We Have A Winner!

So today was the big day; the guesses were all in and tallied last night so all that remained was to see how much money was actually in Mr. Donkey. He and I went off to a local supermarket with a Coinstar machine to get ourselves a winner. There's time for a quick picture to set the stage.

 

I think he's waving, but it was hard to tell.

Resigned to his fate.

Then it was time to disgorge his contents and see what we had to be counted. He didn't give it up easily, I must say, as I had a hell of a time getting the plug out. [Insert your own joke here.] It took a little more effort to get all the coins out, but finally the silver started flowing.

A little privacy, please.

I selected the UNICEF Haiti Emergency Fund and got the confirmation screen.

We took a look at what we had to offer before starting the big count, then I started to feed the coins into the machine. I was a little giddy with anticipation because I couldn't wait to see how much was actually in there. (If you think I knew, I didn't. There was no way I was going to count all that myself if the machine was going to do it for me.)

Is it just me or does he look a little sad at this point?

The machine went clicky, clicky, clicky, clack for a while, doing its tallying and totaling. At first it looked to me like there wasn't going to be as much as I'd hoped, but then it started to get caught up and when it stopped, this is what the screen said:

Much to my surprise, someone guessed the total on the button: Duchess!! You are the big winner, my pregnant friend! I will send your prize pack off to you as soon as possible.

Thank you to everyone who participated. I had so much fun putting this together and watching the guesses come in. And a special thank you to the good folks at Coinstar, who got involved and tweeted about the giveaway, then very generously donated some gift certificate love (Can you say iTunes, friends?) that will appear in a future giveaway. This was my best blogoversary yet and you have energized me for the year ahead.

For Too Short a Time

A little over 24 hours ago, the world lost the light of a star and the universe gained one in the heavens. Madeline Alice Spohr left us last night, a mere 17 months after she got here to spread magic with her smile.

You may remember that I wrote about how her parents were raising funds for the March of Dimes walk to be held this month. None of us could ever have imagined that Maddie wouldn't be here for the walk, leading the way in her little pink car.

The blog world reeled today as the news of Maddie being gone spread via Twitter. There were tears and heartbreak and an outpouring of grief. But then that world started to pull together and spread an amazing amount of love and support along with the sad news. Heather and Mike asked that donations be made to the March of Dimes in lieu of any flowers. And my world, my online world, responded. For much of the day I felt numb with disbelief and grief, but I found myself transfixed watching that page for donations as it grew and grew and grew all day long. At this time, the team has raised over $20,000 in honor of Maddie. Just take a look at the widget to the right to see where the donation total on Heather's page currently stands. It boggles the mind and warms the heart, even a heart that's broken into tiny pieces right now.

The simply amazing Meghan at AMomTwoBoys.com has dedicated a page on her site For Maddie and it has all the information about how to make a donation (**Updated - the button to do that appears to the right, too. Please help if you can**), where to send any cards, etc. to Mike and Heather, information about the funeral service (which will be updated as the details become available) and a list of all the people who have written posts in honor of Maddie, to celebrate her life and mourn her death. Over 200 bloggers have added the links to their posts there, among them some pretty incredible writers, all of us needing to share our love for a little girl who could touch our hearts across the Internet with her trademark open-mouth smile and wide-open eyes.

Madeline, in a photo taken by her mother.

Maddie, you are loved and missed beyond reason. Thank you for brightening my world, for too short a time.

Year of Living Generously - Hollywood Edition

Have you ever wanted to work on a movie? Whether it's in front of the camera or behind it, I think a lot of people have wondered what it's like. I had the chance to do that shortly after I moved here to California from New York. For me, it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and while it was hard work, I wouldn't trade having done it for anything.

A friend I've known for as long I can remember is a talented writer and had made an award-winning short film in college. A few years after graduating, he'd developed a screenplay and decided to raise the money to make it here in San Jose, completely on a shoestring budget. At that time, I was doing temp work so I had a lot of free time and flexibility, and I was delighted to help work on his dream project.

Raising the money took a lot longer than shooting the movie. At that point in time, I was struggling to get by as it was -- even with a nest egg, California was an expensive shock to my wallet -- so while I wasn't able to give much cash, I gave many, many hours. I had enough of garage sales to last a lifetime and a half, let me tell you. But it worked. Combined with all sorts of fund raising efforts, from hitting up our parents to asking local merchants for in-kind donations, and a few of my friend's own credit lines, we were ready to shoot in the summer of 1995.

I became the mistress of wardrobe, for reasons that were never clear to me. I'm no fashion plate, but it was a job I could handle. It involved a lot of Poloroid photos for continuity -- this was before the advent of the digital point and shoot camera, remember -- and a lot of waiting around. Oh, and I was also a driver because, well, because I had a car.

In two weeks -- the hottest two weeks of the entire year, I recall -- I learned how to sleep almost anywhere, ate more bagels than I had ever eaten before, fell a little bit in love, witnessed someone getting fired, had a near emotional meltdown, and watched the magic of movies come to life. I even had my name in Variety when they did a tiny notice about the film; apparently wardrobe is a position that got listed routinely.

It was an almost surreal time, and it was also one of the most stressful but rewarding experiences in my life. While the movie never got picked up for distribution, it did have a big premiere locally; I got to see my name and hard work up on screen, popcorn in hand. That was a night I'll never forget.

It was the type of experience that anyone who plans to work in movies should get a chance to have, because it's literally a "from the ground up" kind of environment. Journalism students at Middle Tennessee State University are getting that chance in a film called "The New True Charlie Wu," which is shooting right now in Nashville. When I saw the introductory video from the film's writer and director, Bob Pondillo, on the Charlie Wu site, it really resonated with me and took me back to those days when the film was gearing up and the sky was the limit. Like the film I worked on, this one is being funded entirely by fans in exchange for your name in lights...or at least on the big screen. The details on how it works can be found here. But, in short, you will get a screen credit based on how much you -- and the people you refer -- contribute to make the film a reality.

Why give to help a movie get made? It's simply another kind of giving to education, really. The next generation of filmmakers has to learn their craft, and this is how they do it. And, let's face it, we need movies. It's been well established that, in difficult economic times, people turn to entertainment to help them escape from sometimes difficult realities. Equally true is that they need our support when they're getting started even more than they do when they've "made it" in Hollywood.

For this month's project in my Year of Living Generously, here is what I propose: Go, check out the site using my referral URL -- http://youandcharliewu.com/moburns -- and see what it's all about. Sign up and make even the minimum donation (which appears to be ten dollars), then come back and put your individual referral URL in the comments. For each of you who does this by the last day of this month, I will give an additional five dollars to the film. Plus, one person who makes a donation and makes a comment here will win two tickets vouchers to AMC Theaters in North America. There may be another, special prize that will be announced later.*

Fifteen years later, I'm in a different place in life than I was in the days of the endless garage sales. This is my way of honoring that incredible time and paying forward the chance I was given to participate in it. It may not sound like much, but seeing your name on screen for the first time is a memorable moment, and it's one I'd like to share with you.

+++Update: Initially I did not realize the minimum donation was $10. Because of that, I am upping the prize to four ticket vouchers to AMC or Cinemark or Regal Cinemas, winner's choice+++

*The pesky fine print: All comments must: 1) have a name; 2) have a valid referral URL; 3) have a verifiable email address; 4) be made here by March 31, 2009 at 11:59 PDT to be counted. The AMC ticket vouchers can only be awarded to a commenter who lives in North America. Comments world-wide, however, will count toward the donation total. Anonymous or inappropriate comments will not be counted, either for the donation total or the giveaways, and will not deleted. All potential winners will be contacted by email, so a valid email address is required and you will have five days to reply with a regular mail address that must be in the area described above. The maximum amount that will be donated by me for this post is $500. All decisions about the donation and the giveaway(s) are mine and are final.

The Year of Living Generously

Thank you to those who gave me feedback about the causes and organizations you support and the ways in which you do so. Definitely food for thought.

I wrote those first two sentences three days ago. I've been struggling with where I want this post to go since then. I guess I'm still trying to figure out exactly what I want to do and balancing that with how I share it here.

The basic idea is that I'm making this year one where I give as much as possible, both in the sense of giving money and in giving my time, to good causes that I find. Being practical, it's going to be more about where I target my giving dollars and how frequently I'm going to give those dollars. While I will look for opportunities to volunteer and do more than give money, I know the limitations of my time and personal comfort zone, and it would be foolish to make a commitment I know I won't be able to keep.

My purpose is not "Here's what I did, aren't I great?" It's also not intended to be a laundry list of opportunities for others to give. Striking that balance between encouragement and details of actual actions, along with a modicum of accountability, is something I'm finding to be very challenging. I'm also leery of coming off like a patsy who's going to be handing out money for every sob story that comes my way. That's my cynical side coming out, I know, but it's hard to ignore.

While this was something I was thinking about a lot when the donation drive was going on, it brought into more focus by some posts I read at BlogHer, one of which surprised me by mentioning the donation drive. (How did that happen? I left a comment on the author's first post about charitable giving throughout the year, not just at the holidays. Amazing how that works, huh?) While they contain some interesting ideas, none of them sounded just right so I needed to consider how to make it work for me. Thus was born The Year of Living Generously.

I don't know how to talk about the things that inspire me to act, however, without it coming off like one big overshare of self-congratulatory largess. Telling you, "Hey, I gave $X so far this month," isn't meaningful in my opinion. Telling you, "These are the charitable organizations I think you should support, too," is somewhat condescending (and limiting, if that makes sense). I would like to help inspire others to act where they can, yes, but what I do and how I do it isn't necessarily what any of you would do.

So it looks like this is a work in progress. I've already started finding and acting on giving opportunities, and I've already blown past what I initially thought would be my monthly dollar cap. Another bit of balance I need to work on achieving, I suppose. :-)

There is one aspect of this endeavor that I'd like to initiate, and that's highlighting agencies, events and opportunities for giving that I want to share with you. The one I'm going to lead off with is one you've probably already heard about, since it's pretty high-profile, given that was initiated by this guy called (President-elect) Barack Obama. He has called for tomorrow, the U.S. holiday commemorating the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday, to be a day of service across the country. I think this is an excellent opportunity to do something that you've been thinking about doing, be it large or small. Whether it's getting that spare blanket out of your closet and dropping it off at the nearest HomeGoods store or walking across the street to take the garbage to the curb for a neighbor who has limited mobility, giving your time to a local soup kitchen or giving blood that's so desperately needed, make the effort to get out and do it.

Wrapping up the Loose Ends

At long last, now that many of you may have forgotten about it entirely, I can report on the final results of the giveaway portion of my Holiday Donation Drive. There was a bit of a delay because I didn't hear back from one of the first people picked so, once the time allotted had passed, I had my mom dip into the hat of names again.

I'm delighted to announce that Mom24 at 4everMom and Renee at Bearable Deals each won a $20 Starbucks gift card, which are headed out to them tomorrow in the mail. Also going out in the mail tomorrow is Toni-Lynn's gift card as the top referrer. Congratulations to each of them and many thanks for participating!

All I've received as a receipt from Second Harvest Food Bank is an email, so I don't really have anything to provide as evidence of my donation. Because, frankly, if anyone is skeptical about it, my copying the text of the email here won't offer much in the way of proof. I believe Second Harvest will send me something by snail mail eventually, so if anyone is truly suspicious of my sincerity in reporting to you that I made the donation, you can say so and I'll post what I get. But I know that I made it, I know that AmEx already processed the charge and I know that anyone who knows me will not doubt this.

I want to remind you that there are still a few days for you to make a donation to your charity of choice in time for it to count in this tax year, if the tax deduction is important to you. (Personally, I don't itemize, so it doesn't matter.) As one person pointed out in the comments during the drive, many employers will match all or part of your charitable donations; this is an incredible way to make the most out of your donation dollars. My employers in the past have done this and I always took advantage of it. I currently don't have that benefit available to me, but if you do, I encourage you to look into it now if you never have before.

As the year draws to a close, I keep thinking, "What next?" More than one person has said to me during the course of this that they really identified with the dilemma I expressed in my initial post about the donation drive regarding knowing who to give to when there are so many worthy causes out there and so many opportunities for people looking to take advantage of the generosity of others and our innate desire to help.

I'd be curious to know what causes and groups and charities you think are worthwhile and how you support them. Is giving money the way to go, because agencies like Second Harvest can make so much good from so relatively little? Is volunteering better because you're giving your time? Does a combination of both suit you? How do you decide where to spend your time and money when it comes to helping others? So many questions, almost as many as there are needs out there. I hope you'll share your thoughts so we can have a discussion on where the giving goes from here.

The Results of My Holiday Donation Drive

Thank you so much to those who came to participate in my holiday donation drive. And a super big hand goes out to those who worked so hard to get other people to come comment. It was great to have so many new people stopping by and, of course, I would be delighted if some of you decided to come back every once in a while!

So, on to The Results. A total of 126 unique commenters were eligible for the giveaway drawing and 14 different people were tallied as having referred people to comment. Each referral got a separate chance for the Gold Card for each person they sent, for a total of 48 entries. Anymommy and Toni-Lynn were the superstar referrers, combined sending more than half of those people; I'm very grateful to them both.

I could have used a number randomizer to chose the giveaway potential winners, but that just seems so impersonal to me. I'm a "pick names out of a hat" kind of girl. And let me tell you, it takes a long time to cut out 174 little slips of paper! I actually got a hat and put the little slips of paper in, first for the gift cards and next for the referral Gold Card, and had my mom (an impartial party here if ever there were one) draw for us.

The two potential winners for the gift cards have both been notified by email tonight, and I will share their names here as soon as I hear back from them.

I can, however, share with you that the winner of the referral Gold Card was.....anymommy! It was a bit of a thrill to see her name on the little slip of paper that my mom handed me, because I know what a complete Starbucks nut she is.

But, I have to go outside the rules here a little at this point, for two reasons. First, as anymommy mentioned in her comment, while she lives in Washington state, at the moment she's in Saipan, in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. In case you're wondering, it's a beautiful island in the middle of the Philippine Sea, a.k.a The Middle of Nowhere. There happen to be no Starbucks there, which I think could be seen as a small personal tragedy. So her Gold Card will have to wait until she's back home -- there's really no point in having a one-year membership that she won't be able to use for a couple of months yet.

Second, as I was cutting out all those strips of paper I kept seeing Toni-Lynn's name over and over again, and I just knew that if she wasn't selected she was going to have to get a card, too. That kind of effort has got to be rewarded! Congratulations to Toni-Lynn and anymommy and thank you again for your help.

So I'm happy to say that we have a total of four winners for the giveaway. Of course, the biggest winner, I hope, is Second Harvest Food Bank. There were 129 comments counted toward the donation -- I decided to add in the comments that came in after the official finish -- and because I like round numbers, let's call that $130.

You may have seen that there was a comment that offered to add a latte's worth of cash to the pot, which came from the girlfriend of my brother (known around here as B²W³ because he's the Best Brother in the Whole Wide World). Well, she just bought a rather expensive latte! I'm putting her down for $20 -- she can afford it and I'm sure B²W³ will kick in at least half of it. :-)

That makes a total of $150 that has been donated to Second Harvest of Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties in honor of all the commenters that came to take part. I have requested a receipt that I will post when I receive it, just to assuage any doubts (Mr. Garcia) that I really did do what I said I was going to do!

Thank you all again and I hope you have a wonderfully bright, festive, safe and enjoyable holiday time.

My Big Holiday Donation Drive, Now With Added Caffeine!

It's that time of year when thoughts turn to holiday traditions; family, gifts, food and fun being chief among them. For most of us, that is.

I'm fortunate. I'm fortunate and I know it, and every day I'm thankful for it. And times like what people are going through right now, in the U.S. and elsewhere, make me feel both fortunate and impotent on a daily basis.

I give. I give often and freely, both as often and as freely as I can. I don't give to every person or group that asks, but I try to focus on the things I see as important. This is an impossible thing, of course, because our priorities shift and change as time and situations change, and what's important to me isn't necessarily important to someone else.

But there's a healthy degree of cynicism in me that I can't shake because it seems like nearly everyone has their hand out at one time or another for one cause or another, and I'm left wondering how we got to a point where there's such great need for so many things every single day and how many of them are people playing an angle and trying to make a buck. For the clearly legitimate causes, it seems like it's a never-ending well of need that just gets wider and wider.

I've had it hammered in to my head that I have to plan for my own future, so I can't justify simply handing over every spare dollar to every cause I encounter, even if my heart is telling me to do just that. In that mythical, perfect world, I could do just that and I'd know that there would be help for me when I needed it. However, we all know that we don't live in that world and it would be foolish to not look ahead to my own well-being and be judicious about balancing saving and giving.

But when I think about how many people are going hungry in a country that has so, so much, it makes me queasy. I know there are parents out there every day having to decide between feeding their families and paying their bills, and people who really don't know where their next meal is coming from, neither of which is something I've ever had to face. The older I've gotten, the more I appreciate how my mother was able to balance what should have been a comfortable income against life circumstances and make sure that we were never without, and probably even had more than we should have. There are too many people, and that number grows every day now, knowing that they're not going to make that balance happen.

As much as I like the Toys for Tots and Family Giving Tree programs (the latter of which I participate in every year and I think it's very important for the people they serve), it's the idea of people going hungry at a time when so many of us are buying expensive, indulgent things for each other that is getting to me the most this year.

To that end, I'm hoping you will help me determine the amount of money I'll be giving to the Second Harvest Food Bank this year, as a part of my company's holiday giving efforts. Inspired by something AmyInOhio did in October for Blog Action Day 2008, I'm asking for you to comment on this post and ask other people to do the same.

For every comment (one comment per person and verifiable email address) to this post made between now, December 12th at 6:00pm PT, and December 19th at 6:00pm PT, I will donate one dollar to Second Harvest Food Bank. It would be fantastic if you would tell us in your comment the state and/or country where you live.

To sweeten the deal, I will be giving away Starbucks $20 gift cards to some lucky commenters*; one card if there are 100 comments or fewer by the end of the period, two cards if there are more than 100 comments by the end of the period. If you guys blow the lid off of this and there are 200 or more comments by the 19th, I'll give away four cards. And if you get someone else to come here and leave a comment, telling me by name that you sent them, there will be an additional incentive. One commenter who has sent at least one other person come here to comment on this post (and they name you in their comment) will receive a Starbucks Gold Card membership in addition to a $20 gift card.

If anyone who wins a gift card so wishes, they can instead choose to have me add that amount of money to the Second Harvest Food Bank donation total.

So there's a chance here to give a lot of money to a good cause and get some freebies for yourself at the same time. With the advent of Twitter and the like, I know you can reach out to a lot of people, and I hope you will. Thank you in advance for spreading the word and doing some good. If you're curious how far the donation will go, check here. I'll plan to provide updates as we go along giving the progress of the donation total.

*The fine print (sorry): All comments must have a name and verifiable email address to be counted. The Starbucks gift cards can only be sent to commenters in North America. The Starbucks Gold Card can only be sent to a commenter in the U.S. Comments world-wide, however, will count toward the donation total. Anonymous or inappropriate comments will not be counted, either for the donation total or the giveaways, and will not be allowed. Comment are moderated so they may not show up immediately. All winners will be contacted by email, so a valid email address is required and you will have three days to reply with a regular mail address that must be in the area described above. Any international winners will be notified and given the chance to have the card amount added to the donation total in their honor. One person could win both the Gold Card + $20 gift card and one of the other $20 gift cards...which would make you the most popular kid in school. The maximum amount that will be donated by me for this post is $500.

Vote Now, Vote Often

Okay, so we all know we have to do that whole voting thing in just a few months. As much as I want change, I'm not looking forward to that time because it means the endless, repetitive ads touting this candidate or that proposition will be back. (If you don't live in California, you may not have the proposition part of the deal, and you may consider yourself extremely lucky in that regard.)

In the meantime, however, there is a vote you can cast right now that will not only be meaningful, but easy and probably enjoyable.

First Book is a nonprofit organization I found out about a few years ago when I worked for a company that had a generous matching gifts program. They came to my attention via a competition for nonprofits in which one would get a big donation for collecting the most individual donations within a certain period of time. First Book didn't win, but I've been a contributor ever since because I'm a big fan of what they do.

First Book's mission is to give children from low-income families the opportunity to read and own their first new books. As simple and as wonderful as that. And now through September 15th, you have a chance to help your state receive 50,000 new books for these kids, without spending a dime.

Go here to share What Book Got You Hooked. It asks you to just "Share the memory of the first book that made reading fun for you and then help get more kids hooked: vote for the state to receive 50,000 new books for children in need." You don't even have to do the sharing part if you don't want to, just vote as many times as you can for your state!

They had this campaign for the first time last year and Oklahoma won; I'd like to see another state get the books this year. We all know school programs are suffering everywhere and that low-income kids often don't get a chance for a "luxury" like a new book. No matter what state wins the prize, we all win by helping literacy.

I could write a dozen posts about how important reading is to me and what role it has played in my life, but I'm going to spare us both by not doing that! Suffice it to say that it has been huge from the time I was very, very young. Being able to help another young child find the same kind of connection I've had to books is a very satisfying feeling.

The book I picked as the one that got me hooked? Harriet the Spy.