Twitter Updates
If 100 people each donated $10, we could make a $1000 contribution to Habitat for Humanity this holiday season. How hard could that be?
It seems like nearly every day I get another email from someone making a donation or thanking me for choosing Habitat to raise money for. I had no idea how many connections I had to Habitat besides the Big One. Many people also shared that they loved how easy it was to make a contribution and that they’d be much more prone to contributing more often if it was always this simple and personal. I have to admit, I love how easy ChipIn makes it, so I wrote a blog post about it on Digital Passports. Nothing fancy, just a few ideas for how people could use it for school fundraisers and collections.
And now, a few more thank you’s. And what a group of people they are! The reason I began this campaign, a major influence on my early blogging, a close friend from BLC and Michigan, and one of my buddies from when you could count the number of EduPodcasters on two hands!
- Beth Kanter – I’ve mentioned Beth a few times before on the blog in recent weeks. She’s the very reason that I began this campaign! Her blog is about how non-profits can make use of social media, but what she’s really an expert on is leading by example. Right now she’s collecting for Creative Commons and you’ll notice that she’s changed her profile images all over social sites to a photo of her wearing her CC T-Shirt. She also has a great wiki for how you can start your own personal fundraising campaign that helped me out tremendously.
- Anne Davis – What’s so special about Nov 3, 2004? That’s the day I first moved to Wordpress and marks the oldest blog post I have in my archives. That post happens to be about Anne and her Bloomin’ Bloggers. Anne Davis was a profound influence on me during my early blogging period, and continues to inspire me today. She’s currently working on some research that we’re all anxiously waiting to see the results of. She’s always on my “Must Subscribe List” whenever someone asks me who is worth subscribing too. Can’t thank her enough, for the donation, but also for helping me stake my claim in the blogosphere.
- Jim Wenzloff – Just thinking about what to say about Jim brings a smile to my face. Two things come to mind when I think of him: Cutting edge conferences and dark, seedy bars! He’s an amazing educator, and my favorite thing about his presentations is that people walk away from his sessions thinking, “Wow, that’s something I can actually USE on Monday.” Great ideas rooted firmly on the ground. That’s during the day though. I’ve been out a few times with Jim in several different cities. And someone everywhere we go he knows a tiny little bar, that’s sort of out of the way and yet he knows it as if he were a regular there. If you’re ever in Michigan (or just about anywhere else for that matter), you can’t go wrong asking him for a suggestion.
- Bud Hunt – So long as we’re going Old School, it’s only fitting that I take a moment to thank Bud the Teacher. Bud started blogging right about the same time as I did. In fact, we both started podcasting right about the same time too, pretty much from the very beginning. And we both have a penchant for carcasting! I have to admit though, he certainly hit the peak when he recorded his keynote for the 2006 K12 Online Conference… while commuting. His posts are sometimes amusing, other times profound, and often profoundly amusing
So there’s four more people who have participated in this fundraising campaign, all of whom have had quite an impact on me in the past, and once again with their generosity.
Want to see your name listed? It couldn’t be easier! Just click ChipIn on the widget in the upper left corner and make a donation to Habitat for Humanity. Every donation counts, no contribution is too big or too small. And every contribution will be thanked publicly!
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17% to goal!
Despite a big slow down (to be expected I guess), I did still receive a few other donations yesterday. I’m embarrassed to admit how often I check to see if any donations have come in! I know it’s going to take a while, that’s why I set what I think is a very realistic goal of doing this by the end of the year, but still… I was kinda hoping that the pace of the first day would keep up and I’d be done in little over a week! Aaaahhhhh, back to reality.
I do want to take a moment to thank a few more of the superstars who made a contribution. If you don’t see your name, just be patient, trying to spread them out!
- Teryl Magee – Teryl is a STAR in every sense of the word. She has been spotlighted on the DEN website and is the blog chair for the Tennessee leadership council. Her class is currently participating in an online math collaborative along with Martha Thornburgh in Washington. Ordinarily I’d never say something like this, but since she was generous enough to make a donation…. Go Vols! (Now I need to go gargle)
- Amy Vejraska – Amy mentioned in an email that she also volunteers her time to Habitat for Humanity too, so a double heaping helping of thanks goes out to her! She’s a fledgling blogger, and her blog DoUCWhatIC is already generating some conversation. Stop by and leave a comment of your own!
- Matthew Smith – I have no idea how Matthew and I are connected, besides that we follow each other on Twitter and that he was generous enough to contribute to the campaign! After some searching, I found his blog, Bogosity, and was surprised to find it revolved largely around religious themes! I’m a proud card carrying old testament tribe member, but I have to admit his soul searching posts really hit me. Well worth a visit, but don’t plan on just scanning through the posts. You’ll probably be there for a while.
- Charlene Chausis – Charlene is a good friend from my neck of the woods. She’s a STAR and a blogger who writes primarily at Educating Educators. She also happens to be my go-to-expert when it comes to Moodle. If you want to find some really fantastic resources, look no farther than her list of presentations and workshops (check out the diversity there) and the staff development page she keeps up for Stevenson High School.
Major thanks to these four for making a contribution! We aren’t done yet tho, more links coming tomorrow! Will YOUR name be listed there? It’s easy to make that happen! Just click on the “ChipIn” link in the badge in the upper right corner of this blog and make a donation. No amount is too high or too low! Every little bit helps.
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What a fantastic community to be a part of. Yesterday I announced my first online personal fundraising campaign to benefit Habitat for Humanity.
A short 24 hours later, I’ve had 9 contributions and raised $150 of the $1000 I’m trying to collect before the end of the year! Unbelievable.
Every person who makes a contribution will get a personal thank you on the blog along with the link to the site of their choice. Even if you can’t contribute yourself, follow these links and support the people that have stepped up to make a donation!
- Anne Truger – Anne is a rock STAR from Illinois. She’s a member of the DEN’s Second Life Leadership Council. In world, her name is JessieMarie Flanagan. If she isn’t in the DEN HQ, try checking various dance floors!
- Jennifer Orr – Jennifer is an upper elementary teacher from Virginia. Her blog, Elementary, My Dear, or Far From It has some fantastic classroom reflections. Personally, I got a kick out of List of Loves, where she discloses her love of things like, “when students ask a question I don’t know the answer to” and when “when students ask a question I don’t know the answer to”.
- Diana Laufenberg – Diana is a STAR Discovery Educator from Arizona who I had the pleasure of meeting at the Florida National Institute. Her wiki is chock full of juicy goodness, but what really stands out to me is the project she has entitled the Power of One. It outlines one way to address the incredibly difficult subject of genocide with middle school students.
- Cheryl Lykowski – Cheryl Lykowski is also a STAR, hailing from Michigan. Her blog, Web Explorer, documents her travels through the vast technology landscape. This year she was awarded a grant from MACUL to assist in a collaborative project her students are working on, entitled Global Explorers. Her students are connecting and collaborating with students in Bucaramanga, Colombia. Very cool!
More thank you’s coming tomorrow! And if you’d like to contribute, it couldn’t be easier. Just click “Chip In” on the widget below and you’ll be able to donate directly from PayPal or via a credit card if you so choose. Any amount at all will help us raise the money needed to build a family a house of their own.
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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
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