What is BRUTE LABS?

People often ask us "What is BRUTE LABS?"  Well, we're happy to share a new document called "Nine Principles of BRUTE LABS" that should help answer this question once and for all.  Check it out below and if you want to learn more, send us an email.

BRUTE LABS Top 9 of 2009

As 2009 comes to a close I thought it was time for a list of the 9 BRUTE LABS highlights of 2009:

9. Completing an entire project in a single day
8. Building a website to help artists in the developing world share their art
7. Having a project develop into a separate team to continue the important work of saving lives

6. Raising over $5,000 for disaster relief nearly 8,000 miles away
5. Growing the BRUTE LABS team to almost 20 people
4. Winning a design award for do-gooders
3. Launching a project for the homeless four years in the making
2. Raising over $8,000 for clean water wells in Africa by selling t-shirts and throwing a party

And the #1 highlight of 2009:

Receiving a $10,000 grant to get kids excited about physical fitness.

2009 has been the most exciting year yet for the BRUTE LABS team. Thank you for your support and everything that you're doing to change the world. We can't wait to see what we'll accomplish together in 2010.

Jason

Welcome Danny Bowman!

Wine to Water: A Great Success

On Sunday, May 17, 2009, the BRUTE LABS and Well Done teams, in collaboration with White Crane Winery, hosted an event at Medjool in San Francisco to raise awareness about the global water crisis. The money raised from the event will go directly toward the construction of a clean water well in Kamancheli, a rural village located in the Brong-Ahafo region of Ghana.

The event was an amazing success! With 152 tickets sold along with funds raised from the Water is Life t-shirt, the BRUTE LABS and Well Done teams exceeded their goal of raising $8,000 to construct a well in Kamancheli. In a single evening, we raised the resources needed to provide a long-term clean water source for an entire village! Funds raised in excess of the $8,000 goal will be used to support the next Well Done project.

Many individuals and organizations came together to make the evening such a special one. The BRUTE LABS team sold advance tickets to the event, tickets at the door, raffle tickets, and Water is Life t-shirts. White Crane Winery generously donated wine for the tastings and also 50% of all proceeds from additional wine sales throughout the evening, while Medjool donated the venue space along with appetizers for the event. We are extremely thankful for Medjool and White Crane Winery--through their generous donations, nearly every dollar of ticket sales will go directly toward providing clean water to the villagers of Kamancheli.

We have a number of specific individuals to thank who helped make the Wine to Water event such a tremendous success:

• Eric Canupp, Gus Murad and everyone at Medjool
• Steve Ziganti and everyone at White Crane Winery
• Pat Cassidy and everyone at Pioneers
  
• Tim Schulz
• Aaron Proctor
• Erik Otto
• Mary Jo Hodgen
• Lee Tang
• Yating Yu

And for all those who enjoyed the venue as much as we did, Medjool is actually in danger of being shut down by the city of San Francisco and they need your help. Please take a moment and help support Medjool by visiting www.savemedjool.com.

The need for clean water in Ghana persists. If you would like to contribute to the Well Done efforts in Africa, you can purchase a Water is Life t-shirt or make a donation directly to Well Done. Thank you again for your ongoing support. We are humbled by such a strong showing at Wine to Water in support of the pressing work to bring clean water to those without access to this critical resource. You are the reason groups like ours can make an impact. Thank you!

projectOPEN Update

I'm excited to share an update with everyone about projectOPEN. This past weekend, Dontae, Greg, James, Josh K., BRUTE LABS friend Ardy and I traveled to Santa Monica to distribute the projectOPEN homeless services resource guide. It was an incredible experience.

A Santa Monica man with the guide and extra copies to hand out to others in the homeless community.

Here are the highlights from their trip:

• We distributed 1,000 guides to over 30 organizations across Santa Monica.
• We received an overwhelmingly positive response--nearly everyone we spoke with was thrilled about the project and quality of the resource guide
• Josh K. and Ardy also handed out the guides directly to members of the homeless community who found them extremely useful and promised to share them with others
• We also met with key individuals at a number of the homeless services organizations who pledged their ongoing support of the project and willingness to help update the map to improve its accuracy

All of us were thrilled to finally distribute the guides, nearly four years after the project began on the UCLA campus. There are several people and organizations that made this project possible who we'd like to take this opportunity to thank:

• UCLA Art|Sci Center for the grant that helped make this project possible
• Katherine Rettberg for enabling us to travel to and from Santa Monica for free!
• Ardy Ghanbar for hitting the pavement with the team to distribute maps
• James Buyayo for spending hundreds of hours pouring over every detail of the guide
• Joshua To for his vision for this project and leadership
• Justin To for spending hours making our guide great
• Justin Yahr for donating space for the team to stay while in Santa Monica
• Bomi Im, Rebecca Park, Camilla Zecchetto and Willem Henri Lucas

Please stay tuned for more updates about projectOPEN. We're going to need your help to print more resource guides in Santa Monica and are eager to expand this project to other cities.

Interested in helping us make a difference? Let us know how you can help.