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Giving Tuesday, Victory Tuesday!

Yesterday we had the founding of Giving Tuesday Korea! It is not a TNKR project, but to get started, you work with the army you have! If you were in the room yesterday, you probably had a warm glow, and it wasn't just because you were breathing through a mask, as mandated by the Korea Press Center.


Giving Tuesday Advocacy Fellow Eunhee Park gave a moving speech. Today she donated to the TNKR Giving Tuesday fundraiser. Here is a video she posted on YouTube about TNKR and Giving Tuesday Korea! “Giving” is more powerful than receiving - YouTube

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Giving Tuesday Korea ambassador Mr. Lee was moved by his appointment. 





I had the honor of presenting to both Mr. Lee and Ms. Park plaques appointing them as ambassadors of Giving Tuesday Korea. 

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Then the high school kids took over! They couldn't join in person because of COVID, so they prepared videos instead.




Two of the high school students were so good that they looked like they were TV announcers doing a news report. 

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The TNKR Giving Tuesday Running Club was inspiring and hilarious at the same time. I think some of the government officials in attendance wanted to hire all of the high schoolers.

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Yuna Jung's violin performance was more energetic than I believed was possible with a violin. Today she made a donation to the TNKR Giving Tuesday fundraiser and made this original video!


Harry Harris, US Ambassador to Korea, sent a video message, welcoming Giving Tuesday to Korea.

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Asha Curran, CEO and co-founder of Giving Tuesday, sent a message welcoming Giving Tuesday Korea to the Giving Tuesday family. 

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I gave the opening address, with the Tech Team in the front row listening carefully.


I think this is about the third or fourth time I have spoken at the Korea Press Club.


Thanks to an alert North Korean refugee who took this screen shot and sent it to me.

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TNKR co-founder Eunkoo Lee gave the closing speech, about the future of Giving Tuesday Korea.




Ms. Shin, our MC, was lovely, graceful, and professional!

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Yes, if you were in the room yesterday, it was absolutely fantastic!

On the other hand, if you were online watching, you might not have had such a great experience. For years, people have been asking me if our various events were going to be online. I usually said "No" because we didn't have a team to properly run an online live event. We were barely surviving as an organization, so we didn't have the luxury of paid staff with the responsibility of running such an event.

Yesterday was going to be different. Thanks to a grant, we were able to pay for a professional MC as well as a tech team to run the event online. It was delightful for me because I didn't need to be involved at all, the tech team was going to handle it.


First, about the MC. She was great. People look at these announcers in South Korea as just being pretty faces, but if you have ever worked with any, you can see how prepared and professional they are.

It turned out that the MC was one of my students from my first year of teaching Public Speaking at the Seoul University of Foreign Studies. She was fantastic, it was great to see her leading the session in both Korean and English. This was a step up in many ways. 

In our early days, I was typically the MC and one of the speakers. No matter how much you might like me, you might not want to see me at the microphone most of an event. We didn't have an option, so I did it. It was much better yesterday that I was in front of the camera only three times. One, to give introductory remarks. Two, to appoint our Giving Tuesday Korea ambassadors. Three, to give a speech about Giving Tuesday Korea.




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Second, our tech team worked with TNKR co-founder Eunkoo Lee in advance. They had more than one rehearsal. But there is still a difference between practice and game day! And it is more difficult when you are holding an event at  a different location. Anyway, I heard there were audio problems. Some people said it was fine, some said the audio was poor. Some said when they listened on their phones that it was no problem.

TNKR co-founder Eunkoo Lee said she learned a lot about online events from yesterday's session!

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After all of the speeches, it was photo time! I have heard some people in the last few months say smart-aleck things like, "I guess we didn't really need that meeting." The world is zooming around, but once it is safe to meet again in person, then people will be holding conferences again. It might be tougher to justify the cost, but there is still nothing like getting together in person and celebrating.

And it was a celebration. Giving Tuesday Korea's first Victory Tuesday!

A reporter wanted a photo of the Giving Tuesday Korea country directors.





With TNKR rising stars Yuna Jung and Eunhee Park. On Celebration Wednesday, they both donated to TNKR's Giving Tuesday fundraiser.


A reporter wanted a photo of Eunkoo and Casey, TNKR co-founders and Giving Tuesday Korea country directors.

They are the South Korean college students who volunteered to help with preparation for Giving Tuesday Korea.


TNKR co-founder and Giving Tuesday Korea Outreach Director Eunkoo Lee was in charge of most of the logistics. Even during the group photo, she had her head turned, checking on something.


Support TNKR on Giving Tuesday.
Giving Tuesday TNKR - TNKR (lovetnkr.com)


We then celebrated with a nice dinner, courtesy of Giving Tuesday Korea's ambassadors.



Here's an article by a Ministry of Unification blogger about the event.

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