Day 362 - $22,199

3 Days left!!! Everyone please donate. Especially those of you out there that are reading this that haven't donated yet. If you are reading this right now, and you haven't donated - please take this sentence as a sign from heaven above - that you are at this website at this time for a reason... and the reason is: TO DONATE!!!!

Seriously everyone... I'm literally begging you... PLEASE!

Just click on the donate link. It doesn't take much time or effort - and it doesn't even have to be very much. Just donate something.

OK - now that I have that out of the way, you may have noticed I have some photos below. And I'm sure your saying to yourself, "wow - those look like some pretty cool photos, I wonder what those could be from?" Well... I'm here to tell you. They are from our GOM for St. Jude week we had in Idaho last week. We raised around $4k from that! HUGE! just plain HUGE! Thanks to everyone involved. I don't know all of your names - but nevertheless, a BIG thanks to you! Enjoy the pics everyone.

Some of the ticket sales from the Idaho Falls Basketball All-Star game went to GOM for St. Jude

Here are the All-Stars warming up


Ticket Sales again... plus see the donatation can?? BOOYAH!!

Proceeds from Consessions went to St. Jude too!

Fellow Give One Millionaires!

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Day 360 - $22,199

OK... ONLY 5 DAYS LEFT PEOPLE!!! So if there is anyone out there that hasn't donated yet... Please for the love... Donate now.

We had our Sonic Fundraiser on Saturday! Thanks to everyone that came out to help! I really appreciate your support. Speaking of support - I appreciate everyone that has helped so far... But I'll save the big overall thank you's for when we're done. So anyway... Sonic we great! We raised $229.79! Not too bad for a cold rainy day. Below are some pics from yesterday.

So I have one more little video to release. I wanted to shoot some actual film to go with it - but I just didn't have the time - so it's just going to be maybe some pictures or something to go with the "music". I should have that out in the next day or two.

Like I said before. Everyone please donate and ask your friends to come to THIS blog and donate as well. I'll see everyone tomorrow.

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Day 341 - $18,734

OK... it's March 1st. This is it folks. We only have until March 25th. If anyone out there is still listening to me at this point - I need your help now. First of all... DONATE!!! And try to get everyone you know to donate as well! Try just getting two friends to donate, and then have them ask two friends to donate. And on and on like that. It doesn't matter how much you donate, or how much your friends donate... Just donate. Please!

I am going to try and do a Sonic Fundraiser again in March. I'm going to call my Sonic contact tomorrow and try and set it up for the 19th. We'll see how that goes. If that doesn't work, I'm going to have to think of something else big to do in March. I'll let you know how that goes.

We have some big things going down in Idaho as well. The Idaho Falls Area High School Basketball All-Star game is going to raise money for GOM!!! They are going to do a bunch of things. I'll have more details on that soon.

I'm still editing my video. I am hoping to have that done by this weekend. I know I'm building this up! It should be worth the wait though. I think everyone is going to like it. Hopefully it goes viral!!! :)

I'm going to send my last plea to Ellen. So far I haven't heard anything back from her.. :( I'm just going to keep sending her the video that I made for her. Maybe I'll hear something back.

Send people to this blog! Tell people to visit the blog and become a fan! The only way we can get donations is if people come and look around the blog for a while... that way they can get excited about what we are doing, and want to become a Give One Millionaire!

25 days left everyone! Don't give up on me...

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Day 337 - $18,734

OK everyone. Now is the time for our last push to reach our goal. We have less than a month left to reach one million dollars so if you are going to organize a GOM event - now is the time to start planning. Remember!!! March 25th is the cutoff. If you're going to send emails to friends, now is the time. If you are going to invite all your facebook friends, now is the time. If you are going to donate - or have your family/friends donate, now is the time. Come on everyone... we've raised almost $2ok!!! Let's not stop there! Let's reach one million just like we set out to do.

OK. So here's a challenge.... I'm working on a Give One Million for St. Jude video right now. I think most of you know that. You've probably seen all my other videos I have posted on Youtube as well right? Well... now it's your turn. For this last month everyone out there make a video telling the world about Give One Million and how we're trying to raise one million dollars in one year for the kids of St. Jude. Ask them to donate. Ask them to help. Ask them to make a video and pass yours along. Make it funny. Make it serious. Have it be just you. Make it with a bunch of friends. Anything (appropriate) goes. Just make the video and send it to me (by March 15th - the sooner the better). I'll then post it here on this blog, on FB, and post it on the GOM Youtube Channel too. Let's flood the internet with GOM videos and reach our goal!

Send videos to giveonemillion@hotmail.com

Talk Soon,

David

P.S. If you have a youtube account... subscribe to the GOM Youtube Channel!! :)

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Day 335 - $18,734

OK... so I'm pretty ticked off right now! As you know, I've been working on my latest GOM video the last few days (week). Well - the video editing software I use is Cyberlink Power Director Version 8. I don't intend to not speak well of anybody/company... but I have to say this: DO NOT USE Power Director! I spent $70 on it. With the sole intent to make GOM videos - and I have not been impressed. multiple problems all the time. Not easy to use. I've been very disappointed. This is the latest problem I'm having. Except the answer given isn't really a real solution!! I spent about 3 hours last night trying to fix this without luck. I googled and read every thread on the Internet... about ten times. I downloaded the latest drivers for my video card. I updated the latest patches from Power Director. Anyway - the reason I'm so ticked off is because I'm going to have to start over from scratch, and that means about 15 hours of editing down the drain! Whatever!

So I'm going to get some new/different software tomorrow, and hopefully we can get this video out before the end of the month.

Sorry to sound so negative... It's just a little frustrating.

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Day 330 - $18,734

So this week was a little crazy. Work has been crazy. I didn't get home from work until 10:30 last night. But I'm not letting that stop me. The good news is, we just went to 9/80's at my job - so I have today off! well... sort of... I had to log on from home for a couple hours, but for the most part I was off :)

So we started filming our video today! Melissa and the kids were kind enough to work with me and all the demands I have as the director. (Melissa is my Camera Woman - and the kids are going to make cameos.)

We have another long day of filming tomorrow, and then the editing begins.

Everyone keep spreading the word about GOM! One Million in One Year for the kids of St. Jude!

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Day 325 - $18,708

Well, tomorrow is Valentine's Day. If you remember... one year ago on that day is when the idea of Give One Million was born. And now over 700 Facebook fans (Hallelujah!!!), 5 Twitter followers (the whole Twitter thing didn't take off quite how I hoped...) almost $19k raised, a few fundraisers, and a couple Youtube videos later... here we are! Not too bad. We're not at a million yet - but we haven't stopped trying.

So we actually have quite a few things we're working on.... Ma Feldman has a bunch of things planned in Idaho - so for all the Idaho Give One Millionaires, stay tuned for that. I'm just trying to finish up this video I'm working on. We will be filming on Friday and Saturday. I'm working on getting extras, and actually landed a couple today... but I still need about 20 more. I wrote the Story Board tonight, and I'll be tweaking that throughout the week. Once we wrap filming on Saturday - I'm guessing it will take a week or so of editing to get it out. I'm not really trying to build this video up... I'm just talking about it a lot because that's really the main thing I'm working at the moment - so that's what's on my mind. hopefully since I'm talking about it so much, it turns out good.

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Day 322 - $18,625

Well, we made it to 700 fans for one day, but now we're back down to 699. I saw that we were up to 700 last night, and I was so excited. I came home tonight and even googled how to spell Hallelujah so I could show how excited I was on my blog and FB. Well, when I went to FB we were back down to 699. No worries though. We'll get there soon, and I'll save my Hallelujah for then :)

I've been staying up waaaaayyy too late the last few nights working on my next video. I finally finished with the audio portion of it, now I have to film it! So this is the official call for extras. I'm going to need some extras to film this video - so if you're interested please email me at giveonemillion@hotmail.com.

I'm getting a little nervous. I was talking to a friend today, and he was asking me how much longer I had left on GOM... And when I was telling him - it hit me that we really don't have that much time left!!!! We need to sprint the last little bit of this "race" everyone! Send all your friends emails. Email every person you can think of, and ask them to help us raise money for St. Jude somehow! Organize an event. Post on your blog. Just do anything these last few days! We can do this. It's not over til it's over!

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Day 318 - $18,599

Thank you to everyone that put on and came out to the work out on Saturday in Vancouver! According to my calculations... You raised $512!

As Nacho Libre would say: That's Fantastic!

So for the life of me... I can't seem to figure out how to pass the 700 fan mark on Facebook! I think I have maxed out my sphere of influence. I'm afraid my acquaintances have given me the "mute button". I hope not, but after almost a year of soliciting donations for GOM... I'm wondering if that's the case :(

I was speaking to a lady on the phone the this week who spent her entire 35 year career as a professional fundraiser, and she was telling me something I already know... and have been trying to address for some time -but when she said it... it just reinforced how true it is, and how I can't avoid doing any longer:

"You have to expand past your circle of friends and acquaintances. You have to do bigger projects that reach people you don't know. You can only hit up your family and friends so many times. Pretty soon, when people see you, they'll start running the other direction."

I've been trying to do that since I started this whole thing... but it's easier said than done.

Hmmmm.

So for the last couple months, I am going to try and do that. I see the Internet as a good medium to expand in that way. YouTube is a good way... I think. Videos are good. I'm working on one right now that I hope generates some buzz. What other ways can I reach people outside my sphere of influence? Any ideas? Anything you can do? If you're reading this and don't know me please help me by spreading the word about GOM to your friends :)

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Day 316 - $18,128

Thank you to all the donations that have been coming in! St. Jude Children's Research Hospital is doing everything they can to help cure cancer... and we're doing our part to help them out. We are almost to $20,000, but it's going to be $1,000,000 by March 25th! Just keep the faith! We can do this.

We've had friends that have had to deal with childhood cancer, and that's how we kind of got started on this whole project. But As I've gotten more involved, I read more and more stories about how so many kids are fighting cancer out there. And even though they are making progress, we still have a long way to go. I'm asking... PLEASE help me stop this! Please help me fight cancer, so we don't have to lose any more kids like AmyLynne.

Thanks for your support Nathlie! Best of luck to you on your marathon!

For everyone up in the Portland/Vancouver WA area... don't forget about the work out tomorrow morning! Bring all your friends and family to get fit and fight cancer.

I'm trying to work out details on how I can get down to Memphis before March 25th. Not sure how I'm going to do that yet... but I'll figure it out. I just switched to 9/80's at my job, so maybe I can take a 3 day weekend and drive down there. I'll let you know when I have more details on that. Also... give me a few more days to figure out what I'm going to do for my big Feb project. In the meantime everyone just tell all your friends to follow the GOM blog (put a button on their blog), follow GOM on Facebook, and Donate! :)

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Day 311 - $17,688

We went out with some friends this weekend. We had a great time. As it seems to frequently happen these days... the topic of Give One Million came up. Our friends were very supportive and generous and donated to GOM. But of all the donations given that night - the biggest one came from our new 6 year old friend Alex (Our friend's daughter). She donated her hard earned lemonade stand money to help the kids of St. Jude. Her one dollar donation is an example to all of us!!

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Day 310 - $17,479

For all Give One Millionaires up in P-Town (Vancouver, WA to be exact), here's the news you've all been waiting for!

On Feb 5th we will be having a benefit workout for Give One Million for St. Jude. It is sponsored by The Workout Performance Cross training/Cascade Physical Therapy.

When:

Feb 5th at 8 A.M.

Where:

The Workout Performance Cross Training
2415 SE 165th Ave. Ste 105
Vancouver, WA 98683

What:

We will be doing a CrossFit Training Workout. <--- Click the link to see what that is. It's just a fun and different way to get in shape. The workout will last approximately an hour.

Contact Info:

A big thanks to Bob Cook for putting this together. If you have question on how to get there, or what exactly to expect for the workout - just contact him.

Bob Cook
Cascade Physical Therapy
www.cascadept.com
The Workout Performance Cross Training
www.theworkoutcf.com
360-253-4767
bcook@cascadept.net

Donations:

We will be raising money by encouraging donations to participate in the workout. So remember... everything raised is going to the kids of St. Jude and helping us reach one million in one year for St. Jude. So please be generous :)

If you live in the Portland, OR / Vancouver, WA area I hope you can make it. It will be a great way to get a fun workout overseen by a professional Physical Therapist.

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Day 308 - $17,413

OK... So now I'm thinking about what I can do as big event in February. A friend is planning a GOM event for Feb 5th up in Vancouver, WA. I don't have a ton of details yet - so everyone up there I'm not ignoring you - but as soon as I have them, I will let you know.

I think we also have a GOM benefit concert in the works as well. I think it will be up there in the Portland area

... I think. I'll have to check on that :)

I'll have more info on that later as well. I'm just trying to scramble and do everything I can these last couple months to get the word out, and get things organized.

So that's where you come in. Can everyone do me a couple favors...

1. Write emails to anyone and everyone that has any sort of following. News people, Radio people, Store owners, Etc, Etc.

2. FOLLOW ON FACEBOOK, and then INVITE ALL YOUR FRIENDS TO DO THE SAME. That means "suggest" the GOM page to all your FB friends. When we get a little closer to the end, I'm going to ask all our FB fans to donate. The more we have... the more we earn for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

3. Last, but definitely not least.... if you have not donated yet. Please do!

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Day 291 - $16,036

Sorry it's been so long since the last post. It's been a long week at work! But I've also been training for the walk-a-thon on the 22nd. Take a look!

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Day 286 - $16,036

I'm not holding back on who I ask to sponsor me. Eveyone is invited to sponsor me. Here's the email I sent to Ellen

Hi Ellen,

I just wanted to let you know about Give One Million for St. Jude. It's a campaign I started back on March 25th to raise one million dollars in one year for St. Jude. Here's a video I made for you that will explain everything: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXZGvwVcXug

So I have now raised over $16,000!!!!! I know. I know. It's nothing near one million yet. But I think it's a great start. Well, I'm down to only about 80 days left, but I'm still doing everything I can to reach my goal. The next big event I'm organizing is a walk-a-thon. I'm planning to walk (I should say hoping)26 miles on January 22nd. Here in Independence, MO. I'm getting people to sponsor me "per mile". So far I have 26 sponsors for a grand total of $51 per mile! So… I was wondering if you would like to sponsor me for my walk-a-thon? Any amount per mile would be awesome! Or…. If you wanted to, you could even walk with me. I’m inviting people to walk with me and either donate $15 or get their own sponsors. If you walk – you get a Give One Million T-shirt, and a St. Jude pin :)
So let me know if you can sponsor me! Here is a link to the Give One Million blog giving all the details on the walk-a-thon: http://giveonemillion.blogspot.com/2010/12/day-261-14509.html
I hope to hear from you soon!

Thanks Ellen!

David Feldman
http://www.giveonemillion.blogspot.com/

If anyone else wants to sponsor me, please let me know. I'm up to $51 a mile so far. Pretty cool right!? So here's the question folks. Can you write some emails for me to any influencial person you can think of. I think that's the only way we are going to reach the number of people we need to reach in the next 80 days. Invite all your FB friends to follow GOM on FB. Send emails to your friends. That's what I'm going to be doing with all my free time for the next few days. EMAILS! let me know how it goes, and who you write to. Thanks everyone.

P.S. I'm glad my FB button started working again :)

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Day 284 - $16,036

So we're over the $16,000 mark! Thank you and congrats to everyone! Sorry It's been so long since the last post. I've been in LA visiting family for the holidays. I didn't really have too much access to the Internet. I did manage to donate $11.11 on 1.1.11 though! And thank you to the other 3 people that did as well. (By the way - if you signed up on FB to donate the $11.11 it's not to late. You can still do it!)

So we're coming down the home stretch. What can we do that would be big? Maybe something that would generate a lot of attention... so it will drive people to the GOM website which equals donations :) Help me think. Think. Think. Think. I'll come up with an idea... but I need you to come up with one as well. organize it and do it! We have to reach 1 million and we're running out of time!!!!!!!

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Day 278 - $15,890

I've been training for the walk-a-thon. Here's my outfit. Like it? :) Today I walked 5 miles. It was pretty easy.

So I'm not sure what's up with my little Facebook button. It's been stuck on 672 for a couple weeks now... even though we're up to 685 fans. Oh well.

Thanks for all the donations coming in!

So I have a plan... listen up! So here's what I want EVERYONE to do. Since New Year's Day is 1.1.11 this year (all one's) On New Year's Day I want everyone following GOM to donate $11.11. K? OK don't forget! January first... $11.11

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Day 271 - $15,711

The $500 check from Kohl's went through! As Napoleon Dynamite would say: Yessssssssss!

Last night I wrote a bunch of emails to running/walking clubs here in KC to see if they would like to participate in our Walk-A-Thon. Haven't heard back from anyone yet :( Hopefully someone will want to walk with me. If not, I guess that's OK. I'm up to $47 a mile so far, and I'm going to try for $100 a mile. So even if it's just me, I still think it will be a successful event. I should say I do have one person that is planning to walk and a couple other maybe's (not from my emails last night... from talking to people previously)... So hopefully I won't be walking alone.

You know... one of the hardest thing about fundraising, is putting so much effort and energy into something and trying your hardest to help, and do something good - and then not getting much response or wondering if anyone is even paying attention or cares. Now mom... don't worry. I'm not down in the dumps - I'm actually quite optimistic right now. I'm just making an objective and realistic observation. Over the last 9 months - I've found that one of the hardest things is to keep motivated and pressing forward, when it seems nobody else but you cares about what you are doing. Now... Everyone don't get me wrong. I know there are people out there that care... and many, many people have supported GOM and what I'm doing. But I think every person that sets out to do some sort of long term fundraising has grand ideas, but usually gets a little bit of a rude awakening at the actual response. I can see why people just kind of give up and fade out. That's all I'm saying... It's hard.

But I haven't given up, and I'm not going to give up! So far we've raise almost sixteen THOUSAND dollars for kids with cancer!!! All because we haven't given up! And even though it may be hard, and seem like not very many people are paying attention and supporting GOM ...or as many as I think there should be... which would be the whole world in my dreams :) we ARE making a difference. So to all my supporters from the biggest to the smallest:

THANK YOU!

We can still reach our goal. Let's not give up. We're coming down the home stretch... Now is when I need everyone on board more than ever.

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Day 268 - $14,916

Only 97 days left folks...

So this walk-a-thon thing is going great. I'm up to $47 a mile! Now... I have to start training, so I can actually walk as far as I want to. The Little Blue Trace Trail is 13 miles. So if I walk up and back, that would be 26 miles.... Basically walking a marathon. hmmmm. Sounds nice, but I'm not sure it's going to be that easy. I can do it though. It's all in the mind baby!

BTW... who is going to walk with me? You will get a GOM t-shirt, and a St. Jude pin for walking. You can either pay $15 and just walk, or you can get sponsors like me. And it's not really that hard to get sponsors. Pretty much every person I've asked has said yes. It's been awesome!

It's not a timed event. I'm just going to see basically how far I can walk. (I told my sponsors, I wouldn't walk more than 26 miles though. So they would have an idea of how much they were actually donating.) I'm going to look into getting some people to donate some muffins or donuts for the startline. I'm planning on starting at 8 A.M. So that's the plan people. Now I just need more sponsors!

Thank you to everyone that has been organizing events over this holiday season! I really appreciate your support! But it's not really me that appreciates it. It's the kids with Cancer at St. Jude. They are the ones we are helping.

Just a few reminders... Follow this blog. Follow on FB. Follow on Twitter. Email your friends this blog. Try to organize a GOM for St. Jude event in your area.

P.S. We're so close to the $15,000 mark. If you've been thinking about donating... now is the perfect time! Donate today, and put GOM over the $15K mark :)

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Day 245 - $12,090

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I hope you all had some great turkey and mashed potatoes! I sure did. So we have a tradition of going around the table and saying what we're thankful for at Thanksgiving dinner. And this year (every year really) I was just very thankful for a wonderful healthy family. So I did what Marlo Thomas always says, "Give thanks for the healthy kids in your life, and give to those who aren't." I donated $10 today. For Thanksgiving will you donate $10 with me? I hope you can.

Best Wishes,

David

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