Thank you for sharing this book (just hit “pay” on Amazon) along with so much of your incredible passion and knowledge. I had a feast of your podcasts over the holidays and a few are kept on my iPhone, ready at a moments notice for encouragement and inspiration.

Thank you –

Dana

I’m one of the beneficiaries of this contest and I just wanted to drop you a quick note of thanks.

My buddy Bryan, dropped by my house Christmas day with his entire family in tow (no mean feat with 3 small children!) and a large package under his arm. I had no idea what was going as Bryan plopped the package down on my coffee table and handed me a knife. When I opened the package, I found a seemingly endless array of DVDs, books and all the other cool stuff you put in the box. I was completely blown away, and I still had no idea what was going on! After a couple of minutes I found the essay Bryan had sent you guys, at that point all I could do was stand there saying “that’s amazing, thanks…” over and over, like a wind up doll. I did eventually manage to give him a solid bro hug.

Bryan explained about the contest and what he had done and our wives told me about how excited he had been over the last couple of weeks since he had heard from you. Apparently he caused some small scale destruction in his kitchen when he found out you had chosen his essay

I can’t tell you how much this whole thing has meant to me, Bryan and I will both benefit greatly from this, and we will indeed run with it. Thanks again from the bottom of my heart. You have helped to give me a Christmas I will never forget, and in the process reminded me how blessed I am to have the friends and family that I have.

Sincerely,

Joe

P.S.
I just have to say that Bryan really sold himself short as a creative mind in his letter to you. A few days ago I visited him at Marshall Space Flight Center where he works, and he showed me a three-story tall piece of precision hardware he designed for NASA’s ARES rocket program. If that’s not creative I don’t know what is.

Thank You Zack.

I am one of the lucky people who won – I know this because my beautiful friend Linda submitted my story and she is leaving on a trip for a month in a couple of days, so she had to tell me what she did before she traveled overseas. I read her letter, I cried like a baby. You have no idea what this means to me, I have admired your work and your story for a long time, and now I not only feel like I have some hope to continue doing what I love, but feel incredibly blessed to have friends in my life that would actually do this for me and for my Project. I was stunned, then happy, than incredulous, then grateful. For what I do, for having such amazing friends, for the support, for people like you who have been there, for the gift I was given, for my life. Such a simple gesture touched so many lives. From the bottom of my heart, I thank you.

We had 517 entries. I wish I had 517 boxes to send!

We will be sharing some of the stories after Christmas!

Cheers,
Zack

Ryan, I doubt we can all get feedback on the stories we submit. I don’t know how many people wrote in, but it would take a long time and a lot of effort to reply to everyone’s stories.