect to deliver a high quality product with both the e-book and the printed copies. For those choosing to attend a Curry Cravings Supper Club Dinner or host a private event, the experience will be truly unique. Prior to making a pledge, I invite those new to Curry Cravings to join me in conversations on Facebook, ask for references, view some of my previously published materials (linked through by bio. on Kickstarter) and peruse recommendations from clients and ex-colleagues on LinkedIn. I am a pragmatic and hands-on person. Given my past experience in project coordination and graphic design, I am as methodical with publishing as I am in the kitchen. Obviously, the biggest hurdle is obtaining the funding, since it is an 'all-or-nothing' approach. Once this hurdle has passed and as the project progresses, as with any project, I expect some hiccups along the way. For example I expect: 1. Initial teething pains setting up a Google+ Hangout and scheduling such with a national audience. 2. Project timeline overruns with the editorial team. 3. Coordinating dinner parties across the country. I believe that any of these problems are surmountable because I have a small core of close professional friends who have promised to help me through all of it pro-bono! In order to keep supporters abreast of progress, the reward levels include various interim products such as the monthly e-recipes and Google+ Hangouts. In addition, there are several ways by which supporters can stay tuned to progress on the book, and know that we will have a fantastic cookbook to look forward to: 1. Through the Curry Cravings Facebook page, supporters will be able to remain engaged in the process and have a common community to interact with. 2. I also remain accessible via email to all my supporters. 3. I also will be working with printers and proof readers who come with personal references, to ensure timeliness and excellence in quality. 4. In exchange for a mention, I am asking the photographer and food-stylist friends in my circle to contribute their time pro-bono, so I can get expert feedback. 5. I feel confident of being able to execute out-of-town events easily since I have done these previously. It will be my responsibility to execute this task well, a responsibility I will take very seriously. I assure you, you will be delighted with this venture that you are so generously supporting. Thank-you for your confidence in this project. I am looking forward to creating a wonderful resource for you!  

We all love great craft beer and we think it should be treated with the respect it deserves. Forget cans and bottles: great craft beer should be served fresh from the keg and on tap, and for this you need a kegerator. Unfortunately today's kegerators are pretty lame. They don't serve your beer at precise temperatures, you can't learn about the beer or even figure out what's on tap, and they certainly don't tell you how much beer you have left. That's why we invented KegSmarts™, the world's smartest craft beer kegerator. KegSmarts™ brings the brewhouse to your house! Now you can enjoy craft beer like you do at your favorite craft brewery but in the comfort of your own home! Already have your own kegerator? We've got you covered! We make an add-on kit that allows you upgrade your existing kegerator with KegSmarts™. Homebrewer? We're the guys who invented the world's first fully-automatic all grain beer-brewing appliance, KegSmarts™ was designed to work seamlessly with Zymatic® and allow you to ferment your beer automatically and serve it perfectly. How in the world did we think of the smart kegerator? Pull up a chair, there's a story here. PicoBrew was started in 2010 by two brothers, Bill and Jim Mitchell and their friend Avi Geiger. The Mitchells were avid home brewers, while Avi was a craft beer aficionado. Since Bill had been whiling away his time inventing things like smartphones and smartwatches, and Jim had been goofing off, pioneering food inventions with his famous grandfather (of Pop Rocks and Tang fame), it was almost a foregone conclusion that when they got together they would create the world's first automatic all-grain beer brewing appliance. The three beer-loving partners introduced their invention, the award-winning PicoBrew Zymatic®, to the world in the Fall of 2013. It was their first Kickstarter campaign. They were nervous. But thanks to craft beer lovers like you, they crushed their funding goal in a mere 24 hours, and went on to become the 2nd most successful Kickstarter Food campaign at the time. Avi was not satisfied, however. Now he had a limitless supply of great craft beer, but no way to really enjoy the craft brew experience home! A long sequence of prototypes followed. "The ultimate kegerator project" snapped into focus in the Spring of 2014 when the team had the epiphany that a keg-tower-mounted solution would enable both new and existing kegerators to "get keg smarts". With diligent effort fueled by lots of beer-testing, the product nears completion now, which is why we need your help.... We're ready to go to production. But production costs money. And we need to be sure that there are enough craft-beer lovers out there like us who think a smart kegerator is a good idea to pull this trigger.. Are we crazy? Maybe we'll find out. If you make a pledge today you can help bring KegSmarts™ to market, and prove us sane. And of course, we have rewards for you to thank you for your support! Risks and Challenges Our business centers on bringing the craft beer experience home to you in the form of great-looking products that perform in unique ways. We have already manufactured our first (Kickstarter-backed) product, the Zymatic, so we have experienced the trials and tribulations of bringing a complex product to market. Nevertheless, there are always risks such as: MANUFACTURING: We experienced several problems with the tooling of our first product, and while we think we have our ducks in a row this time, there are always risks when making products that require manufacturing steps. FULFILLMENT: Again, we experienced challenges in the UPS shipping of Zymatic -- large heavy packages sometimes get banged up in shipping. We think we have the packaging expertise to handle this problem well first-time this time around, but again, we may run into new issues. INTERNATIONAL: We're mitigating our international risk this time by only shipping to US and Canada. International regulations (like CE Mark) add a whole separate layer of complexity to shipping products. Help us make KegSmarts a reality by pledging today. THANK YOU for you support!

So you want to know the story about our T-Shirt. Our friend Deana is no stranger to ice pops. As a cartoonist and illustrator, Deana has had her work published in Barron's, and regularly works on her Philip the Sea Lion webcomic. Our favorite issue highlights Philip as a collector of popsicle sticks. When we approached Deana to help us design our T-shirt, we knew we had the right person to imaginate our idea; a whimsicle NY skyline populated by Brewla Bar edifices. It took a few iterations, but I think she nailed it. What do you think?  Looking HOT (at the Fulton Stall Market)!! Thanks Erin... Traditional ice pops are frozen slabs of high fructose corn syrup and unnatural flavorings targeted toward children. We at Brewla Bars believe it is time for a better ice pop. Our flavors (we have 5!) are sourced from high quality natural ingredients, are 100 calories or less, and are each enhanced with a unique boost. We want to get Brewla Bars into as many hands as possible and need your help. Donate and we will prove that a Brewla Bar can make anyone happy! Lick well, live well. Updates!! They just keep coming...   What are these boosts you speak of? Curious about the boost, try one of our exclusive flavors: The BUZZ - Sweetened espresso with an energy boost The HERO - Cherry pomegranate red tea with an immunity boost The LULLABY - Peach ginger white tea with a calming boost The REMEDY - Raspberry green tea with an antioxidant boost The DOCTOR - Craft brewed root beer float with 10% calcium to help maintain healthy bone strength How will my donation be spent? The money will be going towards the space at the Seaport as well as our ingredient needs so we can continue to make fresh product for consumption and testing. We also need to rent space in a commercial kitchen so we can make the product. We use high quality ingredients because they make a difference. We also need money to pay for our sticks and the bags our Brewla Bars are packaged in. Finally, we need packaging that communicates what you are consuming in a label so you can really understand what a Brewla Bar is all about. Special Thanks and a couple shout outs. Our FANS! You guys have been an amazing support!! Keep spreading the word. The more people that know we are out there the more likely we are to reach our goal. All your help and support so far is so amazing and we really appreciate it! We couldn't have pulled off our video without the help of our Directors of Photography, William Castelucci and William Shu and our Editor, Conor Hagan. We would also like to thank Lyz Keating and Paul Walker for helping us connect with our film makers and all their love and support. Special thanks go out to Teddy Yu for his wonderful logo design. Lindsey and Ari, you may be far away but we still appreciate all your help and everything you've done to help us get where we are. We can't wait for your return!! And of course, our friends and family who have supported this project and provide the encouragement to keep us going. Special thanks go out to Jackie De Jesu for our new logo!! We love it and think it really embraces what we are all about. Also want to thank Katie Ablan, thanks for your help!

Our plan is to provide healthy meals at 'break-even prices'. Making these dishes affordable and comparable to the prices of dinners at McDonald's & Burger King. We will offer pre-made meals and ready to cook meals for both individuals and families.Our goal is to purchase a mixed-use building in the area that is in need of total rehab. We will take this building, make it livable, modern and desirable then rent out the apartments above the storefront. Our value as an LLC will be in the ownership of the building. All our rental profits and profits from the business will be to pay for operations and to maintain the ability to price the meals at a lower cost, by doing this we will be providing jobs as well as the affordable healthy food to the area. Although we are 'for profit' we will have a non-profit sector that will allow people from all over the world to 'pay it forward' and donate via our app and website, allowing an eligible individual or family to retrieve a free meal. We will gather information from local non-profits, and social services to compile a list of eligible candidates to get 'something healthy' for free. Why Newburgh? Why healthy food?  For many reasons, Newburgh is the perfect place for 'Something Healthy' to get its start. The main one being that the area is missing viable healthy food options, another being that our founder is a permanent resident of the area and has personal equity in the community. There are multiple buildings in need of restoration, and Newburgh is a beautiful historic area. Healthy food and better food options create better health of any community's residents, leading to better performance at work and school and better job retention and better grades.  Of the 30,000 residents in the city of Newburgh, 32% of them are considered to be living below the poverty line. Only 50% of the buildings in the city of Newburgh are on the city's tax roll.  Only 35% of the people living in the city of Newburgh are homeowners There are >2 Supermarkets in the immediate area of the city of Newburgh There are 0 affordable healthy food options   Examples of meals and dishes and their prices a few food options Why do we need your help? Currently, the market in Newburgh is at an all-time high. A bunch of 'developers' who purchased these abandoned, destroyed and dilapidated buildings are refusing to put money into them with the goal of selling them at the peak of the market with little to no additional investment. Leaving many buildings on our beautiful streets of broadway and liberty unoccupied, unused, some not even on the tax roll.  We have been in tons of meetings with philanthropists, investors, and lenders, and we have been told 'NO', many of them don't believe Newburgh is ready for this. This has not deterred us from our goal.  Our plan now is to take it into our own hands. The total cost of this project will be $450k, of which we have $50k set aside of personal funds to complete. our gounder also has found a lender to provide him with a loan of $200k. Although we want to own the building outright with no lender, we are settling and setting the humble goal of $65,000 and will find the rest of the funds needed if this campaign is successful. If we get enough support we will extend our goal! Maybe the proof provided by the pledges from this campaign will put the fire under the butts of some local philanthropists to get involved. We WANT to pay taxes to the city of Newburgh, and we want to make it BETTER! The funds collected will go towards the purchase and full renovation of the entire building. We have our eyes set on one, and with a cash payment, we can get it at a better price. These 'investors' have quit on the area and are letting go of their portfolio, which includes a piece of prime real estate on Liberty street.  We want this one building!!! After years of touring the world as an artist, our founder purchased a home and began raising his family in the town of Newburgh. Growing up in Brentwood, NY on long island, our founder always wanted to be part of the revitalization of an area. Little did he know, his wife would bring him to the perfect area for his dream to come true. Our founder Kurt Damas has a passion for creating and helping others. He is a serial entrepreneur and has had success in the music industry, tech space, and the quick service restaurant world. Most recently he has successfully opened a cafe in the neighboring town of New Windsor, being the first minority-owned Coffee shop in the town. He took a 'white vanilla box' and turned it into a state of the art space on a shoestring budget. He is a visionary, and passionate about being part of the renaissance of Newburgh. Noticing the glaring need for a supermarket or a healthy food option, he has done 2 years of research and decided the best way to get what the area needs, was to create it. Our founder Kurt Damas hosting a charity Red Tie Party for Newburgh Boys & Girls Club EXAMPLES OF HIS WORK FROM START TO FINISH Example of his interior design skills   EXPENSE BREAKDOWN   BUILDING PURCHASE - $250K (Estimated price after speaking to realtor)  BUILDING REHAB - $150K (This includes inspections, permits, buildout)  BRANDING - $10K (This includes the shirts and drawstring bags bulk orders)  EQUIPMENT PURCHASE - $20K (Fridges, Tables, storage, containers)  STARTUP COSTS - $20K (Licenses, insurance, Inventory, trademarks) WE HOPE YOU CAN HELP!! PLEASE SHARE AND SPREAD THE WORD, BE PART OF SOMETHING SPECIAL AS WE CHANGE THE NEIGHBORHOOD ONE BUILDING AT A TIME. Risks and challenges Although this isn't our founder's first time, there are always surprises when rebuilding an entire building. We do not anticipate anything going wrong, but if anything does it may delay our opening. We run the risk of this campaign not being enough and will have to raise more outside funds to hit the 200k mark in additional funds we need, this may also prolong our timeline. But there is no need to worry, we are dedicated to making it happen! and we WILL!

George & Laurel is a contemporary jewelry line seeking funding in order to progress into a full-functioning sustainable business with an infrastructure that supports longevity. By reaching our goal of $10,000 we will then have the capital to utilize the Los Angeles-based factories and suppliers, supporting the community that has fostered our creative goals. We seek to produce quality products with creative integrity. Our premiere collection is titled Ladies Who Lunch, reinterpreting the conservative female role with one of a more liberated feel. The collection mixes the color palate of delicate macaroons, whiskey, ashed cigar, and rare steak with the equally as powerful elements of faceted stones and heavy chain, resulting in a boisterous woman who enjoys the fruits of life while still getting down to business.  

Nicole Lebreux was selected to show her Spring 2020 collection at Providence, RI's Fashion Week in September, let's make it happen! Hello! My name is Nicole Lebreux and I am the one woman circus behind Nicole Lebreux Original Apparel. Recently I was selected to show my Spring 2012 Collection during Providence Styleweek at the end of August 2011. This will be my most ambitious project to date which is horribly terrifying and completely exhilarating at the same time. Up until this point I have been completely self funded, waiting tables at night while I work hard during the day to make my entrepreneurial dreams come true. I have never liked the idea of loans, backers, or owing someone something for their support, hence I was so thrilled when I learned about Kickstarter! It's such a fantastic way to collaborate with other like minded individuals and supporters of the arts where everyone gains something and no one owes anyone. Thank you so much in advance for you enthusiastic patronage! ABOUT THE COMPANY NicoleLebreux Original Apparel is a collection of women’s wear that has the environment and the female form in mind. Our garments are made locally in Bristol, Rhode Island and Fall River, Massachusetts by women who carry on the quickly disappearing tradition of apparel manufacturing in southeastern New England. The garments are made out of vintage, recycled, surplus and/or other environmentally friendly fabrics. Most of our fabrics are bold and vibrant to make you smile and feel empowered while our designs are made to fit your body, exactly how it is. We want our clothing to be comfortable and easy to wear, not something that you have to squeeze into and can’t wait to take off. So enjoy our creations and know that in doing so you are supporting the local economy, sustainability, and the handmade movement. THE SHOW! My runway presentation will take place at 7:00 pm on Wednesday August 31, 2011 in the famed Providence Performing Arts Center in downtown Providence, Rhode Island. There I will showcase my Spring 2012 collection including casual daywear, cocktail attire, and even some swimsuits! The show will be part of Providence Styleweek, a fully produced week of fashion shows that features emerging and established designers from all over the Northeast. The week gains more press and prestige with every bi-annual show and has quickly grown to be one of the most talked about fashion events in the Northeast. WHERE YOUR MONEY WILL GO I will be spending the money raised from Kickstarter to offset costs relating to the show including; fees for participating, hiring models, purchasing fabrics, the making of samples, and the purchasing of accessories for the show. A sample breakdown will go: $800 - Participation in the show $800 - Model Fees $800 - Fabric, notions, and production of samples $400 - Shoes, jewelry, and other accessories for the presentation $300 - Kickstarter and Credit Card Processing Fees Any additional money raised will be used to purchase fabrics, produce samples, and accessorize the models for the show. THANK YOU! You all have my humblest gratitude for your support of this project. It means such a great deal to me that you are willing to financially support an artist trying to make her independent small business dreams come true in a world of fast paced big box consumerism. You are making a difference in not only my life but also in the handmade and artisan community as well. From the bottom of my heart, thank you. Are you of the male gender or a woman who wants to support the project but is not interested in any of the rewards? Contact me and we can tailor something specifically for you! International supporters! Please add $10 to your contribution to cover international shipping. Thank you!

After working two horses, Désirée sat down in her barn to change pants for the umpteenth time. "Why?", she wondered. "Why can't I buy pants that are functional and practical for riding AND perform and look good in the rest of my life?" As Dez and husband Eric researched the market, they learned that 90% of the more than 20 million amateur horseback riders in the U.S. are women...whose average age is 35 and rising! And they discovered that no major manufacturer offers an inside-seamless jean, cut for adult women. Smooth Stride had once produced the best riding jeans available, but had fallen on hard times and just ceased operations following an off-shoring effort. Dez and Eric bought Smooth Stride, have re-designed the product to capture the original intent, added some cool features, and want to bring production back to the U.S.A. Thus, "Kick in the Pants" is a brand revival project. Why? One: nobody offers jeans that are designed to fit a woman's curves, especially when mounted in the saddle. Two: jeans are constructed with an inseam and uncomfortable lump where it crosses the center seam in the crotch...including so-called "riding" jeans! Smooth Stride jeans have no inseam! Three: nobody offers a full seat riding pant with a Western, boot-cut leg. Smooth Stride Full Seat Jeans are exactly that! What? Smooth Stride wants to bring comfortable jeans to the women who ride horses. We want you to feel great in the saddle, and look great out. We have redesigned the jeans and focused on superior fit and comfort, premium materials, and carefully graded sizes 4 through 24. We're obsessed with our target demographic: women who ride. We've built an all-U.S.A. supply chain. An e-commerce has been created. Now we're finally ready for production, but need seed money to "prime the pump". The $30k goal will finish the last of the design work. It will purchase denim, microsuede, zippers, buttons, thread, labels, etc., and will pay for cutting, sewing, finishing, tagging, packaging, and shipping. And it will launch the product in two of the planned sales channels: website sales, and trunk sales (see "Where?" below). Rewards! Update: Reduced Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Prices (MSRP). Based on Kickstarter backers' feedback, we've reduced MSRP for the Jeans. Just Jeans now $100, Knee Patch Jeans now $110, Full Seat Jeans now $130. Kickstarter does not allow any changes to the reward descriptions after it has been selected by a backer, so the reward descriptions reflect the original MSRP. How? "Scoop Fit" waist. Our exclusive, highly contoured waistband: ...provides a relatively high-rise back and relatively low-rise front, specifically designed for a woman's body mounted in the saddle. ...is graded specifically for fit and coverage in the larger sizes. ...completely eliminates the "gap" at the back when seated in the saddle (or anywhere else), or jumping position. ...provides full back coverage, whether seated or jumping, but rides below the natural waist in front to allow full freedom of movement and maximum comfort. ...features a stretch microsuede lining: soft and luxurious, and keeps shirts tucked in! Regular jeans = gap ... Smooth Stride Scoop Fit = no gap! No-Inseam construction has always been a feature of Smooth Stride pants. This important design detail eliminates the cause of chafed and raw skin when that seam is normally located between you and your saddle.   Welt Cell Phone Pocket Whether you're an endurance rider, trail or extreme trail rider, or simply hacking for pleasure or conditioning, you don't want to be without your cell phone in case of trouble. And if there is trouble, the phone doesn't do you much good if it's on your horse (unless you've trained him to voice-dial). So we designed an unobtrusive, secure, and comfortable place to keep your phone with you. The angled welt pocket is located on the outside of the right thigh and designed with interior shelves that prevent the phone from slipping out accidentally. Styles We are intentionally keeping a tight focus to ensure success. We will initially offer just three styles of jeans, below. The stretch goal of $60k will enable production of the English Leg (narrower, shorter, for inside of half-chaps or riding boots, already designed) for the three styles below. We have demand for other colors and fabrics, but again...staying focused for now. Just Jeans Spectacular Western-style blue jeans...with Scoop-Fit waist and without that nasty inseam. Constructed of 10.5 oz., 99% cotton denim (1% Spandex for just the right amount of stretch). The cotton is grown and milled in the U.S. This soft, superior quality denim feels, wears, and washes every bit as well as you (and we) would expect. Just Jeans feature an unobtrusive welt pocket for your cell phone on the outside of the right thigh (but not shown below) and the slightly flared Western Boot-cut leg is offered in three lengths: Long, Longer, and Longest! Work your horse(s), muck stalls, run to the grocery store, pick up the kids...all without changing pants! We designed these to be your everyday working jeans (but they look good enough to be your dancing jeans)! Full Seat Jeans The Full Seat Jeans are constructed with a full seat and inner leg of microsuede - an amazing material that looks, feels, and wears like real suede leather...but it doesn't stain, wear, or tear. The microsuede washes and dries as easily as the denim, and feels luxurious against your skin as it wicks away moisture. And on top of all that, it's made from re-cycled plastic bottles! The Smooth Stride Scoop-Fit waist provides superior fit and comfort, in the saddle and out. Smooth Stride's Welt cell phone pocket is located on the outside of the right thigh, but the Full Seat Jeans do not have back pockets. Both the denim and the suede stretch for maximum comfort and great looks. The Full Seat Jeans feature a slightly flared Western Boot-cut leg and come in three lengths: Long, Longer, and Longest! High-end performance of an expensive riding breech and the everyday practicality of your regular jeans. Spectacular fit and comfort to boot! You will look GREAT in these jeans. Knee Patch Jeans Just like the Just Jeans...except add a patch of that beautiful microsuede from the Full Seat Jeans, on the inside of each leg from above the knee to the bottom of the leg. The seams, of course, avoid saddle pressure points. Extra protection, comfort, and grip between you, your saddle, tack, and your horse. Scoop-Fit waist, Welt cell pocket, back pockets, but no inseam! (And these Knee Patch Jeans fit perfectly and look great too!) Where? Fit is always a challenge for buying clothes on-line, especially pants. So order whatever sizes you think will fit - we pay the shipping...and then return whatever doesn't fit within a week - we pay the shipping again (North America)! Second, trunk sales. Mobile vendors take their booths or trailers to horse show and trade show venues and sell direct, providing customers an alternative to on-line buying. Smooth Stride will support this channel with distributor agreements that provide wholesale discounts to existing or new independent "trunk sales" vendors. We will offer kits consisting of a rolling cabinet unit, banner, and starting inventory. We wanted to offer this as the top-tier reward here on Kickstarter, but it just got too complex. So if you're interested, give us a call after the project is successful! (and help us to spread the word so that it IS successful!) We'd love to put you into business with Smooth Stride Jeans! Third, your local "Ranch & Home" or "Murdoch's", or wherever you go for quality farm supplies, horse tack, and western work wear. We believe that a) selection for proper fit, b) immediate availability, and c) experiencing the product quality first-hand are the value elements that your local "brick and mortar" store can bring via this channel. A "stretch goal" of $60k will accelerate our entry into the retail market. Who? Désirée: is a professional equestrienne and competitor. She is the youngest woman ever to compete with the U.S. Eventing Team (World Championships - 1978; she was 18), and still loves to compete in her beloved 3-Day Event discipline. She has been teaching riders, training horses and changing pants for over 25 years. Eric: is a business, product, and manufacturing professional, and has spent the last 20 years in technology start-ups, wearing a wide variety of hats and gaining the experience under each of them. "I love to build lean, quality processes", he says, "and I've always enjoyed learning a new field - and right now this learning curve is nearly vertical! But we've hired world-class experts to provide course corrections along the way and we're having great fun. It seems as though every time I look at a pair of jeans, it is with new eyes!" Together Dez and Eric believe that they have discovered an under-served demographic and need and they are committed to fulfilling that need. What Else? Well, we recently updated our logo...and used Kaushan Script for the font...which exists because of a successful Kickstarter campaign! Nice work, Pablo - we will donate some proceeds from our "Kick in the Pants"! Horseback Magazine - January, 2014 A stretch-stretch goal: we want to purchase equipment and bring the cutting and sewing in-house. We want to employ local folks, and provide them long term careers. We want to pay them a good salary and provide benefits. We want to apply the proven principles of lean manufacturing in the garment industry and move away from batch processing and toward single-piece flow and make-to-order. And finally, a GREAT BIG THANK YOU to the many folks who have helped us in this endeavor! Jim, J.D., John, Julie, and Jessie. Ilana, Alissa, Carol-Lynn, Désirée B., Kelli, Shaela and Christine. Kathleen and Kayla. André and Cynthia. Oh, and of course the horses: Quinn, Frenchy, Lacey, Hero, and Willie! Risks and Challenges A ton of foundation-laying has been done in order to minimize risks. We have contracted with an expert pattern maker with more than 30 years of industry experience. Our business and advisory board brings impressive credentials and tough questions. Fabrics and other inputs have been sourced, we know their availability and cost, particularly the denim. A skilled and experienced sewing contractor is selected, and back-up contractor with sufficient capability and capacity is identified. Market channels are identified and working plans developed. Material and risk insurance policies are in place. A key to success, we believe, is frequent review of assumptions and the willingness and guts to change if and when reality slaps the side of our heads and whispers that we're going in the wrong direction. The largest risk is whether there is the demand for these products that we believe there is. This campaign will go a long way toward answering that question. Assuming that demand, there are no challenges that we won't overcome. We believe there is a real need for this product and we're committed to fulfilling it. Things never work out exactly as one plans, but we are ready and eager to adjust to reality as we go along.

The name comes from my love of wandering. Growing up in Los Angeles I developed a passion for discovering new things, exploring the different neighborhoods. My wanderlust expanded beyond LA, to the rest of the world. I want to see, taste and smell other cultures around the globe. It's that discovery that led me to painting and designing. I take inspiration from my travels and infuse them into my designs. I'm also a fashion lover and that's where I want to take my art, into fabric and garment design, fusing my passions together. SCARVES My first line with Wandering Boho is a collection of scarves based on my original paintings. What I love about using paintings as the basis of my designs is how the texture of the medium comes through. The prints feel like they have depth and texture. I've designed 8 looks that cover a range of colors and prints. I've decided on silk because it feels luxurious to the touch and it's an amazing fabric to showcase colors and textures. Kaleidoscope Scarf - 42x42 Hello Yellow Scarf - 42x50 Exotic Nights Scarf - 37x37 Seeing Stars Scarf - 42x42 Super Star Scarf - 42x42 Kiss Me Scarf - 42x42 Festival Days - 37x37 Take Flight Scarf - 37x37 PRODUCTION I've found a vendor who carries wonderful silks and can print my designs digitally, beautifully matching my colors. Digital printing allows for unlimited colors, smaller quantities than traditional methods and provides excellent light color fastness. So far I've produced samples. The next step is to finalize the designs and begin production of my collection. GIFTS For your contribution I'm offering signed prints of my art works and a selection of scarves. "Festival" Painting "Hello Yellow" Painting "Stars" Painting "Kiss Me" painting "Take Flight" painting "Exotic Nights" Painting With your help today I can bring this dream to life. Thank you for visiting my kickstarter. Risks and Challenges Potential risks to the project include production complications or delays. Digital printing on silk can be challenging, so there is the potential for under runs or timing delays as a result. My vendor is in china, as that's where some of the best silks in the world are produced. With that there can be shipping delays due to customs clearance.

ABOUT THE PROJECT: After months of design development, sample making, and business planning I am launching my own jewelry line this upcoming Fall. The line will launch with SUMMER CAMP, a series of manually machine-knit and hand "gimped" necklaces. My plan is to approach shops and boutiques around the US and internationally about stocking the collection for Spring 2013. I will also sell the collection independently through my website. With your help I will be able to begin production, print marketing materials for merchants, work with the graphic designers at In Residence to brand the line, enter FOCUS an accessories trade-show in Los Angeles, and ultimately start my business! The collection grew from a piece constructed with lanyard in my RISD thesis  collection 'NEO-90ies'. After making this collection, I still found myself intrigued with this almost dead craft trend. Since then I've been integrating this kitschy craft hobby into my textiles practice. When paired with knitted elements, lanyard is translated into something entirely new! friendships 4 a lifetime/trail 2 the treasure/1st kiss by the council fire The collection both reinterprets and pays homage to the lanyard braiding phenomenon, resulting in a collection inspired by: SUMMER CAMP! The pieces are constructed entirely of textile related techniques and contain no traditional elements of jewelry hardware. The striped composition of each machine-knit cord is unique, since they are spontaneously machine-knit with a KH-930 electronic Brother Machine at my studio in Los Angeles. The same exact gimp stitches you may remember from summer camp are used to integrate the knitted cord within the intricately handwoven holographic and translucent plastic lace. The necklaces are incredibly soft, lightweight, colorful, and hopefully remind you of the summer you made lanyards 24/7! color-war BREAKOUT necklace REWARDS By taking part in helping me launch my line you will be the very first to own pieces from the SUMMER CAMP collection (a season early) and at half the retail price! International backers please add $5 to your pledge for shipping. You will only be charged when the project ends and if we make it to $10,000. What the Funds Will Be Used For: After precisely calculating the costs, I have arrived at a goal of $10,000. These funds will be used for every element of putting the SUMMER CAMP collection into production such as: MATERIALS- To produce wholesale and online orders I will need to make large orders of yarn, lanyard, and packaging materials. PRINTING - I will need to print catalogs, business cards, and line sheets for buyers, as well as invoices, hang tags, labels, and stickers for packaging. MARKETING- The graphic designers at In Residence photographed the collection. I have also hired them to design the catalog, among other odds and ends to brand the line. Justin Seibert created the Kickstarter video, and will be working on other projects to market the collection. Funding the Kickstarter helps them out too! TRADESHOW- Entry fees for possibly showcasing the collection at FOCUS, an accessories trade show at the LA Fashion Market. REWARDS & SHIPPING - Material, packaging, and shipping costs to send you all some pieces from the collection! +10% kickstarter & amazon fees For those of you unfamiliar with the laws of Kickstarter, I will not receive ANY funds if my goal is not reached. THANKS Thank you in advance to everyone who supports this project! It makes me so happy to know that these necklaces will be worn and appreciated by all of you who help me in launch the collection.  

Story I love traditional bandanas. For a long time, I have wanted to design one with a little extra pizzazz. In this case, peppered with the added menace of angry paisleys, monsters, pests, a plethora of bats...the world’s first BADbandana. Don with prototype. Approximate color. I’m going to reproduce this drawing as a 21-inch square bandana. White creatures on traditional deep blue background. These bandanas will be 100 percent cotton printed right here in the good-old USA. (Dyed, not that stiff, obnoxious silkscreening we all hate.) What do you get? A total of more than 400 obnoxious creatures. All combined into a serenely symmetrical composition that is an homage to the paisley-enriched bandanas of yesteryear. Bandanas have so many uses in fashion, personal hygiene, and piracy. No one is going to want just one. So I’m offering reward levels of BADbandanas in packs of three. BADbandanas make superb gifts. So even if you aren’t a big fan of bandanas, you may want to get a bunch to share with your friends, family, and favorite cowboys. Do you need a reminder of how you can use your BADbandanas? WHAT ABOUT MORE CALAMITYWARE PLATES? Yes, more Calamityware plate designs are coming in 2015. I’ll keep doing them until you’re sick of them...or I am. I hope calamitous bread plates, bowls, and mugs can get into the mix too. Watch for email updates or like the Calamityware Facebook page for fresh news. Meanwhile, if you have gaps in your Calamityware plate collection or need gifts, visit Calamityware.com. Isn’t it obvious that BADbandanas will make excellent napkins for use with your Calamityware plates? Risks and Challenges The basic techniques of making bandanas are centuries old. But even this simple and mature technology can probably still go wrong in surprising ways. I’ve learned from my previous Kickstarter projects that fiascoes lurk everywhere. [Cue the inspirational music] I can’t promise you that this project will unfold smoothly. It might. But based on recent experience, I doubt that. I’ll do all I can to anticipate problems and vanquish threats. For example, I’m now aligned with a new shipping team (Fulfillrite) for this project in hopes that your rewards will be sent in a much more timely and transparent manner. So far, they have been wonderful to work with. Whatever happens, I promise to get my sponsors whimsical bandanas as soon as possible after the project closes. Your BADbandanas will reach you in good condition and be ready to enjoy—a distinctive blend of beauty, utility, and humor.

Risks and challenges Risks and Challenges We are so excited about this project. We’ve had many sleepless nights making sure that everything is perfect. While we can’t anticipate every issue, we are committed to resolving any challenges that might arise during the fulfillment process. Product Manufacturing Final has been producing FinalStraw for two years with a trusted manufacturer. We will maintain constant communication with our manufacturer to ensure on-time delivery and to address any production issues that may arise. Shipping Our third party logistics company is ready to begin fulfilling orders and shipping packages as soon as FinalWipe is received at their facility in Los Angeles, CA. Product Guarantee All Final products come with a limited lifetime warranty. We are in the business of making products that solve problems—if you are unhappy with your purchase, please let us know! Story   This project is promoted by Green Inbox Risks and challenges Risks and Challenges We are so excited about this project. We’ve had many sleepless nights making sure that everything is perfect. While we can’t anticipate every issue, we are committed to resolving any challenges that might arise during the fulfillment process. Product Manufacturing Final has been producing FinalStraw for two years with a trusted manufacturer. We will maintain constant communication with our manufacturer to ensure on-time delivery and to address any production issues that may arise. Shipping Our third party logistics company is ready to begin fulfilling orders and shipping packages as soon as FinalWipe is received at their facility in Los Angeles, CA. Product Guarantee All Final products come with a limited lifetime warranty. We are in the business of making products that solve problems—if you are unhappy with your purchase, please let us know! Long-lasting design Designed to last forever, FinalWipe is made from durable material. Reusability and recyclability FinalWipe is designed to replace single-use wipes. Sustainable materials FinalWipe is made with eco-friendly bamboo fiber material. The counter container and travel case are made from recycled plastic. The CleanTab is made with non-toxic ingredients. Environmentally friendly factories Our manufacturing facility has environmental and social responsibility certifications. Sustainable Distribution Our shipping packaging is 100% plastic-free. Something else Single-use plastics are a disaster—polluting our lands, endangering marine ecosystems, and contaminating the food chain. Our mission is to create reusable, responsibly made, badass products that reduce the need for single-use products, empower individuals to change their buying habits, and raise awareness about the impacts of our everyday decisions.    

Accessories A highly-functional system designed to change the way you think about travel.     This campaign is promoted by Backercamp. Since 2012, Backercamp has helped 5,000+ creators make their projects a reality, raising over $250MM through crowdfunding. Risks and Challenges Welcome to Boundary’s 4th Kickstarter project since 2016. As all of our customers know, our goods are manufactured with a relentless attention to detail and a keen attention to our impact on the planet. Starting a crowdfunding campaign is terrifying and amazing but we are extremely prepared to procure fabrics, manufacture high quality products, and fulfill orders on time. We know what we are doing and you can trust our team’s experience, intuition, supply chain, and fulfillment team will deliver a product with unbeatable value, quality, and technical abilities. Manufacturing Risks: Let’s be honest, things happen. We at Boundary do our absolute best to mitigate these issues, but again, things happen. Timelines can be affected if say a machine breaks at the factory, power goes out, wrong parts are delivered, etc. Shipping Risks: This certainly has been one of the largest opportunities Boundary has had to improve from the past. As simple as it may seem, shipping Boundary products both domestically and internationally is a very intricate task! To improve this experience for customers of this campaign, and all future Boundary customers, we have implemented some large changes from our last few campaigns. International customers will now see a new payment process at checkout. During this process, customers will have the ability to prepay duties, select DDP vs DDU shipments, and have full clarity at checkout on what the additional fees and charges will be per applicable country. All shipments will be sent with the correct international documents to ensure smooth delivery to your final destination. We aim to minimize our footprint by shipping fewer bulk shipments and sourcing components local to our factories when possible to minimize the impact. We also plan to ship in all recycled and plant based packaging to help offset the footprint from shipping globally. Something Else We are constantly looking to improve our supply chain and we are currently working on developing and using more recycled material into our projects

Sea of Stars is a turn-based RPG inspired by the classics. A prequel story set in The Messenger’s universe, it tells the story of two Children of the Solstice who will combine the powers of the sun and moon to perform Eclipse Magic, the only force capable of fending off the monstrous creations of the evil alchemist known as The Fleshmancer. Promising the Sabotage touch in every system, Sea of Stars aims to modernize the classic RPG in terms of turn-based combat, storytelling, exploration and interactions with the environment, while still offering a hearty slice of nostalgia and good old, simple fun. Coming to PC and Consoles in 2022. Key ingredients : Engaging turn-based combat. Combat gameplay includes active player input during attack animations (timed hits), multi-character combo attacks, boosting, and strategic defense options to hinder enemies while they are channeling powerful attacks or spells. For a more immersive experience, there are no random encounters or transitions to separate battlefields, and no grinding. Both navigation and combat happen in the same environment. Unshackled traversal. Swim, climb, vault, jump off or hoist up ledges as you run through the world with a navigation system based on platformer expertise that breaks free from the classic bound-to-the-grid tile-based movement. Prequel story set in The Messenger’s universe. Dozens of original characters and story arcs will take you on a captivating journey. Sometimes epic, sometimes silly, and other times emotional, Sea of Stars does its RPG duty of exploring classic themes of adventure and friendship, while also being chock-full of the unexpected twists and events you’ve come to expect from a Sabotage production. Full-on dynamic lighting our custom-made render pipeline allows the creation of a breathtaking world coming to life by pushing the limits of 2D pixel-art games. The Sabotage treatment on the turn-based RPG genre. Every system has been deeply analyzed to create an experience that pays respect to retro classics, while reworking some elements in order to offer a modernized experience free of irritants and overly lengthy sequences. Turn-based combat No random encounters, no separate battlefield: Considering immersion a top priority, combat is initiated by physical contact with an enemy, and battle takes place in the same field as navigation, seamlessly, with no loading or transition. No grinding: Character progression in Sea of Stars flows naturally along with the story, without the need for any grinding. This concept is supported by a combat system which relies mainly on strategy and skill rather than statistics. That being said, you will very much be leveling up, increasing your stats and unlocking new special moves. Synergies: During battle, everything is based on building up momentum and effects over a few rounds, to eventually unleash massive damage by cashing out on your build up. Featuring six very distinct playable characters, and a lot of synergies between each of them, there are a lot of ways to take down opponents. Timed hits: Celebrating the greats of our childhood, we top it off with a ‘timed hits’ mechanic, where precise player input will increase damage done by your characters, or mitigate incoming attacks. Losing a battle doesn’t mean you should go back and grind, but rather that it’s time to apply what you learned from the enemy’s attack patterns and improve your execution the next time around. With skill and strategy as your main weapons, there is always ample room for improvement when a particular encounter proves challenging. Spell-breaking: Making a point to break the potential linearity of turn-based combat, enemies can mount especially strong attacks or spells. While a good use of timed hits will always remove a good chunk of the damage dealt, even the smallest minion can be lethal if left unchecked while casting. Enemies in a casting state display a bar with what we simply refer to as “locks”, each with an icon representing the damage type required to break it. For every broken lock, the ensuing spell’s efficiency is reduced. Break all of them, and the enemy’s action is entirely cancelled. This spell-breaking gameplay mechanic truly comes to life when groups of enemies demand clutch reactions and choices as more than one is preparing a spell, coupled with playable characters capable of combo attacks and multi-hit special moves. Boss fights: No RPG would be complete without big bosses, and of course Sea of Stars is no exception. For bosses, we are also looking at breaking the potential linearity of rinse and repeat for x amount of rounds to win. Each boss will present different attack patterns to learn, evolving through manually scripted phases and special events. Banking on the synergies, timed hits and spell-breaking mechanics, bosses will offer ample room for longer-haul strategies, giving players the freedom to see how much damage they can really deal in a single round with enough preparation time. Boost: To shake things up even more, performing a regular attack generates “Eclipse Orbs”, which can later be absorbed to double the effect of any action (regular attack, special attack, healing, spells, etc...) Depending on the situation, it may be wiser to save your orbs for later, perhaps to quickly get rid of an enemy that begins casting a spell with too many locks, or, in the case of longer battles like bosses, to dish out as much damage as possible once everything has been put in place for damage to be increased during a short window. Unshackled traversal - no rigid tile-per-tile movement Putting our platformer experience to good use, we make a point for moment-to-moment gameplay to present satisfying controls, micro challenges, and varied traversal opportunities. In other words, venturing through the rich environment should be accompanied by a feeling of freedom. While multiple paths and approaches can lead to your objective, leaving the main road and exploring less accessible (or hidden) areas will be rewarded. Climb, jump, run, swim, vault and dive as you progress through villages and dungeons of all kinds. Anytime it feels like you can interact with something, the odds are that you can. Hoist up on rooftops, or jump off ledges into deep natural pools to explore underwater tunnels. Stick to the main objective, or follow your curiosity and see for yourself what wonders lay hidden. World Map Traveling between points of interest takes place in a classic World Map view where adventurers can roam around, free of enemy encounters. Those who like to go off the beaten path will find many optional areas concealing upgrades, vanity items, and side quests. Sailing Since traveling between islands is a key part of the adventure, the party naturally gets its own boat. With full analog control, you will be invited to negotiate waves, and take advantage of the upwards and downwards formations to optimize for speed. While it isn’t anything that will ever block the casual sailor wanting to get to the next objective, we expect a lot of adventurers will be spending extra time sailing the world to play around with waves, look for sunken side-areas, secondary islands, or simply take a break from the hardships of heroism. The boat also acts as a mobile base of operations, which can be explored in close-up character view, where the party is fully settled in, and available for banter and guidance in-between major story beats. If you ever find yourself struck by the infamous “haven’t played in two weeks” RPG curse, you can rest assured that someone on your boat is ready to offer clear reminders as to what you should be doing next. Full-on dynamic lighting and shadows To truly convey the story of warriors using the power of the moon and the sun, we had to go hard on the lighting system. Spectacular spell effects thus being a given, the game also features real-time dynamic day and night cycles, which the player eventually gets to control with full granularity. Focusing sunlight through a prism in order to open some secret area may only be possible at high noon, while a magic flower blooms exclusively in the evening. You may want to follow a trail of glow-in-the-dark aquatic plants only visible at night, while some monsters like to sleep during the day. All of this ties into properly telling the story of Solstice Warriors , while also allowing for multiple puzzles and mechanisms dealing with light, shadows and reflections. Oh, and to make sure this world truly comes alive, we are also throwing in weather variations! Please back us. Six Unique Playable Combat Characters Sea of Stars features six unique playable combat characters, each with their own backstory, personal objectives, play-style, special skills, and synergies with the rest of the party. In this multi-layered story, motivations sometimes align in unexpected ways. In the interest of allowing you to go into the game without any major spoilers, we will only be revealing the two main protagonists here. Born on the Summer Solstice, Zale is optimistic and bold. He wields a sunblade, through which he can absorb Eclipse Orbs whenever his attacks need an extra kick. As a blade-dancer, he walks the path of the Guardian God Solen. The Elder Mist foretold that, in order to find his light and achieve his full potential, he will first need to “stare at the night inside of him”. Born on the Winter Solstice, Valere shows curiosity and balance. Gifted with Lunar Magic, she can absorb Eclipse Orbs in her moonstaff to dish out massive damage. Trained in the martial ways of the monk, she walks the path of the Guardian Goddess Luana. The Elder Mist sees great potential in her, believing she might one day be the one to “create paths on water”. Even though we will be keeping our favorite ideas under wraps for the foreseeable future, we’re happy to show you above a few of the things we've been working on for the protoype! For the sake of your enjoyment once the game releases, we want to be very careful with spoilers. However when it comes to mentors, villains, villagers, critters, pirates and abominations... as a full-fledged RPG, you can rest assured that Sea of Stars will have it all. Languages The Messenger is known for its quality localization that keeps the story intact, and we won’t settle for less when it comes to Sea of Stars. Everything will be localized by finely selected external partners who have a track record of excellence. Extra care and resources will always be directed towards ensuring that every language our games release in lets their player base enjoy the stories and events at the same level of quality as everyone else. At this time we expect to release with full support for the following: Platforms The game should be completed sometime in 2022, and is designed to be played on PC and console. For specifics, rest assured that we are in touch with the key players of our industry, and that the game will be wherever the players are. It is hard to predict platforms as we seem to be at the dawn of a new era, but we are keeping close watch, have extensive porting experience, and fully intend on supporting all current generation platforms with Sea of Stars. Risks and Challenges We are aware that Kickstarter projects often come with a certain level of risk for the backer, but we want to reassure you that this game will be completed no matter what happens during this campaign. Our team has extensive experience shipping games of all scopes, and we are surrounded by veterans from other studios who we can always rely on for sanity checks and feedback. It is our promise to every backer, that to the best of our knowledge and experience, the Sabotage team will always make sure the finances are aligned with the vision, that this vision is clear, shared by the team, technically feasible, and validated by players. Challenging each other is embedded in our culture, and no stones will be left unturned. Languages The Messenger is known for its quality localization that keeps the story intact, and we won’t settle for less when it comes to Sea of Stars. Everything will be localized by finely selected external partners who have a track record of excellence. Extra care and resources will always be directed towards ensuring that every language our games release in lets their player base enjoy the stories and events at the same level of quality as everyone else. At this time we expect to release with full support for the following: Platforms The game should be completed sometime in 2022, and is designed to be played on PC and console. For specifics, rest assured that we are in touch with the key players of our industry, and that the game will be wherever the players are. It is hard to predict platforms as we seem to be at the dawn of a new era, but we are keeping close watch, have extensive porting experience, and fully intend on supporting all current generation platforms with Sea of Stars.

The Project The time is now for The Mushroom Tarot! As I write this we are currently living in a day-to-day struggle of trying to stay connected to the people & things most important to us; what better metaphor for the ultimate–invisible–network of connectivity than mushrooms. Now more than ever the concept of mycelial networks connecting fungi, plants and animals is attractive to us humans. People all over the world are fascinated by the complexity & importance of mushrooms not only to our survival, but to the health of the planet! When I stand in the woods–usually while looking for mushrooms–I can sometimes visualize this underground mat of infinite fingers. Layer upon layer of a sparkly white tapestry, tying everything together & vibrating with life, endlessly spreading and sharing. Whoa. *** Mycelium Magic *** Tarot, as a format for artists and as a way to reflect on ourselves & our decisions, is attracting more and more intrigued followers as well. No wonder, with the timeless archetypal applications for assessing where we stand in relation to the world, ourselves and to all the wild happenings happening around us in a swirling cloud of radness. This deck will include the original 22 Major Arcana Cards from the first deck revised and colored, the 56 Minor Arcana cards with a mushroom genus attached to each suit in full color, and the 3 Myco Guide significator cards from the original deck. Updated Major Arcana Art Examples of Minor Suits & Court Cards There will also be an updated version of the original Info Guide with information about the Minor Arcana–why I chose the mushroom groups for each suit and a little about the wildlife chosen for the court cards. If we meet the initial goal–with your help!–of $11,200 the deck will be printed on 280gsm stock (just like the first deck), and will be in a matte-finish tuck box with a 24 page booklet. This will be the same specs as the last version of the deck, and everyone has seemed really happy with the deck quality. See way below for details on Stretch Goals, but if we reach the first stretch goal of $17,200 the deck will come in a 2-piece box for extra flashiness & sturdiness for the long haul. Some Background My name is Chris. I am an illustrator & screen printer & extreme mushroom enthusiast living in Corvallis, Oregon. I am a working artist. My day job is Corvidopolis–an art & apparel company featuring my illustrations that I hand print onto shirts & paper. I split my focus online and in-person at art & mushroom festivals. As a working artist focused on retail sales of my work I have a good amount of experience fulfilling orders in a timely fashion, scaling orders & inventory and working on a timeline! I've been fascinated with mycology and foraging for over a decade. Starting with some casual forays into the Oregon Coast Range with my brother back in the college days, and evolving into an annual schedule structured around mushroom seasons. It has been an amazing passion, built friendships that may have otherwise never gelled, and mixed with my art it has fueled a really unique aesthetic that I am daily amused by & truly feel blessed to work on as my livelihood. I have forever been graphically intrigued by Tarot, but only in recent years have I been introduced to Tarot in a different light. Through creating the First Edition Major Arcana deck in late 2018 / early 2019, and the subsequent experience of releasing that & meeting so many wonderful people, I feel like I've developed a personal connection to the system. Telluride Mushroom Festival 2019 With an almost immediate and truly humbling crowdfunding effort through my main art Instagram, Corvidopolis, I released the First Edition of The Mushroom Tarot as a black-and-white Major Arcana deck. It was an unexpectedly HUGE success, and I am still stunned and blushing with all the support for my work and this project! Right away folks started asking if I was going to complete the deck with all 78 cards, and many asked if the next version would be in color. So, without any further ado: A Full Color Mushroom Tarot Deck with 81 cards!!! Colored Major & Minor Examples I cannot stress enough that the realization of this project cannot happen without the help of all you lovely people!! I have received so much kindness, positive feedback & SUPPORT for the first edition, and met so many amazing people excited about the synergy between mushrooms & tarot, that I am 1000% pumped to see this become a real, live thing. Look below for some details on the different options for backing this project! Until we meet again: In the name of The Hyphae, The Spore and The Holy Host, may you and yours be well during this strangest of earthly times... Backer Tier Info EARLY BIRD 01: Get your preordered deck + a Limited Edition 6-color Silkscreen of The Spore card–only available on the first day of this Kickstarter! Signed & numbered and hand printed by me on French Paper Co. 100# Construction (US Made Paper) with water-based inks. Features a wicked split fountain (gradient ink pull) in the background with some bright sunrise:sunset action. The Spore 8"x10" Silkscreen EARLY BIRD 02: Get your preordered deck for the cheapest it will EVER be! A great option if you want to make sure you get one of this First Edition of the Full Mushroom Tarot, and you want to back early to help us get the word out & increase the likelihood that the project will get funded! Do it!! STICKER PACK - Comes with the 3 stickers shown below. The 2 die cut stickers are digitally printed by Stickermule, and the Death Card sticker is screenprinted on vinyl by Sticker Guy!. Sticker Pack HAND PRINTED TAROT CLOTH - 20"x20" All Natural 100% Cotton cloth with 1-color drawing hand printed with water-based ink. Hand Printed Tarot Cloth / Bandana HAND PRINTED SHIRTS OR TANKS - Choose from these 3 Major Arcana cards printed with super soft inks on 100% Cotton Black tees / tanks. Printed with love in the Corvidopolis Shop by me! Tees are Unisex available in XS-2X & Muscle Tanks are Ladies sizes S-XL. Hand Printed Tees Hand Printed Ladies Tanks 1ST EDITION, MAJOR ARCANA DECK - This was the original crowdfunded Mushroom Tarot from early 2019! There a limited number of these left for purchase, so grab one if you want to be part of origins of this project!! 1st Edition Mushroom Tarot, Major Arcana THE NEW MUSHROOM TAROT - This is what we're here for! This is the 1st Edition of the FULL Mushroom Tarot with all 22 cards of the Major Arcana, 56 cards of the Minor Arcana & 3 Myco Guide cards in FULL COLOR!! Depending on where we're at with stretch goals it will come in a tuck box or a sturdier / flashier 2-piece box––tell your friends so we can get that upgrade action! ORIGINAL PEN & INK ILLUSTRATION - If you back this one we'll have a chat about what mushroom : card combo you're imagining and how that might manifest itself. Then I'll lock myself in my studio & whip it up to match the style of the existing Mushroom Tarot cards. Only a few of these available, so act quickly if you want a custom original!   A WALK IN THE WOODS - If you back this ultimate package of Mushroom Tarot goods with an experiential adventure in the Oregon woods with me & my good friends, the Mushroom Kingdom, we will have to chat to make sure we can work out all the nuts & bolts of the real world. After that, you'll have a couple choices about habitat & delicous mushroom-centric food, and we'll have to figure the optimum time between your schedule and the seasonal preferences of shrumps. It will be rad, and we will walk in the woods most definitely. ADD-ONS - I'm new to Kickstarter, but as this plays out I'll try to figure out how we do add-ons. I see no reason why we can't do add-ons for any of the goods after we get this funded and we're working out all the details. Stay tuned for add-on prices and methods. Stretch Goals (GOT IT!!!) STRETCH GOAL 1 @ $17,200 - If we hit this milestone, we can upgrade the box to a sturdier & flashier 2-piece number. Mind you, I haven't had any negative feedback about the good ol' tuck box that is the standard, but who doesn't want to kick it up a notch for some unpackaging video slow-mo gold! Also at this mark everyone who backed at $20 or more will get a FREE Mushroom Tarot Psych sticker! STRETCH GOAL 2 @ $28,000 / REAL LIVE GUIDE BOOK - Alright! This one is a big time investment, but I think it is totally worth it!!! And you are all so amazing that I'm sure we will hit it! At $28,000 I will upgrade the small 24 page Info Guide that would be in the box to a full-fledged book (length TBD, but ~40 pages) that comes with the deck!!! This will be a perfect bound 4"x6" book full of all my thoughts on mushrooms + tarot + magic and a load of scribbles & sketches about my process and nature adventures!! BACKER MINI STRETCH @ $30,000 / Q&A WITH CHRIS - If we get to this milestone we'll sit down and have a nice chat! I will schedule a 60 minute Q & A on Zoom to meet with all the amazing backers of this project and talk about mushrooms, the woods, magic and tarot. I am not the most tech savvy individual, but we'll figure out how to make this work! Warning: I am prone to excessive rambling about the great outdoors and especially about mushrooms. STRETCH GOAL 3 @ $35,000 / GOLD FOIL ACCENTED BOX + STICKER - Pretty straightforward, but a welcome addition to the sculptural wonderment of the Mushroom Tarot box. This will push the box from a container to an objets trouves to ogle on your bookshelf or desk! Gold foil accents making that box pop!! Also, everyone who backed at $10 or more will get a FREE Mushroom Tarot Mantra sticker with our motto, "In The Name, of The Hyphae, The Spore and The Holy Host." BACKER MINI STRETCH @ $40,000 / PDF COLORING BOOK - Everyone who has backed the project will get a PDF Coloring Book of The Mushroom Tarot, Major Arcana with some limited edition drawing additions just for kicks! About 25 pages on 8.5x11 format; easy to print & fun for the whole family?! More Stretch Goals will be added if we cross these!! Let's do this!!!! Risks and Challenges As with everything I ship for my art & apparel web shops, I will be using recycled shipping materials, and doing my best to source supplies from small businesses with positive mission statements.

The Learning Partnership brings the first of what will be a series of Home Based practical learning challenges that will help children (and their parents!) get through the next several months of homeschooling. They are fun, easy to use and enable school kids to compete with each other from home, while taking on practical, engaging creative challenges. With these challenges we can make homeschooling fun and rewarding for all the family. If you pledge £45.00 you will receive the full [email protected] kit to your door for the start of the summer term. These challenges have been running as School based challenges for children aged 7 to 14 for the last 5 years. In that time 220,000 learners have taken part in our challenges so we know how to support large numbers of learners having a brilliant time. To support families through the Schools Shut down over the next 3+ months we are redesigning these challenges to be home based. These home based challenges will enable parents to create exciting, engaging, self-paced practical challenges that will keep children engaged and entertained while the parents try and get some home-based work completed! The Build to the Line - construction challenge Construction Challenge - designed and built cardboard bridges, model houses, disaster shelters out of cardboard. The Fly to the Line - Glider challenge Glider challenge - designed, built and flown gliders, learning the primary mathematics, Art, Design and Technology and Science curriculum as they have completed the challenge. While schools are in shut down, we know what a challenge it will be to keep our children motivated to learn, so we are going to put all our energies into designing home based kits and teaching resources to support fun and inspirational learning that enables parents to run home challenges that deliver the curriculum learning, but make it fun and exciting. There are challenge leader boards, previously used for the school challenges, to support kids competing with each other from home. It will be a blast, and most importantly it will be a cheap and accessible way for parents to maintain their child's education in the coming months of isolation. Risks and Challenges The risks to the project are simple. Not enough support. The Learning Partnership has been building this amazing learning resource for schools in the UK, India, Hong Kong, Vietnam, and Dubai for the last 5 years. We have a cloud platform that can support remote learning and collaboration between learners, parents and teachers all over the world which we make free at the point of use. We have already redesigned the primary challenges to be a [email protected] kit to link the world together through fun practical learning. we just need families to support us in manufacturing and crucially distributing all these kits for families to receive at the start of the summer term. Something Else If we receive enough support in terms of orders of the product we can commission an established partner, McClaren plastics who make our recycled wheels for the rocket car challenge, to make a special recycled plastic connector for the building challenge. this is the last part in our kit that we need to commission to be 100% recycled materials.

Meet DigitAize – the innovative digital mapping system for acoustic string instruments. If you play the violin, viola, cello or double bass, then take your time to discover all the great possibilities that open up through DigitAize! DigitAize is an innovative technology, introducing a digital mapping system for use with acoustic musical instruments. Our sensor-based technology can be mounted onto any string instrument and allows you to control virtual sounds, use real-time auto pitch-correction, live-notation - all this in a true polyphonic system with the lowest latency you shall ever experience. DigitAize is the perfect tool for music-making: it gives you the freedom to play your own instrument whilst also opening up the immense potential of digital music-making. Sounds interesting? Take a closer look at our newly developed technology… I. Control virtual sounds with our fully digital fingerboard. Wanna play drums on your violin? Check this out: II. Control synthesizer and samplers and shape them in a unique way. DigitAize brings virtual sounds to life: III. Use the build-in gyroscope to control MIDI-parameters and shape your sounds:   IV. Perform real-time notation on any digital notation software. V. Visualize and monitor the movements on your instrument. Keep track of the instrument movements, monitor its position and create beautiful personalized visuals:   DigitAize is an innovative digital mapping system for acoustic string instruments. You can mount it onto any violin, viola, cello or double-bass. We have created complete solutions for easy integration regardless of the sizes and scale lengths. Thanks to our adaptable housing, DigitAize will fit any instrument. In this pack you will get our patented sensor and the hardware module. With easy step-by-step instructions you will be guided through the mounting process. This pack includes 3 sensors, 1 DigitAize device, a wooden box to store the removable hardware module and 1 microUSB charging cable. DigitAize Pack - includes 3 foils, 1 digitAize module, 1 wooden box, micro-USB charging cable and mounting instructions DigitAize can be mounted on any string instrument. Together with DigitAize you will get the access to our powerful software infrastructure (read below...). !! Be careful to chose this pack if you play Violin, Viola or Cello !! Oversize instrument - special conditions. Be careful to choose this pack if you play Double Bass. Also here DigitAize can be mounted on any double bass. This pack includes 2 sensors, 1 DigitAize device, a wooden box to store the removable hardware module and 1 microUSB charging cable. 3. DigitAize for Violin You can also order DigitAize directly mounted on an acoustic violin. In this case you get a complete DigitAize factory-mounted on the instrument, so you won´t have to care about the mounting and calibrating procedure: Choose DigitAize Violin Set to get a fully mounted instrument. Just turn it on and start creating music SPECIAL OFFERS: Be quick to grab our special offers. Only available shortly: 🦅Super Early Bird Discount - only from 10.-12.03 - get a crazy price on each product. 🦆Early Bird Discount - only from 12.-15.03 - get a special price on each product. SPECIAL PACKS: 🎁 Gift DigitAize - make a special gift to a colleague or friend. DigitAize allows unlimited creative possiblities. And this is the greatest present one can get. ✅Get one, 🎁gift one - share this journey with that friend of yours. Experience togehter DigitAize: one little secret: you can even connect multiple instruments to the same computer and play digital duets together...just sayin´... DigitAize Education - we encourage innovative e-learning methods for musical education and endorse many music schools in evolving in this direction. With your reward you can gift a school with a DigitAize instrument and allow the next generation of young musicians to learn music in a new way. Before you get started, let us give you a more detailed insight on our product. Discover all the components that make DigitAize unique: DigitAize uses a patented high-resolution sensor, directly attached to the instrument. What it does? It keeps track of your finger movements while playing. It consists of a multi-layer construction, ultra-thin and ultra-precise. Ouf foil is the result of years of research and optimization. There is a patent pending on this technology Our foil is the result of years of research and optimization and we have a patent pending on this technology. Its high resolution is mind-blowing: the 12-bit converters provide up to 4096 values, which means that roughly 150 contact points fit under your fingertip. Even the slightest movement on the fingerboard is registered, making it the most powerful mapping system ever designed for any acoustic string instrument. Its patented multi-layer construction is the result of years of research and optimization. We studied the integration on the instrument carefully, thus developing over 7 different prototypes. Our patented sensor works as a second skin, measuring your precise finger position. It´s thin construction will literally disappear on the fingerboard The sound of your precious violin should never be manipulated, and we, as musicians ourselves, understand it well - that's why we put so much effort to let the DigitAize literally disappear on your instrument: it works like a second skin. This is the hearth of our system and we baked a lot of fancy tech into such a little device. Our goal was to put together all that is needed for making music, not more, not less. DigitAize is made to fit on any acoustic instrument. You will be able to adjust it and make it fit perfectly on your string instrument Inside this tiny shell we packed: 4 ultra-precise analog to digital converters. High-quality digital microphone that allows you to stream your audio wirelessly A digital mems-piezo microphone for perfectly tracking the volume of your microphone, with perfect noise cancellation system from external noises. A high-resolution gyroscope and accelerometer that keep track of even the tiniest movement on the instrument. USB rechargeable battery with up to 5 hours life Low latency Bluetooth and WIFI modules to stream all data We combined cutting-edge technology and high-end design to create this unique digital instrument, empowering you with new possibilities, to enhance your creative ideas. We worked hand-in-hand with instrument makers and luthiers and spent countless hours designing the best possible integration on the instrument, reducing the acoustical and optical impact to the minimum. The module is, unbelievably, only 7 mm high and 50 mm long and weighs just 20 g, fitting perfectly under the fingerboard of a violin. DigitAize Connect is the invisible bridge connecting your instrument to the major audio-workstations and music making software on your computer. We put great attention to every detail, to make DigitAize literally merge with your instrument. Modern times set demanding challenges for artists and innovators: DigitAize is our instrument, to empower your imaginative mind. Here all the features of DigitAIze at a glance... Real-time pitch tracking Control virtual sounds, a separate midi channel for each string and real-time auto pitch-correction, enabling a polyphonic live notation. Track instrument motion in real-time Visualize movements, track and record exact position, use gestures to trigger parameters or visualize graphics. Digital audio signal streaming Record audio wirelessly, keep track of intonation, control digital sound envelopes MIDI Device Unlimited MIDI channel and CC customization possible, customize parameters, control each string simultaneously, choose between monophonic and polyphonic MIDI, choose different playing modes: using tapping (playing without bow) or bow mode. Open strings detection might be slightly limited (depending on the instrument). Access raw data via open terminal Get unfiltered, raw data for research and academic applications, access to up to 12 different parameters streamed live. Usability and Innovation Non-invasive mounting on any instrument, strong and durable components, 5 hours plus battery life, patented sensor-based technology, multiple connection possibilities via Bluetooth and WIFI Of course, every great hardware needs a robust software to support it. During a long and complex feature analysis and developing period, we created an easy yet powerful software architecture that gives you immense freedom of expression. Let´s discover it! DigitAize Connect is the invisible bridge connecting your instrument to the major audio-workstations and music making software on your computer. There's almost unlimited scope for controlling the data from your instrument; routing MIDI channels, customizing MIDI AND CC, exporting raw data in higher resolution, visualizing 3D movement, setting advanced tuning options (as well as quarter tones!). Connect to your instrument in multiple ways, using Bluetooth, WIFI or Hotspot connection Connect multiple DigitAize instruments simultaneously, making music with your friends Get real-time notation with your instrument: Write music just by playing it. Get great 3D graphical visualization of the instrument movements allowing real-time motion tracking Customize MIDI channels and parameters, such as Pitch Bend, Aftertouch or ADSR, with the CC-matrix Open terminal for data stream – get the raw, unfiltered data using OSC protocol Compatible with the most common audio workstations: DigitAize Connect is compatibly with the major audio workstations The software also features a large collection of graphic interactive games, making practicing or playing music a lot of fun! Our software is the perfect bridge between your instrument and your computer. This powerful background application let´s you customize every parameter for the greatest flexibility of application Why not playing duets with your smartphone? Just saying…. Visualize and monitor your instruments mouvement directly from your smartphone monitor your instruments mouvement directly from your smartphone Monitor your digital fingerboard from your smartphone and record MIDI-track on-the-fly visualize your digital fingerboard and record in-App MIDI tracks The DigitAize App is the FIRST EVER App to connect directly to your acoustic instrument.It provides maximum flexibility, allowing you to work on your music anywhere. You can easily record MIDI tracks on-the-fly or just practice using the build-in metronome and advanced tuner. The App lets you also share your recordings on the fly. Have a look at all the cool features of this powerful tool: Connect using WIFI or Bluetooth Record, edit and create music. Easily create MIDI and Audio Recordings on the fly and export or share them from the App. Practice using the build-in tuner and metronome Keep track of the tuning of each string individually with advanced tuner options Catch and manage all streamed data, allowing communication with the major audio workstations and music-making software Experience your instrument in a completely new way with the DigitAize Smartphone App! Our hardware module is literally a powerhouse in a nutshell. At a glance: We worked hand-in-hand with instrument makers and luthiers and spent countless hours, conceiving and designing the best possible integration with the instrument, reducing the acoustic and optical impact to an absolute minimum. We gave great attention to small details to make DigitAize be able to literally merge with your instrument. We worked hand-in-hand with instrument makers and luthiers and spent countless hours designing the best possible integration on the instrument, reducing the acoustical and optical impact to the minimum. We put great attention in little details, to make DigitAize literally merge with your instrument. Have you ever struggled to practice on the train, in a plane, car or at a station? Have you ever got this will to practice but you don't have your instrument with you cause you simply can't take it everywhere? We have what you need! We are working now on a new gadget for string players – a special pocket fingerboard, that can be put anywhere, allowing you to practice without your instrument everywhere! And you can connect it to your smartphone to hear the sound. Cool, right? It will allow you to capture, visualize and evaluate the playing activity, your 3D-position and motion from your smartphone. We are also working on extending the principle of DigitAize to wind instruments as well. Our most recent project focuses on a new flute digital mapping system which will allow to translate classical wind instruments to the computer in real-time. We are close to producing fully-digital sensors that will be integrated into acoustic wind instruments. To keep updated with our projects. We, Alessandro and Rafal, are NIMIKRY - a Vienna based experimental composer-performer duo. In 2015 we met at the University for Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, where we were both studying. We have a very classical musical education, but our hearth beats for contemporary, experimental music. Out of our creative curiosity and curious artistic research, we suddenly found each other working in a very similar direction: we both wanted, as eager instrumentalists, to develop our instruments further, go beyond their limits. And so, we joined forces and started first to make music together. And our approach was from the start very unconventional: making music together for us meant to find a new language to communicate together, and this through our own prototypes, which we were developing. After sleepless nights working on new sounds, soldering components, coding audio effects, we started to find our own language. Since then, we compose our music four-hands. And finally, not students anymore, we engaged on this new challenge of bringing the results of our artistic and technological research to you! Our work combines technological innovation and artistic research on the highest level. We developed digital mapping systems as well as new amplification methods for our acoustic instruments and use this technologies for new artistic solutions. Modern times set demanding challenges for artists and innovators. And NIMIKRY displays our very own perception of the musical reality. DigitAize is the result of our long artistic and technological research to expand the possibilities of acoustic instruments into the digital world. We are happy to share this innovative product with you! Alessandro // I come from Italy, I am composer, instrument-maker, flautist, performer and inventor. Since my early years of education, I was interested in building stuff using my hands, I have a great passion for design, graphics and handwriting music. I develop the design of the product, as well as the GUI of our softwares and the graphical aspect of DigitAize and am responsible for the development of features. Rafal // I come from Poland, I am viola-player, composer, programmer and inventor. I cultivate a strong affection for electronic music, contemporary classical and drum&bass. After playing my way through many bands in Poland, I moved to Austria to pursuit my studies. I develop the software and hardware architecture for DigitAize. I am also responsible for the technological integration of DigitAize with other softwares. Discover our music: Being musicians ourselves we know the needs of creative people and we have designed our products from this point of view: our products are from musicians for musicians. And they will always be. Accessibility and child education Music had an enormous impact on our life, and we believe that it is so for everyone. We see great potential for our instruments to allow people with hearing disabilities to make music and learn a musical instrument. At the same time, we are working on the possibilities to use our technology for musical education in early stage. The possibility to visualize data in real-time, can be extremely helpful for this and we are working currently on extending our software infrastructure, creating new visual-auditive interactions. Music research Our technology can be a powerful tool for music research institutes, because it can guarantee a high-resolution capturing technology at a minimal invasivity, thus not influencing testing results. Especially for the research oriented towards the analysis of the instrument-instrumentalist interaction or vibro-tactile feedback on musical instruments, DigitAize can have a great impact, opening up many new fields of research. Our engagement in education started together with the development of our new instruments. We think it is crucial to invest energies and creativity for the younger generations. Our team is constantly active in workshops, lectures and other educational projects both at universities and music schools. We are happy that this technology opens up completely new possibilities and we are eager to use this powerful instruments in the future. We decided therefore to invest part of this project also to bring DigitAize in music schools and universities. If you want to endorse us in our mission, choose the Education Packs in the list of pledges and make sure a music school gets DigitAize. Start a little revolution with us! We greatly appreciate your support and are excited to bring our DigitAize products in the hands of our backers! Here is a little road-map for the campaign: 1. During the campaign: Choose your tier from the exciting list of rewards we’ve put together, then select your shipping country and proceed to check-out. The money you pledge will only be booked when the campaign ends and is successfully funded. DigitAize works on any string instrument (Violin, Viola, Cello and Double Bass). You don´t need to tell us straight away which instrument you play. This will be done after the campaign. 2. After the campaign: Once the campaign is over, we’ll send you a survey confirming the details of your pledge and asking for your shipping address, as well as other details. All data about gifts, sizes, instrument type, special requests will be handled during this period. Note: In some countries our products might be subjected to import custom taxes. Please be aware, that we do not cover such expenses and you will be subjected to some additional costs, when buying our products from: USA, Japan, Switzerland, Russia and South Korea. Risks and Challenges Creating a new technology for string instruments, which are produced today in the same fashion as in the 18th century, was indeed a great challenge. We believe that innovation is crucial also for such a traditional instrument, in order to really value their timeless quality. - We are working hand in hand with our manufacturers for over 2 years to improve our technology and test it further. - We are improving the production and preparing for serial production. - We are testing the initial mechanical parts of the new housing system straight from the factory. - We’ve tested multiple designs, optimizing for international certifications and long-term quality. - Our firmware and software development are well underway, which means the prototypes you see in the videos are actually making music!  

The Mentor App is a modern mentoring management platform that empowers students, engages mentors, and equips schools with additional tools needed for students to succeed; no matter their background. Our aim is to connect college students with professional mentors and remote opportunities that will help them continue their career and stay motivated during the current pandemic. With a successful campaign, we will be able to 1). update The Mentor App software to be used for college students and their professional mentors and 2). create a digital opportunity portal to connect companies and small business owners with students who are looking for remote internships and jobs. I'm Jhamar Youngblood, the founder and CEO of The Blast App Inc (TBA™). I founded TBA™ in 2014 while in graduate school at Dartmouth College. The mission was simple, I wanted to create a software company that builds digital products to help people. In 2017 we won a grant from the city of Newark in New Jersey to build a safety button in our messaging app to protect teens and women from street attacks and domestic abuse. Read about it here: Newark Native Wins $50K Grant For New Women's Safety App   In 2019 Julia Makhalova joined the founding team. She has worked and lived in U.S., France, China, and Russia. With experience in data and marketing, she has developed Gen-Z focused brand and innovation platforms for Nike, Netflix, and Google. This same year we started working on our second product, The Mentor App. The Mentor App is a modern mentoring management platform that empowers students, engages mentors, and equips schools with additional tools needed for students to succeed; no matter their background. Unlike traditional in-person mentorship programs, The Mentor App is an affordable digital solution that allows any business, non profit, or school to manage a mentoring program.During the current COVID-19 pandemic we added our third team member to the team, Idia Ihensekhien. Idia studies Anthropology at Dartmouth College and is a member of the women's rugby team that won the 2018 national championship. When Idia joined the team she shared stories all of her friends who have lost internships, and are now feeling uncertain about their future. To help her friends and other college students, Idia pitched Julia and I a solution that would connect current college students with professional mentors and other opportunities that will help them get through the current COVID-19 pandemic. That idea blossomed into Opportunity2020   Risks and Challenges Is running a global mentorship program through software difficult? To be honest, we are not sure. But we do know that we are up for the task because this a problem that we truly care about helping to solve. Our students are feeling lost and hopeless, and the last thing we need them to do is to spend most of their free time on social media. There is a correlation between social media usage and the rise of anxiety, depression, and overall stress amongst our most important age groups; teens and young adults. And during the last decade children’s hospital admissions for suicidal thoughts/actions doubled. If there were an over the counter drug, food or beverage that had such alarming effects on our youth, the product would be banned by the government. However, government intervention and assistance seems impossible or a few months away, at a minimum. So if we can’t rely on the government to help us cure this problem, what can we do? Opportunity2020 is our step forward.  

*Home To Home™ is a program of Panhandle Animal Shelter which is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization - your pledge to this campaign may be tax-deductible. Home To Home™ is making the difference in the lives of pets and the people who love them. Watch this video to see a story about a special dog who is living happily ever after because of Home To Home™ and Dr. Marty Becker, "America's Veterinarian", author and founder of Fear Free Pets who endorses the program. Home To Home™ is a non-profit pet rehoming program that saves pets' lives by partnering with animal shelters to keep animals in loving homes, before ever having to enter the animal shelter system. Everyday, people are faced with difficult decisions. Sometimes, this means having to find a new home for their pet. If you’ve ever been in that situation, it can be hard to know where to turn. Can you take your animal to a shelter? Yes. Is there a better way? Also, yes. Animal shelters are run by wonderful people who love animals. Unbeknownst to many, overcrowding in animal shelters is an issue that many shelters face. Because of this, animals can - and are - euthanized for space. Home To Home™ wants to help change that. What we need, and why we’re asking for your help We need 150K for our first round of funding. This will cover: A complete website rebuild. As Home To Home™ grows and scales, we need to be able to meet our growing needs and our current platform is not equipped to keep pace with this growth. Your contribution could result in saving thousands of pets lives by allowing us to upgrade our platform, which will allow us to be in more shelters nationwide. Home To Home™ serves people and pets in the following ways: Benefits your local shelter Allows your local shelter to offer Home To Home™ as an alternative to surrendering their pet to the shelter. This allows for more space for other animals that have no other option: strays, emergencies, protective custody, etc. Benefits the animal Animal shelters exist for a reason, and their need in our community is important. As nice as animal welfare personnel strive to make the animals’ experience as positive as possible, it still causes stress and anxiety for the animal. By bypassing the shelter, they never have to experience this stress of entering the shelter system. Benefits the current owner When life circumstances happen and people realize the best place for their pet is no longer with them, it can be devastating. Taking your animal to a shelter is not only stressful for the pet, it’s equally stressful for the family! When current owners rehome their pet via Home To Home™, THEY get to choose the next home for their pet, which is a very comforting feeling for the current pet owner. They know their pet better than anyone, so they are really the best source to pick their pet’s next home/family. Benefits the future adopter The future adopter gets to meet the current owner first hand, ask any questions they may have, learn about behavior and medical history, do a meet and greet with their existing pets, etc. This doesn’t always happen when adopting directly from a shelter. Let’s be the change. Let’s support current owners in their rehoming efforts, not shame them for having to rehome their pet. Let’s spare the shelter so that resources and space can be used for animals that don’t have any other option. When you use and adopt via Home To Home™, you are helping your local animal shelter, your community - and your current or future pet! How does it work? An animal shelter joins the Home To Home™ program, receives training, creates their customized Home To Home™ website, and promotes the program. When a pet owner contacts the shelter needing to rehome their pet, the shelter offers Home To Home™ as a solution. The pet owner creates a pet profile and the shelter or rescue promotes the pet on Home To Home™ which is integrated with the organization’s Facebook page. When a potential adopter is interested in the pet, they communicate directly with the pet owner. The pet owner screens the potential adopter and decides if they are a good fit to adopt their pet. When the pet owner chooses an adopter, the pet goes from one home to the other, without ever entering a shelter. What makes Home To Home™ different than other rehoming programs? No adoption fees are ever exchanged. Shelters partner with their communities to rehome pets. Pets are promoted across broad networks, instead of just within a pet owners’ network. Home To Home™ looks at rehoming differently. It was started by a shelter, for shelters. We understand the challenges that shelters face, and the challenges that owners face when making the decision that the best life for their pet is no longer with them. Home to Home™ is managed and operated at each individual shelter. This provides the best results for both their community and pets. Shelters are the trusted resource in their community, they can provide services and advice to help keep pets in homes or provide a better transition into a new home. Plus, people in the community who are interested in adopting are already looking at the shelter for potential pets so pets on Home To Home™ have a greater chance of being seen and adopted. We exist to Help pets and the people who love them. Keep pets out of shelters and in loving homes, so that shelters can apply resources to other animals in their care that have no other option. We do this by Partnering with shelters to add Home To Home™ to their programs that are focused on supporting their community and keeping pets in homes and outside the shelter. This allows Home To Home™ to be operated at a local level which increases engagement at a community level (vs. a national blanketed website). Focusing on solutions, not fear, judgment or worst-possible outcomes. Why this matters We have almost four years of data and experience to demonstrate this approach works. We want to share it with the world (starting in the United States). Home To Home™ was founded by Panhandle Animal Shelter (PAS), an animal shelter located in Sandpoint, Idaho. PAS serves over 8,000 animals each year through its shelter operations and programs aimed at keeping pets in their homes where they belong. In 2015, PAS experienced a big increase in the number of people surrendering their pets to the shelter. They wanted to seek a better solution for owners and their pets. PAS started Home To Home™ as a pilot program with the goal of helping people rehome their pets instead of turning them into the shelter. “We knew our social media platforms reached a lot of people so we decided to create a website where pet owners could post their pets when they needed to rehome them. We wanted to truly support pet owners so we made sure the website integrated with our organizations Facebook page so we could promote the pets to all of our followers,” said Mandy Evans, Executive Director of PAS. “Immediately after launching the pilot, we experienced fewer people surrendering their pets to the shelter and more people trying out the program. Honestly, our community LOVED IT. People who had to rehome liked talking to new potential families and the new adopters enjoyed having the opportunity to hear all about the pets before accepting them into their homes. Plus, the shelter experienced a 31% decrease in owner surrenders!, “said Evans. With such promising outcomes, PAS wanted other shelters to know about the program. Today, 17 shelters in 13 states are using the program, and all are experiencing positive results. But, this is just the beginning of what is possible. Using current adoption and euthanasia data its projected that if all shelters in the United States used Home To Home™, we would experience a significant reduction in the euthanasia of healthy or treatable dogs or cats in shelters. Panhandle Animal Shelter GuideStar profile: https://www.guidestar.org/profile/94-3071245 Executive Director Mandy Evans' LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mandy-evans-84984632/ Rewards Below are the designs for the sticker, tote bag, and t-shirt, and pet ID tags: Sticker T-Shirt Front   T-Shirt Back Canvas Tote Bag Pet ID tag Risks and Challenges For Shelter Sponsors, we will do everything we can to apply your funds to an animal shelter of your choice. We cannot guarantee the animal shelter you choose will want to join Home To Home™. In that event, we will apply your funds to a different shelter that wishes to become a member. We also cannot guarantee how quickly the animal shelter on-boarding process will take.

Finally, we’re making it possible for you to access the same brain enhancement training used by top athletes and executives to improve mental well-being, performance & overall health. With Mendi you can strengthen your brain anytime, anywhere. this is an animated image, please allow time to load We're bringing the brain training clinics to you. Brain training clinics are hard to access or afford, with each session costing hundreds of dollars. With Mendi we are bringing the same training, with added improvements, to the comfort of your home. Mendi is the first clinical-grade brain training product designed for home use. With Mendi, you can strengthen your brain in a fun and easy way. Simply control a training game with your brain. Your brain learns from feedback. Through live visual feedback of what your brain is doing, you are able to train it to function better - the method is called neurofeedback. Mendi’s headset measures your brain activity through a unique combination of features, including blood flow and oxygenation in the Prefrontal Cortex (PFC). Think of it as measuring fuel in your brain’s control center. Your combined brain activity is then visualized in a training game - a game you control using only your brain. Just relax and focus, and you will easily control the game. The PFC is the control center of your brain. Increasing blood flow, nutrients and oxygenation to this area strengthens it over time—which is what you learn to do with Mendi! this is an animated image, please allow time to load Mendi makes brain enhancement training a fun and easy part of your daily routine. See your brain activity increase as it happens and track your progress over time. The app and exercises are free to use and we’re adding new features weekly. Follow your progress in the app Journal with a simple overview of all your training sessions saved in one place. Examples of improvements reported from Mendi users after 30+ days. See our testimonial video.   Mendi is the first clinical-grade brain training product designed for home use. Traditionally, brain enhancement training is considered expensive, with people paying up to $15,000 or more for clinical neurofeedback, in their quest to improve health and performance. With Mendi you can perform unlimited clinical-grade neurofeedback training for a fraction of the price. Looking for ways to improve their own mental fitness, Mendi founders Sammy and Rickard discovered the challenges to accessing neurofeedback technology and training. After getting heavily involved with neurofeedback clinics, they saw the lives of many people improve with this form of training and decided to use their engineering backgrounds to create Mendi. We chose to launch Mendi to build a community that can be alongside us throughout our journey and be part of building the future of Mendi. As a token of appreciation we’d like to offer you a discount and let you access Mendi before everyone else. Don't miss your chance to get your Mendi before it hits retail - others will have to wait until 2021. “We’re driven by the technology and research available today to make brain-changing experiences available to everyone. As the science continues to advance and we learn from our customers, we are dedicated to continuously improving Mendi and the benefits it can provide our users.”  

As COVID-19 keeps creators indoors, they’re pivoting to livestreams. Here, a few veteran streamers give advice for bringing your own games, music, dance, readings, screenings and more online. As communities around the world head indoors for COVID-19 quarantine, creators are suddenly so far from the fans who sustain their practices—but can get closer to them in new ways. With people at home, on their phones, hungry for human interaction and entertainment, this can be an opportunity to connect with your audience online. That’s probably why we’re seeing so many of our favorite creators devoting more time to livestreams—and why so many Kickstarter veterans, expert community builders, understand that interactivity is the magic ingredient.So as your community faces physical separation, here are some ideas from creators for creators on using livestreams to help people feel closer, communicate collectively, and get to know your creative work: We've been trying to reduce our isolation by live-streaming concerts, interviews, and games and chatting with our fans,” says Laser’s sister and bandmate Aubrey Turner, “it's coincided with the first weeks of our Kickstarter campaign, but that's honestly a coincidence. We just wanted some time to spend with our fans. I encourage people, if they have the emotional and physical space, to use this time to spend time with their communities online. Make art together, communicate, share emotions. This is the kind of connection that's not only a necessary prerequisite for a good crowdfunding campaign; it's also what makes us human.” In the seven livestream videos they’ve hosted on YouTube since lockdown, the pair say they’ve learned to ask for help and adapted their style to include party games, interviews with authors, and all-request concerts after realizing the fun comes from interactions with fans and friends, not just time spent online. "We've reached out to people we normally don't get to interact with, because we're all in the same boat. Who would've thought we'd get to interview the authors who have been inspiring our music, or play party games with our favorite cartoonist, Kate Leth? But it's all happening, and we get to share it with our audience."   The Doubleclicks with their favorite cartoonist, Kate Leth So many people are legitimately in need right now, a crowdsourcing project might seem frivolous. But really, it’s not. What you’re doing is needed as an escape from the daily barrage. You just might need to find a new way to get it in front of people. For the past week, I’ve been hosting a daily show on Instagram called Naptime Piano Bar where I bring people in and let them request songs. It’s been a real hit. And by putting myself in the center of it, I have plenty of time to talk about my Kickstarter. By giving people a much needed distraction, you’ll find they want to help you out.”

The B2 is a reusable respirator that filters 99% of common contaminants and reduces filter cost and waste by half. Unlike existing consumer masks, the B2 features a flexible, patent-pending facepiece that provides superior protection and comfort. The B2 is the culmination of 4+ years of design and development, and is now ready to be mass produced. Drawbacks of Existing Masks Each of these mask types suffers from the following three issues. Poor face seals: Existing masks don't always achieve an adequate seal on the face, resulting in decreased protectio High waste and cost: N95 masks are intended to be changed regularly, which is inconvenient and expensive in many use cases Scalability of manufacturing: Face masks cannot be produced fast enough to meet the demands of both the health care system and general public Is The B2 Mask Right For Me? The B2 Mask is designed to provide excellent protection to those who are most at risk from airborne contaminants, whether due to increased environmental exposure or preexisting conditions. People who may benefit from improved protection include: The B2 Mask is not recommended for those who need protection against oil-based particles or chemical vapors. B2 Mask: Superior Breathing Protection The B2 Mask addresses the problems with existing masks and offers clear advantages over competitive options. These benefits include: Comfortable, Airtight Seal: Flexible facepiece achieves Fit Factor above 100 High-Efficiency Filters: 99% protection from contaminants down to .1 micron Reduced Cost & Waste: Scalable filter technology reduces waste and cost Durable, Reusable Design: Easily cleanable design provides years of use   Comfortable, Airtight Seal The B2's patent-pending facepiece provides excellent comfort and protection compared to existing face masks. The facepiece is constructed from FDA-approved materials, folds in half for easy storage, and can accommodate a wide range of face shapes and sizes because of its flex-hinge design. High-Efficiency Filters The B2 Mask uses the latest advances in filter technology that provides 99% filtration against a range of airborne contaminants down to .1 micron. Particle Filtration Efficiency*: >99.5% at 32 LPM – tested according in accordance to TSI8130 NaCl .1 micron particle size * Due to supply chain shortages, our 1st generation filters will not include melt-blown polypropylene. This does not compromise filtration level except for extended use in industrial settings. Refer to the following section regarding filter change frequency. In addition to providing stellar protection, the B2's filters are easy load with a simple twist-to-lock filter cap. Reduced Filter Cost and Waste B2 Mask uses the smallest, most affordable high-efficiency filters on the market. During normal use, the B2 filters offer 40-50 hours of protection before filtration efficiency starts to drop. How often you change them filters depends on how you use your B2 Mask. See the recommendations below: Low use (occasional use while going out in public): Change every 2-3 weeks Medium use (wearing consistently over the course of a week): Change weekly High use (wearing for multiple hours a day): Change daily for best protection Every B2 comes pre-packaged with 10 filters, or five filter changes (2 filters/change). You can purchase additional filters at the end of the campaign starting at $14 or only $2.30/month for 6 months of protection for standard users. The B2's filters are small and can be produced more rapidly than N95 masks. This means the B2 can scale to meet the demand of people around the world in search of high-quality breathing protection. Durable, Reusable Design The B2 Mask is designed to provide years of comfortable, sustainable protection. The B2's facepiece is constructed from durable materials and is easy to clean by hand or in a dishwasher. The overlay can be cleaned by hand or in the washing machine for easy maintenance. Testing & Regulatory Details The B2 Mask is designed to offer best-in-class protection for daily use. Our team is working with 3rd-party experts to test and validate the two critical facets of mask protection: filtration efficacy and anthropometric fit factor. Filter Testing We've selected a high-efficiency, electrostatically charged filter media that removes >99% of particulate matter down to .1 micron. The material has been tested for particulate filtration efficiency at Superior Flat and Filtration and at Nelson Labs.   Fit Factor Testing A well maintained face seal is critical to achieving high levels of protection. Initial tests using the FDA-approved Portacount 8030 system showed the B2 Mask had an average Fit Factor over 100 - the level required for NIOSH certification. Breathe99 is partnering with leading human factors design firm Anthrotech to conduct additional face fit testing with 25 participants that fill the NIOSH panel for face shape and head size Regulatory Approval We have designed the B2 Mask to comply with NIOSH N99 standards per 42 CFR Part 84, but the B2 Mask has not yet gone through the regulatory approval process with either NIOSH or the FDA. In the short term, Breathe99 will work to receive through the FDA to receive Emergency Use Authorization (EUA). Risks and Challenges Manufacturing & Overmold Complexity While the B2 mask is an incredibly simple product to use, the facepiece involves a complicated overmolding manufacturing process. Our design has been evaluated and approved by material and process experts, and our manufacturing partners are ISO 9001:2015 certified for quality management. Still, this does not eliminate the risks associated with transferring to manufacturing, especially with the speed with which we're trying to move. Regulatory Approval The B2 Mask is not yet FDA or NIOSH approved. We have completed bench testing for all relevant aspects of the B2 Mask, yet there are still risks. We are committed to pursuing all relevant certifications - including N99 certification from NIOSH - but working through these certification processes can take time. In the meantime, Breathe99 will pursue the FDA's Emergency Use Authorization (EUA).