"God first, Others second, Self third."

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Thirders Foundation, Inc.

Thirders Foundation, Inc. is a Pennsylvania public charity qualified by the Internal Revenue Service under code section 501(c)(3) and all donations are eligible for maximum state and federal tax benefits.

Thirders Foundation is a member of the Pennsylvania Association of Nonprofit Organizations (PANO).  This statewide organization provides a forum in which to network with other nonprofit organizations and offers a variety of programs, education and services to facilitate their work. Our ongoing membership in PANO is sponsored by a specified contribution from one of our generous contributors.


Our Mission

Our mission is to promote world health and the health and education of children through the funding of medical services, medical research and education, and the improvement of medical record keeping.


Thirders Foundation, Inc Profile

The No-Load Public Charity Difference

We accomplish our mission by sponsoring or supporting a variety of projects designed to directly impact the lives of children and others living in conditions of extreme poverty and deprivation.  Among the activities we currently support are funding of hospitals and medical clinics in Afghanistan. Prior projects have included supporting medical scholarships and medical safaris in Kenya, the donation of medical equipment to Africa and a dental mission trip benefiting Romanian children.

Unlike most charities, we use 100% of all contributions to directly support our projects which help people in the United States and overseas. Our corporate by-laws specifically prohibit any officer, director, or anyone related to an officer or director from receiving any form of benefit or compensation from the foundation.

Anyone associated with the foundation must agree to cover his or her own expenses. All office expenses, banking fees, travel costs, government fees, legal and accounting services are donated to the foundation. We don't even reimburse anyone for postage. Our policy is rigid and extreme so you will always know that your donations are being used for projects that really count.

Contributions of any amount are gratefully accepted. We are currently focused on raising funds to support our efforts in Afghanistan, but donations may be designated for any of our projects. If you have any questions, please contact Larry Christy by email to larry@thirders.org .

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The Rest of the Story: a Personal Note from Larry Christy

Written Friday, November 23, 1990

Most of you who have talked with me over the years already know I'm eccentric. That was also the conclusion of a college student we had working here for the summer after his first day on the job. I do things differently and for different reasons than most people. You can't possibly imagine how much trouble that has caused.

Since everyone else is perfectly capable of doing all the possible things in life, I have been much more interested in doing impossible things. When my parents told me something couldn't be done, I tried to do it. When my college dean told me I couldn't be head resident of a dorm (an administrative position) and president of the student government at the same time, I did it. When the Army told me I couldn't return home from Vietnam by traveling across Asia and Europe, I did it. When everyone I knew told me it was crazy to start a Swiss corporation at age 25 with minimum capital and no European business experience, I did it anyway. And when I found out it was impossible to "beat the stock market," I couldn't resist the challenge.

My exploits have given me a wealth of experience in many areas. I have had the opportunity to see some of the world's most interesting places from the Amazon River to Mount Everest. I've met rich people on the ski slopes of St. Moritz and poor people on the plains of India. I have witnessed lives of love and compassion as well as those of hatred and evil. My failures have been many; my successes few. I've gambled everything I've had time after time and once lost it all -- right down to my clothes. That episode taught me how little I needed the material things I had and how much I depended on my good family and friends.

Since high school I have felt that my life was supposed to be dedicated to public service of some sort. My initial goal was to become a U. S. Senator. I got a degree in political science, served as a military intelligence officer, and formed businesses in an effort to prepare myself for the responsibilities of that position. After years of observing our Congress, I decided that politicians generally do more harm than good in this world and abandoned my desire for public office.

Instead, I now believe there are more important things I can do with my life. Last summer I formed a private charitable foundation which will be the primary beneficiary of everything we do in Trendvest. As usual, I have adopted an impossible goal -- to have a billion dollars in the foundation before I die. It seems that many of my experiences over the years were designed to prepare me for the work I foresee in the foundation. I have certainly seen many things in the world that need fixing and the success of our investment system should make it possible to finance our projects.

It is very difficult for most of us to imagine conditions in the third world unless we have the opportunity to actually see, feel, hear, taste, and smell life there. When you witness a starving man pick up and eat a single piece of grain from a dusty road, you never forget it. When you meet people who have never been healthy a single day in their lives, you never forget it. When you walk among the homeless outcastes that have nowhere to sleep except a park in the middle of the winter, you never forget it. And when you look into the eyes of a person who is suffering solely because he or she was born in the wrong part of the world, you never forget it. Those memories and lots of others like them compel me to do something. 

Our foundation's first project is helping Dr. Tim Fader with his work at the Kijabe Medical Center in Kenya East Africa. Tim and his wife Patty have been my friends since our college days in the mid sixties. A few years ago they set up a complete medical system for native Americans in the Southwest. For the past three years they have been working in Kenya treating some of the world's most desperate people with courage and dedication. Courage is really an understatement when you realize that Tim and Patty took their four young children with them and Tim routinely treats patients with AIDS and other exotic ailments by the hundreds. Some doctors won't treat an AIDS patient without sophisticated protective gear, but Tim doesn't have that opportunity making his rounds in the bush.

You have probably heard about the 40,000 children in the third world who die every day from easily preventable causes. We can't save them all, but at least can help some of them. Tim works in one area with a population of over 250,000 people. Until recently, the entire medical system for all of those people consisted of one Canadian nurse and some Kenyan assistants. She drives around the various villages and does everything she can despite overwhelming odds. We want to help Tim take his medical skills to more places like that and we want to help train more nurses so that they can provide some of the barest essentials of health care that we take for granted.

For years Trendvest has been helping rich people get richer. Some of our subscribers have made hundreds of thousands and even millions of dollars using our ratings. There is nothing wrong with that; it just doesn't excite me. Neither does trying to get rich myself. But the opportunity to help some of the world's destitute people get a basic chance at a normal life does excite me. If you have made money with the Trendvest system that you would not have made without it, perhaps you would like to share some of it to help others.

We are trying to raise $54,000 this year. The first $6,000 will pay for airplane fuel to fly Tim into villages that otherwise would never see a physician. The remaining $48,000 will send eight Africans to two years of nursing school ($6,000 per student) where they can learn the medical skills necessary to help their fellow brothers and sisters. Many of you could easily sponsor one of the nurses in full, but any size contribution will help. You won't merely be contributing to a scholarship fund; you will be making possible a lifetime of service that will touch and improve thousands of lives.

In the future we hope to develop computerized medical record and research systems to be used in the third world. Most patients in Kenya have nothing more than a World Health Organization card to keep track of their treatments, inoculations, family medical history, etc. Without accurate patient data, doctors and nurses cannot be fully effective in treating the large number of patients they see every day.

Every cent we receive this year will go directly to our work in Africa. Since all our work is done by volunteers and other expenses are paid outside the foundation, we have absolutely no overhead. That's right. A charity that has no employees, no administrative budget, no fund raising costs, and no expense accounts. I guarantee that you can not give to a more efficient charitable organization anywhere.

Your tax-deductible charitable contributions can be sent to: Thirders Foundation, Inc., R.D. #1, Box 204, Shelocta, PA 15774. If you prefer the convenience and security of donating online please click on one of the links below.

   

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About Larry Christy

Mr. Christy holds a degree in Political Science from Thiel College and was President of its Student Government and Alumni Association. He served as a Military Intelligence Officer in Viet Nam where he was awarded the Bronze Star for commanding a very successful espionage operation. In Europe he ran the Soviet Orientation Team training program for U. S. and allied forces. He left the service as a Captain to establish his first corporation for international trade in Switzerland.

Upon returning to the United States he formed another corporation to help entrepreneurs with business organization and financial planning. In addition to his private consulting work, he wrote a book on the Pennsylvania tax system. Since 1978 he has devoted his career to investment analysis and has advocated the use of stock hedge portfolios in published articles and investment seminars.

Having traveled in over thirty countries on five continents, Mr. Christy has met some of the world's most disadvantaged people. In 1990, he formed Thirders Foundation, Inc., a "no-load" public charity which uses 100% of all contributions to support its projects. Donations have provided plane fuel for medical safaris, hospital equipment and supplies, and nursing scholarships for the Kijabe Medical Center in Kenya East Africa as well as funding for DreamNet, a Pittsburgh support network for people with ideas for service to others.

Mr. Christy lives in Virginia Beach with his wife Lynn Sparrow, an internationally known writer, speaker, and hypnotherapist, and son Ryan Sparrow. His biography appears in Marquis Who's Who in the World and Who's Who in America, the Dictionary of International Biography of Cambridge, England, and other reference works.

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Contact Information

If you would like further information on the work of Thirders Foundation, Inc. or to contribute to this important work please contact us using the information below.

Telephone
757-412-4301
FAX
757-412-4302
Postal address
Thirders Foundation, Inc., R.D. #1, Box 204, Shelocta, PA 15774
Electronic mail
General Information: larry@thirders.org
Webmaster: michael@thirders.org
 

 

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Last modified: January 05, 2005