Global Giving Campaign

Thursday, December 17, 2009

For the next month, Athletes For Hope is running a huge campaign to fund-raise for a group of deserving charities.  I recently was asked to become a part of Athletes For Hope and I was thrilled, flattered, and excited to have the opportunity to work with people like Tony Hawk, Mia Hamm, Andre Aggasi, and others. 

So, I accepted the challenge to participate in the Global Giving athlete race for charities!  The charity I am supporting is the Diabetes Scholars Foundation.  This is a non-profit organization that helps to send children with diabetes and their families to camps, conferences, and meetings who otherwise could not afford to have that kind of experience.  It’s an incredible experience for a child with diabetes to learn that he/she is not alone in this.  Diabetes can be such a lonely and scary disease for children (and for their whole family, for that matter). 

So, for the next month, I’ll be posting constantly about the global giving campaign.  I get nothing tangible out of this but I get a lot spiritually by knowing that I can make a difference in the lives of families who are living with diabetes.  I usually just quietly make my small little donations here and there through the year to a few different charities that are either associated with animal welfare or with diabetes.  I think this must be the first time I have ever tried to twist arms to get anyone to contribute and it is definitely the first time that I’ve ever made my charitable pursuits public.  But, this is really important. 

Okay, so here are the different links.  This is the direct link to the page for Diabetes Scholars Foundation’s Global Giving contribution page:  http://www.globalgiving.org/projects/diabeteseducationscholarships/  and this is the direct link to what they are calling the “leader board” for the global giving campaign:  http://www.globalgiving.org/leaderboards/athletes-for-hope?showAll=true.  As you can see on the leader board, people already started to contribute late last night.  So, if nothing else, PLEASE don’t let Jeff Gordon beat me!!!! 

Thanks for checking out the campaign and please pass along the links to anyone you can think of.  This is a great charity and they do so much good for kids with diabetes.  We can make a difference in the lives of these kids; they don’t have to be alone and scared.  And, if you check out the campaign and decide that there is a cause you feel more strongly about, that’s okay - as long as you don’t let Jeff Gordon beat me you know! 

Missy