The road to TED Global.

In 2006 I was living in a Walmart parking lot in a stripped out, 1975 Chevy van with my Rottweiler and a house cat. In 2009 I was speaking at TED Global at Oxford University in England, courtesy of best selling author and former vice presidential speech writer, Dan Pink. It was a serendipitous journey, and one I am profoundly awed and humbled by. No one in this world gets anywhere without the help, caring and support of others, and for me, TED was that proof.

My father died from a cancerous brain tumor in February 2006. I was the editor of a small town newspaper in Colorado at the time. I quit my job, bought an old van and decided to hit the road and freelance my way around the country. Things didn’t work out like I planned. The van was old, my freelance work (photographer) ran out, I couldn’t get a living wage job, and the only way to survive without having to give up my Rottweiler and cat, was to live in the van and work a temp job. So I did, for a little over a year. This is my TED Talk about it.

Speaking at TED has been a wonderful way to help many people, not only with my story, but more importantly through the people I med through the TED talk itself.

Out of that talk came: 101GiftsForHomeless2012 A FREE downloadable PDF on gifts for the homeless. Please download it and share.

I’ll be adding more and more resources here in the coming months, and I appreciate your patience with the site rebuild.