The Global Citizen Project

Writer Charyn Pfeuffer has decided to swap her BlackBerry for a backpack to volunteer with 12 community projects in 12 countries over 12 months. As a journalist she’s traveled around the globe in the name of work and has been profoundly impacted by the communities most underserved. She realizes it’s impossible to save the world with bite-sized stints of service, but plans to promote the selected causes and communities, as well as responsible travel via her platform as an influential journalist and blogger.

Pfeuffer’s motivations are also personal:  “2010 also marks the 20th anniversary of my mother’s passing to lung cancer. In 1990, exactly two weeks before her death, she disclosed a very short list of end-of-life regrets, including: “I never went to Europe.” Her words, the raison d’être of why I travel, have inspired me to live life fully, spontaneously and with purpose,” explains Pfeuffer.

Global Citizen Project launched on Kickstarter.com, an online funding platform for creative endeavors. Her project must reach its $20,000 funding goal by the February 22, 2010 deadline or else the project will not happen. Donations start at $1 and there are several tokens of gratitude being offered for different levels of pledges, including free beer at Watch City Brewing Company in Boston, homemade chili at Charyn’s house in Seattle, and a three-night hotel stay at Four Seasons Lana’i at Manele Bay. The Global Citizen Project has raised 27% of her goal with over $5,500 pledged.

So far, she’s committed to projects in Peru and Honduras and is in negotiations with a start-up humanitarian project in Costa Rica.

Her “wish list” itinerary of volunteer projects includes:

•         Animal Rescue/Humane Shelter-related projects
•         (Re)building
•         Children/teen projects
•         Conservation
•         Eco-tourism/Hospitality
•         Writing/Social Media/Marketing
•         Heath Education/Outreach
•         Outdoors/nature (i.e.; parks, forest, etc.)
•         Hunger-related projects
•         Reef/Ocean-related projects
•         Sustainable Agriculture/Farming
•         Women-related projects (especially if it involves women with cancer)

Learn more about The Global Citizen Project and the projects Pfeuffer plans to serve.

To pledge, please visit the Kickstarter fundraising page.

About Charyn:  Pfeuffer has written about culinary, travel and lifestyle topics for more than a decade. She’s contributed to more than 80 publications including: San Francisco Chronicle, Seattle Times, TravelChannel.com, Sunset, Fodor’s, DailyCandy.com, Relish, Destination Weddings & Honeymoons, Condé Nast Digital, and Imbibe. She’s also written, ghostwritten or co-authored a dozen books. She calls Seattle, WA home.