B̶e̶t̶t̶e̶r̶ ̶l̶a̶t̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶n̶ ̶n̶e̶v̶e̶r̶ ̶r̶i̶g̶h̶t̶?̶ ̶:̶X̶.

Follow up to.

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But then “everyone” else had it covered. And I was waiting for a few confirmation emails in regard to donations. And now, my compusaurus [the desktop I got my senior year of high school] is dismantled, and I’m sorry but I just don’t love you all enough to buy photoshop for my mac just to make a picture collage. That and I got locked out from the blog for a bit – but then I guess that’s all fluff. I struggled with this post. That, however, is not what is important.

What is key, is that the romance community – and others – pulled together and did something pretty awesome. We raised … ok so this put a smile on my face and is totally cute… a minimum of leet! Or, you know, $1,337.00. That’s awesome because, well, wow – what a number, and in less than twelve hours! And then… you know. Gamer speak or something (1337). I’m not a gamer but that’s still fun.

Point being: Y’ALL! WE RAISED ONE THOUSAND THREE HUNDRED THIRTY SEVEN DOLLARS! This all happened in less than twelve hours. That’s pretty freaking incredible. Yes, Social Good Day was the impetus, but I like to think we could do this any day. I’m also especially thrilled because 100% of the money raised via (RED) goes to aid.

So many of you re-tweeted the blog link – and I want to thank you for that. I honestly thought I might not get ten comments, initially (if you check some of the other posts on the blog you’ll notice comments are sparse, those precious little things). Then Shiloh Walker told me if we got 50 comments, she’d donate $50 to (RED) as well. Then everything snowballed, with Ali saying if we got 75 comments she’d donate $50 as well, and then a message from Courtney Milan, with another offer of a $50 if we got 100 comments.

Anyway, here is the list of the badass women who donated $50: Shiloh Walker, Ali Flores, Courtney Milan, Tamara Allen, Moira Rogers (both Bree and Donna, so $100 combined), Vivian Arend, Stacy A, Tigris Eden, Carly Philips, HelenKay Dimon, Lauren Dane, L.K. Rigel, a super secret donor, Jennifer Haymore, Annmarie Anderson, Shelli Stevens, Magdalen Braden, oh, and me. And my other fellow duckie, the awesome c2, donated $75. I admit I chose for her, because she just wanted an even number, and at the time that was $75 based on the amount of donation pledges I’d gotten at the time. Otherwise chronologically she fits in between Jennifer Haymore and mystery giver. And actually, one of the awesome authors above actually gave $287.00, because that’s how many comments were on the post at the time she went to (RED). This humble person doesn’t want credit, however.
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Now, we have people who donated $10-$25. One said $10, like my original amount, then became even more amazingly generous and gave $25. These giving individuals are Liza Brown, Jackie, Vi Dao, Nicole, Victoria Dahl, and Sonoma Lass.
Also, Farrah Rochon saw the original post and went to (RED) and made a donation – which is why I’m saying we raised a minimum of $1,337.00 – I don’t know if anyone else saw the post/that it was social good day and decided to contribute. And, that’s cool (on so many levels) – because the point of it isn’t to be all “hey lookit what I did” but to support something important.

So here’s the story. I learned of (RED) in college, shortly after my discovery of ONE during a visit to the UN building. I follow (RED) on twitter, and they said it was social good day. I didn’t think much of it, until I saw a group of blogs who were pulling to donate $1/comment on September 23, most up to $40. I thought about it for a few hours, and thought, I can do that. So I wrote up my post with the hopes of getting a minimum of ten comments, for me to donate a minimum of $10. By the time Courtney Milan offered $50, I thought, “well hell – I should step it up.” So decided I’d give $50 if we hit 100 comments as well. It snowballed from there in the most wonderful way. I tried to guilt people into stopping by, I went on facebook and im’d people I haven’t talked to in years. (Some people ignored me, jerks.) Other people in the romance community sent family members to comment… it was an awesome joint effort.

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I wanted to thank each and every one of your for your support – just for commenting, to take time out of your busy day and acknowledge that this is an important issue. AIDS is definitely an unpopular subject and not talked about enough – and yet a mere $0.40 a day saves someone’s life. You can do the math – we saved lives.

To clear some things up – no, I don’t get anything for doing this. Some people asked me “what do you get?” or “do you get a prize for X amount of money?” and the answer is no, nothing. No prize, no write up or mention, just the satisfaction of knowing that the romance community can do something awesome, and that life and people can be amazing and wonderful. Also, I didn’t collect the money – that would probably have been much more complicated, and a bit weird, since I don’t know the real name of like 80% of the people who gave. Each person went and made a donation.

Oh, and before this gets all sappy [or more so] – I found a part time job. 4 hours a week. Yes, I’m rolling in it. < / sarcasm > Actually, that’s also what prompted me to up my donation, personally. One week’s pay isn’t that much to give to a good cause. But anyway, if anyone needs a PR person, fundraiser, event planner, you know, think of me. Hopefully this would be a great plus in my resume, yes? [Oh, and also a few unpaid/volunteer gigs – so before you get on my case for having all this free time :P]

But the point is – give yourselves a pat on the back. We made a difference. Gold star to each and every one of you.

And if you care to visit other places on the world wide web, I know Moira Rogers, Shelli Stevens, Courtney Milan, Shiloh Walker, and likely others blogged about it as well. [I just don’t know/remember where.]