Teach42

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If you ever visit Teach42.com, then you probably have noticed that I’ve changed the theme once again. There are two reasons for the change: 1) I never really liked the look of the sidebars in the last theme and 2) I wanted to have a spot to put in a specific new widget, Chip In. About a week ago, I saw Beth Kanter’s tweet about trying to raise money to send a Cambodian student to college. I had been about to buy a new t-shirt on Threadless, but instead made a donation to her cause. She made it as simple as possible. I just clicked “ChipIn!” and paid directly out of my PayPal account. And then I felt really good for the rest of the day.

It got me thinking though… The fact that she was able to send two children to collage through raising funds on her blog, facebook, YouTube, Twitter and other social sites really made a huge impression. I’ve built up a pretty decently sized social network online. How am I leveraging it to make a difference in the world?

So I decided that I was going to follow Beth’s example and begin a personal fund raising campaign for the holiday season. After a little soul searching, I decided to adopt Habitat for Humanity as the cause. Why? There’s a few reasons. The foremost reason is that my mother-in-law, 3 sisters-in-law and brother-in-law all were the beneficiaries of a Habitat house in Iowa City, so I’ve seen first hand just how incredible an organization it is. Their work has impacted millions of families both here in the US and overseas. In the wake of Katrina, Habitat has built over 1,100 homes in just a little over two years.

The only thing better than helping a family build and settle into a home that they built with their very own hands, is watching them turn around and help do the same for someone else. It truly is a special organization.

This holiday season I will be collecting $1,000 to donate to Habitat for Humanity. I figure if I can just find 100 friends and family members from this blog, Twitter, Facebook and Linked In to each donate $10, it should be a breeze to hit this goal. And what’s $10? One day going out to lunch? Two coffees from Starbucks? Half a T-Shirt from Threadless?

Obviously I’d be thrilled if you can donate more, but if everyone who reads this blog entry donates just $10 to Habitat for Humanity, we could help make one families dreams a reality.

Chris, Heather, Mari, Carl, and Jenna break ground

Dedication day at their brand new home