Gold felt a powerful need to have a meaningful life and to make
a real impact on people’s lives. When he was seven, he dreamt he
was standing on Mount Everest and could see all of India. A
family in a village was beckoning to him to come to India. That
dream stayed with him.
Thirty-one years later, he had the same dream. Exactly. He
decided to act. In 1990, he visited India and met a Tibetan
woman in the Himalayas who had two terrible ear infections.
When he took her to the doctor he discovered that her life could
be saved for the cost of $1.00, the price of an antibiotic. Another
$40 for a hearing aid restored her hearing. He was shocked that
something so important could be accomplished with such small
funds. He didn’t realize it at that time, but the 100 Friends
Project was born.
Soon thereafter he began raising money by sending a letter to
100 people, asking them to donate any amount possible. When he
returned to India in 1992, he had more than $2,200 in
donations, with the goal of distributing it as directly and
intelligently as possible. He has now completed eight
humanitarian missions and dispensed almost $50,000 directly
into the hands of hundreds of people in great need.
After September 11, 2001, many people felt a need to respond to
the larger world beyond America and the West, recognizing that
a relatively small percentage of people on the planet have most of
the wealth, while the rest of the world lives in deep poverty. Marc’
s 100 Friends Project is a yearly effort to reach out to people who
are desperately poor. Every year he raises as much money as
possible can from his circle of contacts and friends (and friends
of friends). Then he goes to slums and poor villages in third-
world countries seeking the neediest people he can find, and
distribute the funds as honestly, effectively, intelligently, and
creatively as possible.
Making a difference
There is no particular target group -- although he does make a
special attempt to help children. He pays for all his own travel
expenses, and most of the rest goes directly into hands of the
needy. You should see the looks on their faces when they realize
what is happening and that there are no strings attached
whatsoever. This work brings meaning to his life. He is also
spending much time and effort educating young people to travel
with purpose, awareness, and meaning.
By now he has been to more than 50 countries including India
(eight times), Tibet, Thailand, Cambodia, Afghanistan, Kenya,
Vietnam, Nepal, Indonesia, Israel, Mozambique, Myanmar, Laos,
Turkey, South Africa, Costa Rica, Mexico, and numerous other
places in Europe and elsewhere. During the time he was living in
New York (1970s) he became involved with the Whirling
Dervishes of Turkey (also known as the Mevlevi). He performed
this incredibly beautiful ritual for many years in New York. Last
year he had the honor to be invited to Istanbul, Turkey and he
became the first Westerner to join them in this sacred practice.
This story explains Marc’s work:
As a man walked a desolate beach one cold, gray morning he
began to see another figure, far in the distance. Slowly the two
approached each other, and he could make out a local native who
kept leaning down, picking something up and throwing it out
into the water. Time and again he hurled things into the ocean.
As the distance between them continued to narrow, the man
could see that the native was picking up starfish that had been
washed upon the beach and, one at a time, was throwing them
back into the water. Puzzled, the man approached the native and
asked what he was doing.
"I'm throwing these starfish back into the ocean. You see, it's low
tide right now and all of these starfish have been washed up
onto the shore. If I don't throw them back into the sea, they'll die
up here from lack of oxygen."
"But there must be thousands of starfish on this beach," the man
replied. "You can't possibly get to all of them. There are just too
many. And this same thing is probably happening on hundreds
of beaches all up and down this coast. Can't you see that you
can't possibly make a difference?"
The local native smiled, bent down and picked up another
starfish, and as he threw it back into the sea he replied,
"Made a difference to that one!"
Every one of us is just one person: we all have dreams, hopes,
trials, cares, and responsibilities in this life. We may feel there is
just too much to be done and we have too little to give. We're
usually short of everything, especially time and money. When we
leave this earthly shore, there will still be "millions of starfish
stranded on the beach." Maybe we can't change the whole world,
but there isn't one of us who can't help change one person's
whole world... one day at a time and one person at a time.
Mother Teresa said: "Never give up helping others. We can do no
great things; only small things with great love. Do not wait for
leaders; do it alone, person to person."
-- by Mike Lippitt as inspired by Marc Gold’s 100 Friends Project
Orphanage Director improve
conditions for the children in his care
Kabul, Afghanistan
