Mr Wood goes to Washington

By Jackson James Wood

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NZ $1,240 pledged

41 people pledged

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NZ $850 minimum target

This campaign was successful and closed on 03/09/2015 at 5:00 PM.

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About

Mr Wood Goes To Washington

Project 2015-08-14 15:24:33 +1200

Last week I was awarded a scholarship to attend the Drug Policy Alliance's annual reform conference in Washington DC. They've stumped up for the cost of the conference and half the cost of the flights. I was hoping that you — my wonderfully awesome crowd of friends, family, fellows, admirers, stalkers and lovers — would help me out by pledging to get Mr Wood to Washington.

The $850 will cover the other half of my flights + insurance. Because screw being uninsured in America.

If I get over the $850, extra money will be donated to NSAD who help New Zealanders affected by addiction and work toward reducing the impact of addiction in our community.

Why I applied to go to the Reform Conference

I'm in recovery*. I stopped drinking just over 2.5 years ago. I think it's really important that people who are in recovery have a voice at the table when it comes to talking about drug policy reform. Our lives have been affected by drugs and alcohol but too often our voices are sidelined.

The Joe Biden promise

Every reward comes with the solemn and personal promise that I will fist-bump Joe Biden for you if I see him.

Team

JJW

Jackson is PledgeMe's Chief Media Wrangler. He used to work in drug policy and has an interest in public health in general. You can follow him on Twitter here.

DPA

The Drug Policy Alliance are super cool for giving me a scholarship. Check out their work.

Richard Nixon

President Nixon was in the team, but then we found out it was actually him who started the War on Drugs. So we kicked him out. Here's hoping we can move past this kind of obviously unhelpful and stigmatising approach and rhetoric to an evidence-informed and health based way of dealing with drugs and the people who use 'em.

Think you may have a problem with alcohol or other drugs?

I know how you're feeling. There is help out there. You can always flick me a tweet but it's probably better to suss out one of these ways to get help.

Call the alcohol and drug helpline 0800 787 297
Check out Living Sober (a site run by my friend).
Find an AA or NA meeting or call their helpline.
Find the nearest AOD service to you.
Talk to your doctor.
Check out DrugHelp or PotHelp.

*_{^{For more on what recovery is read this.}}

** It was pointed out to me by my dear friends Daniel and Micheal that I should put some sort of caveat here. I said "Guys, my friends aren't dickheads." After they stopped laughing they came up with about 30 or so very … let's say 'edgy'… things which people could get me to put on a sign and then go out in public that would probably get me beaten up or, because it's America, shot. So please keep it clean, team.

Comments

Updates 6

Hi lovely pledgers,

This is one last update before I head off stateside.

Once again, I wanted to thank you for your generosity and remind you that if you pledged for the Abraham Lincoln or Grover Cleveland rewards, then I need your words ASAP. Preferably before Wednesday next week as that's the day I'll be doing most of my sightseeing before the conference.

You all should have got an email from me reminding you about this, but if you didn't ping me here. Also for those of you who are getting postcards and letters, if your address has changed please let me know.

Stay tuned to my Twitter for updates and I'll probably blog about it somewhere too. I've been talking to a NZ media organisation about reporting from the conference, so there might be some extra content where I will endevour to shout out you amazing pledgers.

If there are any American goods/foods/things that you want me to bring back, please let me know and I will endevour to stuff them in my pack.

JJW

Thank you!

Firstly a big big biiiiig thank you to each and every one of you who pledged. We ended up at 145% over the goal which is awesome because it means NSAD is gonna get a little bit of $$ to help 'em out with their awesome work.

_{NB: This photo was taken before we kicked "Tricky Dicky" off of the team.}

So where to from here?

The lovely PledgeMe people will ping your credit cards sometime in the next few business days. I've finalised my tickets and will get insurance shortly. My fly out date is November 16 so I'm going to use this time to communicate with each of you individually to get your messages for Abe/Washington Monument/Raps or your addresses for postcards/letters etc.

In the mean time…

Once again thank you thank you thank you. It means so much to know that people out there support you and your endevours — running a successful crowdfunding campaign is such huge validation. You're all wonderful and I shall forever treat you like the demi-gods you are.

If you have any questions flick me an email or tweet.

Until then,

JJW

❤️✈️🇺🇸

🇺🇸 🇺🇸 🇺🇸

YAY! We did it. I'm heading to Washington in November for the DPA Reform Conference! Awesome awesome awesome. Thank you to everyone who pledged! I'll be in touch soon to confirm details.

THANKS A SQUILLION.

JJW

WOAH! Only $70 left till we hit the goal!

The perfect time for someone to pledge for the 'Bill Clinton'*.

I'll just leave this image below for those of you who want to share it to encourage your friends to pledge for some sweet raps!

Mega trega thank you to everyone who pledged! You're all super awesome and I am looking forward to writing/creating my rewards for you.

😘 😘 😘

^{*If you didn't know: I've won an award for my rapping before. The Mileswood Quintent won the prize for Most Incredibly Strange Film in this years 48 Hour Film Festival. The pic above is from the movie. So you know the raps are gonna be good.}

Hi everyone who has pledged so far,

Big thanks to all 13 of you. You're all wonderful humans who are super cool x 3 to the max.

We just hit 40% of the goal in two days! 🎉 🎉 🎉

That's super awesome, let's try and build on this and hit target by the end of next week.

I'm going to be pumping out some funny images on my Twitter and Facebook that we can share/RT/email around to people who you think might be interested. See below.

If you know anyone in your network who might be interested in the talks then please do an email intro!

Also there have been some interesting developments in the US Presidential election with an independent joke candidate gaining traction in latest polls.

THANKS HEAPS. TALK SOON!

Pledgers 41

Michael Smith

21/08/2015 at 12:17pm

Anonymous pledger

21/08/2015 at 9:34am

Kyra Xavia

20/08/2015 at 7:40pm

Rhiannon Shasta Wood

20/08/2015 at 6:30pm

"Good Luck Brother!"

Larissa

20/08/2015 at 5:56pm

"“Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.” —Theodore Roosevelt "

Anna Guenther

20/08/2015 at 5:09pm

"While this is technically helping you run away from the office.... Good luck JJW!"

Jess Graves

20/08/2015 at 4:22pm

"Safe Travels CHAMP"

Kat Jenkins

20/08/2015 at 4:10pm

"Because my addiction is making dreams come true... God that's cheesy, but I'm committed to it now."

Michelle Burke

20/08/2015 at 3:50pm

Mava

20/08/2015 at 3:40pm

Tara J. Brannigan

20/08/2015 at 3:30pm

Followers 1

Followers of Mr Wood goes to Washington

Rhiannon Shasta Wood

Mr Wood Goes To Washington

Project 2015-08-14 15:24:33 +1200

The $850 will cover the other half of my flights + insurance. Because screw being uninsured in America.

If I get over the $850, extra money will be donated to NSAD who help New Zealanders affected by addiction and work toward reducing the impact of addiction in our community.