Blogathon: Chilliwack Bloggers Unite!
Update – Blogathon will be held on July 25th this year. I’ll definitely be participating and supporting a local Chilliwack charity. You can read more about it at Blogathon.org
Last year my friend Rebecca Bollwitt organized a pretty big charity event called Blogathon. The participants of Blogathon were asked to write 48 blog entries over a period of 24 hours, all the while raising money for their respective charities. It was a lot of fun, and a pretty big success.
Rebecca and I both chose to support the Union Gospel Mission in Vancouver last year, an organization dedicated to helping the homeless in Vancouver. In the middle of Blogathon, I fired off a quick email to Matthew Good to see if he’d donate an autographed CD to the cause, which he happily agreed to. Then he decided to up the ante and instead had an auction where the highest donation would be able to come to the studio and listen to him record his next album. The winning bid was from Jane Smith, and she donated around $4,000 to the cause. Here’s a shot of Jane in the studio in Vancouver with Matthew Good and Kevan from the Union Gospel Mission (photo by Rebecca Bollwitt). All in all, I think around $8,000 was raised for the Union Gospel Mission, all of which went towards helping the homeless in Vancouver.
Given that I now live in Chilliwack, I’m going to be supporting a local Chilliwack charity this time around. In addition, I’m hoping to get a group of bloggers together in the area to hopefully all help raise some money for other local charities. If there’s enough interest, I’ll even approach a local coffee shop and see if they’ll keep their doors open for 24 hours to help support the cause. If you’d like to have a blog but currently don’t have one, simply head on over to WordPress.com and sign up for one — it’s free, and you’ll have one going in just a few minutes.
If you’re in the area, and would like to participate, please drop a comment or contact me directly. The official Blogathon announcement is still a few weeks away, but I wanted to get the ball rolling on this as soon as possible.
Duane Storey is a Vancouver-based photographer, writer, traveler, and entrepreneur. He is a co-founder of BraveNewCode, a web design & development studio that focuses on professional WordPress plugins. 
Hey, this sounds like a cool idea, as in alternative to walk/run/bike type of fundraising. 48 blog posts in 24hrs is definately a workout of a different kind.
I work for a Chilliwack non-profit (CAPS) and there is a definate need out on the streets of the Wack. There is also a lot going on right now around the Health Contact Centre which is a collaborative effort with many not for profits and gov’t services potentially working together under on roof.
So, as a blogger and as someone who is invested in helping those in need right here at home, please keep me in the loop.
Cheers,
jamie
I’d be game to help out or try to pull the all nighter, but not really in the ‘wack area. As for a coffee shop, Blenz is usually good for the 24h access.
I’m totally in if I’m in Chilliwack that week!
Too bad you weren’t still in Vancouver! =( I’d pop over and help out, seeing as I have a blog now. I’m not smart enough to handle it all on my own though.
You can still join Blogathon! I’ll walk you through it on IM. It’s fun, and for a good cause.
I’m interested, but don’t necessarily understand the commitment or the process. (It’s late, I’m slow) Are ALL of the participants EACH blogging x 48 entries, or is it a cumulative effort to produce 48 entries? Are all of the entries done on the individual blogs or one master blog? I’m trying to imagine who would pay me to blog for charity. Pledges? I think something is getting lost in translation on my end.
Yah, so I guess I didn’t really give enough information. When the official site goes up they’ll be more information. But:
a) Every participant must blog 48 entries, or one every 30 minutes.
b) The donations come from pledges. Last year the pledges were on an individual basis — not sure what’s happening this year. Hopefully the pledging will be taken care of through the site.
[...] think of it again until very recently when I read one of Duane Storey’s posts titled: Blogathon: Chlliwack Bloggers Unite! . Duane is trying to organize a similar event in the small British Columbia town of Chilliwack, a [...]
[...] If you are a local blogger and would like to participate in Blogathon 2009, please be sure to register on the global site starting July 1st. After that, please connect with me so that I can add you to a special Blogathon Vancouver blogroll and help promote your campaign. I have also arranged a place for all local participants to gather (Workspace in Gastown) should they wish to spend their 24-hours with others. The benefit of having people around is that it’s often easier to come up with post ideas, you could do a quick photo walk as a post, there’s encouragement from all sides, and you’ll be surrounded by others enduring the same insomnia/writing frenzy. I will try to register a Vancouver Tweetup during that time as well and Duane will be spearheading a Blogathon event in Chilliwack. [...]