Hurricane Katrina Drink-a-thon

So the reason I haven't written in a while is because I have been busy trying to figure out the best way I could help our Americans who lost everything because of the hurricane. As I wrote before, I was tremendously saddened by the destruction that Hurricane Katrina brought to the Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi. So longing to do more than chip-in a few bucks and keeping them in my “thoughts and prayers,” as everyone likes to say; a few of my resourceful friends and me have decided to organize a fundraiser to collect donations for The American Red Cross Hurricane Katrina Relief Fund.

On September 24, we will be holding a drink-a-thon. This event will operate like any other "a-thon" type event. We will be collecting pledges on a per drink basis. Your total donation will be the amount you pledge times the number of drinks I consume on the night of the 24th. 100% of the money we collect is going to the American Red Cross. The overhead costs of this fundraiser (i.e. drinks, web site, etc) are being donated by the participants.

Our goal is to collect $10,000 dollars.

I am sure that at his point you have several questions regarding the safety of this event. I assure you that all of the bases have been covered. There is a list of rules posted at www.katrinadrinkathon.org that will govern how the event will transpire. Everything has been considered; from how will we account for people who don't want to drink, to how we will be getting home after the event. "Sober spotters" will be present to ensure that good judgments are made even in the later hours of the event. To be honest, this will probably be the safest night out we have ever had.

Your next thought is probably, "Why not do something more productive than drinking?" The answer to this is simple. It's easier to motivate people my age to participate in a fundraiser where the activity is something they enjoy. How many people do you think would have signed up for a Hurricane Katrina Weed-pull-a-thon? The response to this idea by my peers has been overwhelming, and I think it is because they get to do something fun while doing something else they know they should. The real work here is in gathering pledges before the event and collecting the donations after.

I would also like to invite you to peruse the Questions page at http://www.katrinadrinkathon.org/4.aspx for more information about this fundraiser.

Hopefully I have convinced you of the validity of this fundraiser, so now comes the sales pitch. I would like to ask you to sponsor us. I understand that a lot of people have already given and if you have then great! But if you haven't or can give a little more then I would really appreciate it. If you don't like the idea of sponsoring drinking, then we can also accept a lump sum donation for a fixed dollar amount.

Thank you for at least taking a look at the site. We were informed this morning that our local paper, Westword, will be doing a story about our fundraiser sometime during the next week.

I would like to ask you to ask anybody you know for pledges on our behalf. The goal we set is very high and the only chance we have of achieving that goal is if we can get lots of help!