Throwback Thursday: David Cook 11/12/08
Katie 
Headliner: David Cook
Opener(s): N/A
Venue: Hard Rock Cafe
Cost: $158
Setlist:
Throwback Thursday: Maroon Effect 5/18/07
Headliner: Pat McGee
Opener(s): The Season
Venue: Webster Hall NYC
Cost: $32
Setlist:
N/A
Recap:
David Wright of the New York Mets put this benefit concert together to help raise money for Virginia Tech after the shooting there since his brother was a student at the school. Pat McGee – who had opened for Hanson but somehow never at any of the shows that I went to headlined. I dragged my brother along. They had raffles and I won tickets to Jon Stewart!
Charity Week: Blogs for a Cause
From Just bcause, I found out about Blogs for a Cause. I have worked with Nikki, she designed the header for my wordpress blog layout (which you will all hopefully see soon!) Nikki charges $30 for her design with $25 going towards her humanitarian work and $5 going towards her charity of the month. If you would like a “scrapbook” type design, you must also provide the digital scrapbook kit. Kits cost anywhere between $3-$7 depending on which set you choose. Nikki has a list of several websites to choose from as well. (The Charity Week image I made from the scrapbook kit I bought for my header. Who knew I could make something that looked that cool!?)
I emailed Nikki in the afternoon asking about her making me a header and by that evening the work and design was completed! It was great working with Nikki and I would definitely recommend her if you are looking for a layout!
Charity Week: Just BCause
Just BCause is a site where you can get a custom blog layout. Except it is with a twist! Smitty offers to re-design your blog for you in exchange for you making a donation to the charity of your choice in the amount of your choice! I have not personally worked with Smitty, but my friend Laura at Wine and Cheese Please has. I just think this is such a great idea! Kudos to Smitty for offering her skills to raise money for others! I know that there are a few bloggers out there looking for custom layouts for their blog so be sure to check out the portfolio at Just BCause!
Charity Week: Donors Choose
Donors Choose is another one of my favorite places to donate. You get to read the story of a classroom and donate to helping them get the supplies they need to learn. I believe education is important and having the tools they need for hands on activities can be the thing that motivates students to continue with their education. Recently I was the last donor for a project for a classroom to get the supplies they need to get pen pals around the world. I chose this project because I collect postcards and through postcrossing I get to find out about people from around the world and it is a fun way to learn about how people live in other countries. Since I was the last donor, I was sent several letters from the students thanking me for the donation.
Charity Week: World Vision
Through World Vision I sponsor a child, Moses from Sierra Leone. Moses just turned 6 at the end of last month and I have been sponsoring him since he was 3. Every year I get a progress report from him and what he wants to be when he grows up always seems to change! But I can’t blame him, when I was his age I couldn’t decide either. Every couple of months I send him a care package with small items for him and his friends to share (stickers, colored pencils, silly bands, etc). World Vision also provides relief to countries who are dealing with the clean up from Natural Disasters (Haiti, Japan) in addition to offering children to sponsors. They are a really great organization.
 |
| Moses. Isn’t he cute? |
Charity Week
I have declared this week “Charity Week” at Concert Katie. Each day for the rest of the week I will highlight some of my favorite charities or websites that help earn money for charities. Obviously there are a lot more than just 4 great websites out there, but these are the few that I wanted to touch on this week. Feel free to share some of your favorites in the comments and who knows, maybe I’ll feature them on a future charity week 🙂
Be Like Brit Organization
Hanson’s performance at WXLO on Friday was in conjunction with a fundraiser for the Non-Profit Organization “Be Like Brit” The story of how this organization started was very moving and I thought I would share and try to bring some more attention to it.
Britney Gengel was a college student who had traveled to Haiti. While there, she was touched by the orphans she had spent time with and sent a text to her family, “They love us so much and everyone is so happy. They love what they have and they work so hard to get nowhere, yet they are all so appreciative. I want to move here and start an orphanage myself” Not long after she sent the text, an earthquake hit Haiti – one that I am sure we have all seen coverage of on the news – and Britney was killed, her body recovered 33 days later.
Britney’s friends and family started “Be Like Brit” in an effort to make Britney’s goal come true – to build an orphanage in Haiti. They have recently broken ground on the foundation of the orphanage and after several attempts at drilling for a well, they now also have water!
They are doing a lot of great things, but they definitely need everyone’s help to continue to make Brit’s dream a reality. Be sure to head over to http://belikebrit.org to see how you can donate to help keep Brit’s dream alive.
40 Days of Water – Complete!
40 Days of Water has been done for about a week now (I ended sooner than Easter because Sundays don’t count in the lenten calendar and I went straight through most weeks)
My first non water drink was an XXX Vitamin Water, which I thought was going to end up being too sweet – but it was actually just as I had remembered it!
Soda on the other hand, was a whole other story. I decided to have a coke with my lunch at work and with the first sip, I thought my eyes were going to pop out of my head. With every sip after that I felt like my throat was burning. I didn’t want to waste the can, so I suffered through it and then decided drinking soda was a really bad idea.
Then, I decided to get another soda with my dinner one night. Apparently I thought that Dr. Pepper would not be as bad as Coke? But it was.
And I’ve actually been opting to have a glass of water even when there is soda in the house – so while my donation might have helped those in Uganda have access to clean water, I think the real victory here is that it helped me kick my soda habit!
40 Days of Water – Journal
I am going by the Lenten Calendar for my 40 days of Water, sort of. (Sundays are not counted in the 40 days). The first Sunday, I thought I would completely crack if I didn’t stick with water, so I continued with only water. However, last Sunday I decided to have a glass of soda. (Soda was on sale 10 bottles for $10 and my mom said she “couldn’t resist!” Even though my brother and I were both trying to do 40 days – he has since failed) It had been 11 days since I last had soda, so I poured myself a giant glass of Wild Cherry Pepsi. Usually one of my favorites. My mom sat there cracking up at all the faces I had made. It was entirely too sweet, and tasted SO fake. I couldn’t believe that I would have had this reaction after only 11 days, and I can’t imagine what it will be like after 40+ (I’m not sure I’m going to skip out on my Sundays again after last week). But one of my goals for the year WAS to cut back on Soda. Perhaps cutting it out entirely won’t be such a bad thing.
Another interesting thing is whenever I hear someone mention a drink, on TV, at work, wherever, I always am like “OMG I WANT THAT!” Kitty on That 70s Show mentioned making Shirley Temples and it was 1 in the morning and I was like “Well that sounds good.” One day at work I got in my head that I wanted an Orange Julius. I haven’t had one in YEARS… I’m talking like 10+ years but it was all I wanted that day (and I am proud to say I did not get one and still have not gotten one)
The strangest thing though was when there was a breakfast commercial with a nice big glass of milk. I am not a milk drinker at all, but I was like “WOW! That glass of milk looks GREAT!” And then I stop and think about how lucky I am to HAVE these options. If I wanted I could go to the mall and get an Orange Julius. Next time I am at the bar I can ask for a Shirley Temple.
But these people I am raising money for – they have no choice. They have water and it is not clean water.
And I think that is really what 40 days is all about. Realizing how lucky you are to have what you have. As well as helping others try to get to that point. $1 will provide clean water to 1 person for a whole YEAR, which is amazing.