I meant to bring this up earlier during the weekend but other posts took a little more precedence. As I posted on Thursday the group Move America Forward had the internet streamathon dubbed “From the Front Lines”, designed to raise money to use for care packages for our soldiers abroad. I chipped in for one myself, but thousands of others also gave to the tune of $1.055 million. That’s not a bad haul for 8 hours of work and by my figurings of a bulk rate for each package should bring them thisclose to their goal of 100,000 care packages.
However, the drive isn’t over, there’s one more day to donate at the Move America Forward site. Obviously it goes to a good cause.
I also spent a part of my Thursday night working on future monoblogue items with the internet stream in the background. Admittedly it wasn’t the prettiest of television but as I tracked the show there remained a constant 2,000 to 3,000 viewers so the audience may have reached upward of 50,000 who watched at least part of the show – not bad for a first effort on the internet. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to see the segment where Rush Limbaugh appeared because that should have drawn at least a five-figure viewership. He tends to be an audience magnet, as I’ve found out on a prior occasion.
What this may have blazed a path for are grassroots fundraising efforts from smaller, heretofore unknown groups like MAF. Obviously, this was the first one I was aware of that was on the Ustream website, perhaps there were others. But given the success of MAF’s effort, look for more of the same from this group.
In case you’re wondering just what gets sent to our fighting folks, here’s a description from MAF:
The care packages will include a mix of goodies from home and personal comfort items including: Gatorade, beef jerky, ground coffee, cookies, sunblock, personal electric fans, insect repellant, foot powder, wet wipes, deodorant/antiperspirant, lip balm, music cds, and specially packaged bags of Jelly Belly jelly beans – for U.S. troops to hand out to the children of Iraq & Afghanistan as part of a “Candy Diplomacy” program.
Meanwhile, I hope the troops enjoy the goodies we’re collectively sending to them and those care packages help our fighting men and women get back home safely and victoriously.
