This photo taken when we toured with Justin Bieber.

See that motley crew above? That is my team, the *Community Team* at Canonical. I am blessed to have such a wonderful team; not only are they all fantastic community leaders, but they are just a fun bunch of guys in general to be around.

A while ago I suggested to the team that we do something for charity. We spent some time brainstorming, and exploring ideas from the sublime to the *ridiculous*. We then hit on something we were all fans of…an idea in which lots of Ubuntu work will be done, charities will benefit from, and should be fun and entertaining…

…we are going to have a **24-hour work marathon, streamed live online for your morbid pleasure and amusement**.

## How It Will Work

In a nutshell, each of us is going to work for a solid 24-hour block, taking breaks where needed (no, a break can’t include an 8-hour nap). Each of us will log on and our entire day will be streamed live on [Ubuntu On Air](https://marathon.ubuntuonair.com/).

In this 24-hour period we will work collaboratively on projects, discuss our work on the stream, answer questions from the community, give tutorials, and more. We are open to ideas of things we can do throughout the day that might be interesting to the community (such as topics for tutorials, discussion topics, work we should do etc). Feel free to share your ideas [on this wiki page](https://wiki.ubuntu.com/HorsemenMarathonIdeas).

Anyone who knows us knows that we like to have fun. As such we will all try to bring a little something from our personal lives to the marathon too, after all, you are stuck with us for a full day. As an example, I fully plan on smoking a few racks of ribs while I am working, so you can join me for the cook. I am sure that Daniel will make a Tofu sandwich or something. 🙂

The reason why we are putting ourselves through this is to raise money for charity. We couldn’t pick a single charity, so each of us have picked a charity that we care about, and we are frankly going to turn this into a flat-out competition for who can make the most money. As we progress though the marathon we plan on having some bets and forfeits if we can outdo each other with our charities. It should be a lot of fun. 🙂

## The Charities

So which charities are we going to be raising money for? Take a look below…

Nick Skaggs is supporting WaterAid and he says “Water has always played a role in my life. I grew up on the Great Lakes, which are huge reservoirs of fresh water. The lakes, rivers and streams I grew up near at one time were quite polluted — the town I was born in had several dysentery outbreaks in it’s early history. It’s sad to see such waste of fresh water. Water to me is beautiful, and my favorite beverage 😉 There’s nothing like a glass of water to quench your thirst. Provided of course, that water is clean. WaterAid has a mission to deliver long-term sustainable drinking water to the world, via wells and better sanitation efforts to keep local water sources pure. Water is crucial to life, ourselves and nature is highly dependent upon it. Access to clean drinking water is the most basic of all human survival needs. We can go for days with food, get by without shelter, but we cannot survive long without water“.	I am supporting Homeless International and because “I have always been aware of homelessness and poverty but it never really touched me until I saw an old man, bleeding, clearly exhibiting schizophrenia, walking through a city street in the rain. Many homeless and those in poverty are our elderly, our veterans, and our sick and vulnerable. No-one is immune to homelessness and poverty…many become homeless or fall into poverty due to health and trauma problems. Homeless International is a wonderful organization who helps provide shelter, aid, and support homeless people across the world. Your donation will provide help the elderly, sick and vulnerable to have shelter. Thanks for your donations!“.	David Planella is supporting Greenpeace and he says “Having grown in an environment very close to nature has made me appreciate how big a gift and how fragile this planet we live in is. I’ve chosen to support Greenpeace as an organization whose core values are to “change attitudes and behaviour, to protect and conserve the environment and to promote peace”, with which I very much identify. Help me support an NGO that gives voice and acts to protect the place we all share and spend our lives in“.
Daniel Holbach is supporting Oxfam and he says “Oxfam puts lots of hard work into ending poverty and injustice as part of a global movement for change. Oxfam deeply understand that we all live in this world together and that problems need to be solved holistically. I’ve been supporting them for years and some of my friends have volunteered for them as well“.	Jorge Castro is supporting Little Kids Rock! and he says “In Junior and High Schools I played trumpet, tuba, Sousaphone, electric bass, and a double bass. I made lots of friends, got to do great things like play festivals, and expanded my mind by learning to appreciate everything from jazz to classical to rock and roll. I can’t imagine growing up without playing music, and every kid should have the opportunity to do so. Little Kids Rock helps not only by providing disadvantaged schools with instruments, but with a curriculum that’s modern and not boring. Instead of sitting in a room playing scales all day, the students are taught popular songs and are encouraged to learn by just playing together“.	Michael Hall is supporting Autism Research Trust and he says “Autism and Autism Spectrum Disorders are developmental disorders that affect a large number of us in the open source community, our friends and our families. Despite it being wide-spread, very little is know about it’s cause, and the only proven treatment is early detection and intervention. The Autism Research Trust funds the ongoing scientific research at Cambridge University into the cause and interventions for Autism“.

Thanks to the team for picking a wonderful range of charities, all of which are great causes!

## When, Where, and How

The *24-hour Horsemen Marathon* will take place on **Thu 4th Oct 2012**. We will start the marathon at **3am Pacific / 6am Eastern / 10am UTC / 11am UK / 12pm Europe** and finish at the same time the following day.

Be sure to come and join us and provide your support and input. This is an interactive event and we are looking to our community to suggest things we can do, chat to us while the marathon is taking place, and take part. You can do this via the chat and social media facilities that are on our marathon page. Let’s make some epic coin for our charities!

**[Watch, interact, and donate right from here!](https://marathon.ubuntuonair.com/)**

Also, please spread the word about the marathon on Twitter, Facebook and elsewhere. Use the `#ubuntumarathon` hashtag and be sure to link to [https://marathon.ubuntuonair.com/](https://marathon.ubuntuonair.com/) – thanks!