Current mood:

thankful

Now is your time to shine
Dear LiveJournal friends:
In an effort to show the Katrina victims that we care, I have a simple favor to ask of each of you.

Please leave a comment to this post.

You can write whatever you wish in your comment, but please comment once and only once. After you have left your comment, please direct everyone else on your friend's list to this post so they can do the same.

For each comment I receive I will donate $1.

I have no idea how long I will let this process go on. It will depend on how many comments I receive and how quickly they come in. I will leave that magic up to you.

Thanks to all of you. -Ryan


First update (4 hours after initial post):
In many times throughout our lives, we will see great acts of humanity and terrible acts. We've witnessed a lot of both during the last week. I've spent the last week toiling over what I could do. I am a simple graduate student living on a small wage clear up in Michigan without a house large enough to hold a homeless family. I've heard time and time again that monetary donations are the single most important things needed. Yes, donated items are worthwhile too, but it takes a lot of energy to collect it, ship it down there, sort it, distribute it, etc. Money is what these people need.

My inbox has simply been inundated (pun intended) and the response has reached far beyond what I could have imagined. At the time I write this, my post is only 4 hours old and I've already received hundreds of responses. The response is emotionally overwhelming me. I wish I could respond to each and every one of you, but due to the numbers, that's become nearly impossible.

I made this post for a number of reasons. Unfortunately, just like the negative things some people are doing down south, people are questioning what I am doing. They say, "why not just pony up and donate?" or they think I'm in need of some kind of attention. Others are breaking my simple request of only commenting once. Chaos and skepticism are impossible to avoid.

The purpose of my post was to bring people together to boost some morale. People are helping despite the horror we see on TV or in the newspapers. Many of us so disconnected from the situation feel helpless like there is nothing we can do. For others of us, we simply may not have the funds to help. However, remember that most of those people have nothing but the clothes they are wearing. If you have the funds to pay for an internet connection to use LJ, most likely you do have the funds to help even if it is your pocket change. To someone walking the highway in Louisiana right now, that pocket change could allow them to make a phone call and perhaps find a family member they have been unable to locate all week.

I urge each of you to donate or help in whatever way you can. At some point very soon, I will sadly be forced to cut this off, but I promise you, the donation will take place.


Second update (5 hours after initial post):
Many thanks to each of you who has responded and passed this along. We've reached the point that my income will not allow me to do much more, so I will be unable to count any more comments. I wouldn't have donated nearly as much on my own accord, but you've all inspired me to donate so much more. I can only hope others of you will be inspired to do something similar. You won't regret it. Additional comments are by all means welcome if people can use this medium to find other ways to help. Again, thanks to each of you. :)


Third update (25 hours after initial post):
Some of you have suggested that I investigate to see if I can get any companies to match our contribution. Lowe's is currently matching dollar for dollar, so I may go with that. If that's the case, all donations will go to the Red Cross. Here are some links to other places you can donate:

America's Second Harvest
Oxfam
The United Way
The Salvation Army
The Oxygen Network
The Humane Society


Fourth update (52 hours after initial post): We've reached the 5,000 limit on comments, so I am unable to take any more, but you can still comment to the others who are continuing the process.

Fifth update The following people have volunteered to keep the process going, so please comment to those who still haven't reached their goal. If I hear of others, I will post them here as well. To those of you whose names are listed here, if any of my numbers are incorrect, please let me know.

Participants who reached their goals:
shadbolt75 ($500 - I donated at Lowe's, which is matching donations, so the Red Cross will get $1000.)
shivacat ($700)
squirrelgirl22 ($1500)
meinnim ($500)
errantpenny (?)
yourshrubbery ($101)
celesalk ($150)
mrsminnis ($101)
im_hypnotized ($105)
onebrownman ($350)
merrivere (?)
edna_blackadder ($250)
wispa ($40)
littlecreek ($70)
italianchick589 ($569)
x0_da_emster_0x (?)
italyfilez ($157)
sylviasushi27 (gave clothes)
archer904 ($3500)

Participants still taking comments:
rotcknn_ahren (willing to give ?)
nikquita123 (willing to give ?)
eowyn_wannabe (willing to give $50)
gmalivuk (willing to give ?)
nematoddity (willing to give $6)
gypsylady (willing to give ?)