Probably the very best thing this blog has ever been a part of was helping to bring a little boy and a loving family together. I don't get too much credit: my friend Holly would have found her way to Love Without Boundaries sooner or later, without my help. All I did was make the clicking easy. But I'm still awed and proud to have been one little link in the chain.
In September, 2005, I posted about my awesome friend Shelli adopting a little girl from China (as it turns out, this was the first of three adoptions from China for Shelli and her family). Shelli, I wrote, sent me the link to the blog of "a group of American doctors who are spending their vacations performing cleft palate repairs for children in China. The group, Love Without Boundaries, is a nonprofit volunteer organization that raises funds for medical procedures needed by children who could otherwise never afford them."
I spent a long time on that blog and got very weepy about the beautiful work being done by the doctors and nurses of LWB. Holly (who, with Shelli, was one of my very first online friends and has been a dear real-life friend these many years) followed the link and she too was overwhelmed by the good work being done by the Love Without Boundaries folks. Holly did a lot more than get weepy. She fell in love with a little boy who has albinism and wound up adopting him. You may perhaps remember Hank's welcome-home video, which I posted on Lilting House.
(If you missed it, go watch it now. Bring the tissues. My goosebumps have goosebumps.)
Well, I just heard this from Holly:
Facebook is doing something called The Giving Challenge. Registered charities sign up on Facebook and for each person that makes a donation through Facebook, they have a chance to win a $1000 daily prize for the most donors (not $$$ donated, it's # of people donating). Over the 50 days being run, there are grand prizes of $10,000, $25,000 and $50,000 for the charity who has the highest number of donors.
Love Without Boundaries is participating and has been doing very, very well. They've won the $1000 daily prize several times already. Right now they are in line to get a $25,000 grand prize and only about 50 people behind the leader for the $50,000 prize. There are only 5 days left in the competition. LWB has received over $32,000 through this campaign which is incredible. They could do so much work with that extra $50,000 though!
Here's the link for donating. If you aren't already a Facebook user, you'd need to register first. (And then be sure to read their privacy policy. I highly recommended opting out of Facebook Beacon, which is an option that lets certain other websites send information about your purchases to Facebook. Ick. Easy to opt out on the "my privacy settings" page, though.)
More details from Holly:
LWB is listed on Guidestar for anyone who wants to check them out. They operate with under 3% administrative expenses. It's run entirely by volunteers, no one in the organization is paid a salary. They truly do their best to get as much of the $$$ donated spent directly on the children.
Children like these.
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