Cricket is participating in Blogathon 2006!
as of 4:00pm EST Aug. 1, 2006:
Money Raised for the Terre Haute Humane Society: $165.00
Goal to reach: $200.00
Pounds of food/wishlist items from my incentive program: 66
Recipes submitted for recipe book: 31
My Incentives for You - *hint* WIN WIN WIN great prizes!!!
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So you're interested in sponsoring me for Blogathon 2006? Great! Here is all the info you need!
Don't know what a Blogathon is? Well, to make a long story short, the Blogathon is a massive 24 hour online fund-raising event. I participated in Project Blog 2004 when the folks from Blogathon were on hiatus for the year, and raised $225 for my charity!!) The good folks at Blogathon are coordinating the fund-raising effort again this year to help bloggers like me raise money for their respective charities. It works much like a Dance-a-thon or a Walk-a-thon, except that our chosen activity to do for 24 hours is online journaling.
Here are some quick FAQs for you...
1. The blogging event will take place on July 29, 2006 starting at 9:00am EST and will run for 24 hours straight. I am hoping to be a Site Monitor for the event, so in addition to making my required post every 30 minutes for my 12 hours, I will be wandering around cyberspace checking in on other participants, too.
2. I am blogging to raise money to benefit the Terre Haute Humane Society. My "gimmick" this year is to create a recipe book from submitted recipes! During each post, I will also spotlight one animal from the shelter I am raising money for. I did the spotlights in 2004 and it was a BIG hit!
3. If you would like to sponsor me, please visit the Blogathon website and register. CLICK HERE TO GET TO MY SPONSOR PAGE! You need to register there so you can sponsor me. When you register, you give your information, but they will NOT use it except for record keeping. I believe you can just use your first name, or even a nickname, but PLEASE send me a note so that I know who you are! They NEVER sell or use your information except to keep track of pledges and then generate a list for me at the end of the event so I can contact everyone with donation information.
4. Once you have registered, you will be able to sponsor my campaign. Look for Cricket and Cricket's Corner or CLICK HERE TO GET TO MY SPONSOR PAGE! I haven't sponsored anyone, so I can't tell you what happens from there, but it should be pretty easy. Please check out their FAQ if you have any concerns! I am asking for minimum donations of $5.00 when possible because Paypal deducts a small fee for transactions on the receivers end, but any amount will do! Also, see my incentive program below....$5.00 from you equals 2 pounds of dog or cat food donated by me!!
5. You do not have to send the money for your sponsorship until after the event occurs. You will be contacted after the event and given the donation information for my charity. You pay the donation directly to the Humane Society. I provide a mailing address or online payment information (my charity uses Paypal!!).
6. If you do not want to wait that long and would prefer to go ahead and donate straight to me, you can do so via my Donation Account on Paypal. I prefer you to register with Blogathon and do your donation directly to the Humane Society site after the event is over, but I can take your donation this way and make a lump sum donation from myself to the site before the event begins if need be. Remember though that my charity also takes Paypal, so by donating straight to them, you cut out the middle man.
7. Please feel free to let me know when you have sponsored me, so I can list you on this page and thank you on my journal! Also, if you want to contact me with questions, I would be more than happy to answer them. This is my second blogging fund-raiser, but this is my first time participating in the event by this organization, so I am new to all this, too!
8. I have an incentive program to encourage people to donate! Scroll down just a little bit to see!
My Incentive for you to donate and participate!
Matching Gifts:
Inspired by two Blogathon 2005 participants who wished to give matching gifts to their charity, I am running an incentive program of sorts! My charity, the Terre Haute Humane Society, has a wishlist of items on their site. For every $2.50 that is donated from a sponsor, I will personally donate 1 pound of dry dog or cat food or one item from their wishlist. I would love to promise my time to the shelter to foster pets or volunteer at events, but the fall is a busy season for me at work, and I don't want to make a commitment I can't keep. Please consider donating money to this worthwhile charity!!! I am asking for minimum donations of $5.00 when possible because Paypal deducts a small fee for transactions on the receivers end, but any amount will do! Below are pictures of my cats checking out some of the toys I already bought to send to the shelter when the event is over! I plan to shop for the rest next week!
Recipe Book Participant Giveaways:
In 2004 during Project Blog, I also held a drawing for some cool scarves for anyone who participated in my "gimmick" for the event, which focused on my Before I'm Gone meme project. This year I am creating a Recipe Book, so everyone who sends in an ORIGINAL recipe for the book will be entered into a drawing that will occur every FOUR HOURS! The prizes are the cute notebooks seen below! One will be given away every four hours! You are eligible to win each drawing as long as you have submitted a recipe! The Recipe Book will be dedicated to a friend and office mate of mine who passed away on June 17th. She was a huge animal lover and this is my way of paying tribute to her.
Sponsor Recognition & Prize Drawing:
I plan to recognize my sponsors in four ways: 1. mentioning them on my main blog and linking to their site if they have one, 2. adding them to my Sponsor Section on this page, 3. putting them in the Recipe Book on a special sponsors page, and 4. entering them into a drawing for the following prizes, which also include a $10 Amazon.com gift certificate drawing for people who donate at least $5 or more. The first picture are cool containers which will be given away separately, no goldfish or sandwiches included (sorry!) and the second picture feature the world's BEST BEST BEST grooming brushes! I could go on forever about how good they are! They will be given away separately too, one for a dog and one for a cat!
Referrals:
I have gmail referrals for any sponsors that want them (participants, too!).
I also have 8 Neopets Premium referrals to give out to the first eight sponsors who donate $10.00 or more. If you don't play Neopets, you won't care, but if you do, contact me if you're interested. Please note...I am NOT selling these Neopets Premium referrals. They are merely rewards for people who sponsor me. (I must say that so Neopets people don't get cranky!)
Okay...so here is the plan for this year....I am compiling a Recipe Book from original recipes sent to me. The finished product will be made available free of charge on my website after the Blogathon is over. It will be a PDF book with all the recipes that were sent in. I will also include pictures of people's pets and/or the recipe if they submit a recipe!
Here is how it will work.
1. You can send in recipes ahead of time, or on the day of the Blogathon. I will try and mention everyone who sends in recipes, but I can only guarantee that the ones that come in on the day of the Blogathon will get mentioned on my blog. They will all be in the book, but may not all get mentioned on the blog during the event.
2. Your recipes must be ORIGINAL. What this means is that you can not go to another recipe book or website and just send in one of their recipes. It might have the same ingredients or the same basic instructions, but the write up must be original by you. Not sure what I am talking about? Read here...
3. I need to be able to give credit to the recipe, so when you fill out the recipe form, please use your name/nickname. I also ask for an email address, but only in case I have questions. It will NOT be sold or published. Please list your website if you want it mentioned in the recipe book or linked on my blog if I mentioned the recipe.
4. If you have pictures that you want to go with your recipe, they must be ORIGINAL as well. Please be sure of this. You can send a picture of the food in the recipe OR your pet! Or both! After all this is a recipe book for an animal shelter! LOL Once you submit the recipe form, email any pictures that go with it to me at kittymom AT gmail.com
Ready to send in a recipe? Use the form below! (removed)
Here's what's been sent in: Octodogs, Sticky Chin Sundae, Yummy Burritos of Tasty Goodness, Tuna Mac Salad, Cold Greek Cucumber soup, HomeStyle Meat Loaf, Old-Style Beef Stew, Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Bread, Fabulous Double Chocolate Glazed Brownies, Super Awesome Spaghetti with Meatballs, Quick Baked Potatoes, G'ma Muriel's Elephant Stew, Peach Ice Cream, Baked Chicken Wings, Brown Sugar Cake, Sweet and Sour Broccoli Pasta Salad, chicken casserole, Porcupine Meatballs, Texas Cheese, Enchiladas, Raisin Sheet Cookies, G'pa Shove's cookies, Grandma Mary's Soft Sugar Cookie Dough, Chocolate Chip Cheese Ball, Butterscotch Brownies, Tofu Soup, Chocolate Saltine Bars, Pineapple Chicken
for sponsors only:
Haute PC (Hubby's computer business!)
Kansas Girl (my mom!)
Linda V.
Fredia
Anonymous
July 29, 2006 - The big day is here! I got three more sponsors and passed the $100 mark! Watch my blog for all the updates from here on out!
July 28, 2006 - another sponsor and OMG...the news is interviewing me tomorrow! YAYAYAYAYAYAYAYA
July 26, 2006 - one more sponsor!!!!
July 14, 2006 - another sponsor! WOOOO!
July 12, 2006 - another two sponsors! And FIVE recipes! And 1 pet picture! WHOOO!
July 11, 2006 - two sponsors! Heard back from the Humane Society! Decided on recipe book gimmick!
July 9, 2006 - officially threw my hat in the ring! Better late than never! Also wrote to inform the shelter and two local news stations about the events. Sadly, email for one station all bounced back!