Inver Grove Native Looks to Raise Funds for South St. Paul Neighborhoods, Charities

Inver Grove Heights native Chris Ogren, who now trains athletes and physical fitness buffs in South St. Paul and IGH, is taking aim at helping the South St. Paul area with a new campaign.

Ogren has launched JustMeanwell.com, based on a saying that "Nobody's perfect, but nine times out of 10 you just need to mean well."

Here's the gist from Ogren himself: 

"We are launching our 10,000 Strangers Project which, as you might guess, is designed to reach out to 10,000 complete strangers that are willing to donate to individual causes in our community by purchasing Meanwell products and selecting one of the causes on our list. 

"Currently each customer has two choices. They can select one cause to receive 50 percent of the total cost of products or select two causes which will each receive 30 percent of the total cost of products. When we complete this project we can easily increase the amount that we are donating to at least 75 percent so the money can go where it needs to go.

"What we are asking you to do is log onto justmeanwell.com and purchase products for someone that you don’t even know. We also ask that you forward this e-mail, friend meanwell on Facebook, share our status as many times as you feel fit and check out our YouTube video and share that as many times as you feel fit as well. Choose a cause and go ahead and lobby your friends to donate to that cause. Try to think of at least one person out of state and encourage your friends to do the same and we can do a lot of good in our community. Maybe someday we can spread to your community.

"As for South Saint Paul residents, we need as close to a 100 percent share rate from you as possible. You have nothing to lose but a few minutes of Facebook shares and forwarded emails and everything to gain. The bigger this gets the more Meanwell can give. 

"There are 20,335 people living in South Saint Paul. We are looking to reach outside of our city limits as far as we can but, with that many people living here, half of our population can get this task accomplished. Even if you somehow don’t get your $20 back I can guarantee that someone in South Saint Paul will."

Ogren is already getting behind such causes as the 5K for the late Danielle Jelinek and her family's cause for abused women, reaching beyond South St. Paul for that one. 

You can learn more via the video, shared on YouTube.com.