Blogathon Vancouver 2008: Final Update

Duane and Me
Blogathon 2008

Last summer I initiated Blogathon Vancouver, based on the original Blogathon in which I’ve participated for the last few years. During my campaign in the summer of 2008, which sees a blogger write a post every 30 minutes for 24 hours straight in support of a cause, I received some support from a friend that had an international impact.

Took place: July 26, 2008
Hours: 24
Blog posts: 48
Vancouver bloggers who came on board: 12
Total raised for my cause of choice (Union Gospel Mission): $7,000
Total raised by all Vancouver bloggers (who each blogged on their own site for the causes of choice): Over $10,000

Duane, who was participating and also chose the UGM, was arranging to offer up a signed CD from our friend Matthew Good to the person with the highest personal donation.

My theme last summer (since Blogathon is usually a bit easier if you give yourself a theme for all 48 posts) was the ABC’s of Vancouver and the first person to comment on my post “M is for Matthew Good” was Matt himself saying that he wanted to offer more in order to raise more funds. “You know Becky, given the cause a signed CD just doesn’t seem like enough. We should do something more attractive, like offer a private listening session of the demos for the next record or something to someone for pledging the most amount of money.”

Which is exactly what we did. The result was a generous donation of $4,000 by Jane Smith and since she is from the UK it took some planning to arrange her trip out here but she made it this week. Along with Jane, Kevan (from the UGM), and Duane, I headed to the recording studio to meet up with Matt and close the book on Blogathon 2008.

Thanks to this group of people, we were able to set a new fundraising record for the UGM during Blogathon Vancouver 2008 (and I’m pretty sure Jane had a fantastic time as well).

Even though my plate is full, Blogathon is something I will continue to support so make sure if you’d like to put in the effort for the cause of your choice this summer, keep 24 hours in July open and please join me for Blogathon Vancouver 2009.