Find Your Purpose by Taking Action

For years, I read about how to find my purpose then I just started doing things!

For years, I read every book on finding your purpose but somehow I can never get the answer I was after. Then I read somewhere to JUST START SOMEWHERE. So I started a non-profit organization, Bidi Dobar (Be a Good Person). I wanted to create something that will set an example for my kids and teach them to be good people. I started by trying to create children’s animations, but that quickly proved unsustainable as it is too expensive. A 2.5 minute children songs was going to cost me about $3000 and LOTS of time and I had no intention of selling products to compensate for that cost.

I kept trying different things but it felt forced. One day, a firefighter from my home country of Macedonia reached out saying that fire fighting uniforms in the United States have to be retired every 10 years no matter the condition (good or bad). He followed up by saying that firefighters in Macedonia would be very lucky to use that gear as some don’t even have any gear. I said doubt this could work, but let’s try it.

I reached out to a friend from high school who is a firefighter and he confirmed that they do often have to replace their gear and they have no idea what to do with their old gear. I like being a person of action, I mean the worst thing that can happen is no one reaches out, so I went ahead and created a website Donatefiregear.com.

Next day I immediately get a call from Ohio (I’m 9 hours away in NJ) that they found our website googling “where to donate fire gear” and want to donate. They were going to give us 30+ uniforms, boots,helmets, etc. I was beyond excited but that quickly evaporated when I realized I need a truck to fit all that gear and bring it to Chicago, from where it would be sent to Macedonia on a shipping container.

There were so many times I just wanted to text the person telling them we can’t find a way to pick the gear up, but the thought of that gear going to waste instead of to firefighters who really needed it was what kept me going. One day, Viktor Angelovski, a friend of mine who drives a tractor trailer truck tells me that tomorrow he’ll be in Ohio, so I beg him to make a pit stop and pick up the gear. He agrees and drives 150+ miles in total to pick up the gear, and then 400+ miles to drop if off in Chicago!! What a guy! To make matters more complicated, as soon as he told me that he’ll be in Ohio, I used ChatGPT to find every volunteer fire department in Ohio and mass blasted an email to 500 fire departments in Ohio telling them we are in the area and need donations. A good amount responded, and Viktor made a couple extra pit stops to pick some things up but so many responded that he couldn’t possibly pick them all up at once.

In the next couple weeks I ended up raising over $2100 ($1500 through GoFundMe and $600 through a personal friend) to hire companies to pick up things for me throughout Ohio and then pay for the shipping container from Chicago to Macedonia. Happy to inform you that this effort was worth it as in our first shipment we sent an estimated $250,000 worth of fire fighting equipment (uniforms, SCBAs, boots, helmets) to our homeland and they have officially received it. INSANE!

Since then, we have sent 20 more uniforms, found 2 donation partners to send us stuff with the shipping containers for free and/or very discounted rates if there is lot of stuff, have 15 uniforms in inventory preparing to be sent, and are arranging the pickup of another 35 uniforms. With that, we will close out the year with 4 towns in Macedonia (100 firefighters+) receiving uniforms for free. You really could do whatever you set your mind to, just have to not give up.

We have a process in place now where towns sign up with us to be put on a list to receive firefighting gear, and all they have to pay is for transportation if applicable. An average of $500 dollars to receive $20k+ worth of gear (a new uniform is $3,500 so a used one let’s put it at $1000).

While I don’t get any money out of it, I get the fulfillment of helping others (which money cannot buy) and reaching my goal of showing my kids what service to others without expecting anything in return looks like.

If you have any firefighting friends who might be interested in donating their gear, they can find us on our website or DM me directly.

Extra: Some of my characters from Bidi Dobar World