So Freethought Blogs has gotten onto the Foundation Beyond Belief/ Leukemia & Lymphoma Foundation Light the Night bandwagon, and has started a virtual team! Even small donations help — it really does add up. As of this writing, we’ve already raised over $4000!
For each $1000 we raise, I’ve promised to do a different forfeit or dare, based on suggestions made by my readers. Suggestions have been trickling in… but donations have been coming in too fast to keep up. As of this writing, we’ve raised over $4,000! Which is awesome! And here’s what I’ll be doing for all y’all’s entertainment.
For raising $1000, I will dye all my hair purple and green, for Skepticon.
For raising $2000, I will go to church. (I won’t pray — that would be dishonest — but I’ll attend, and I’ll even be polite.) It’ll have to wait until after the book is finished, though: I’m not devoting an entire Sunday of book-writing time to this particular waste of time.
For raising $3000, I will wear a Tea Party hat and make a ridiculous speech about health care.
For raising $4000, I will get a manicure in bubble-gum pink. (This one was suggested by Ingrid. I don’t think that counts as honoring me and treasuring me…)
As of this writing, all of these goals have been reached, and I am now committed to these dares and forfeits. But I think I should commit now to my future dares and forfeits, so I can’t cheat and make them be something like “hang out in a cafe surfing the Internet” or “watch What Not to Wear while petting cats.” Some of these have been made specifically for me; some of them I’m swiping from suggestions made to my Light the Night teammates.
So here are the promises I am making for our next set of milestones:
If our team raises, $5000, I will dress as a nun and sing the Leslie Gore song, “You Don’t Own Me” to a crucifix. (Finding the nun outfit will be the biggest challenge, I think.)
If our team raises $6000, I will eat entirely vegetarian for a month. (I’m largely vegetarian-ish now, but I make exceptions. For a month, I won’t.)
If our team raises $7000, I will eat entirely vegan for a week.
If our team raises $8000, I will read, and review, “Fifty Shades of Grey.” Sigh. Again, though – this will have to wait until my book is finished.
If we raise $9000, I will eat bugs.
And if we reach our team’s fundraising goal of $10,000…
I will eat broccoli.
Seriously.
What’s more: If you participate in the Light the Night Walk by just donating some money to our team and then walking up and down in your living room as part of a “do it yourself” walkathon — and you videotape it and put it on the Internet — I will personally donate $50 to the FTB Light the Night team. $50 per video, capping out at $500. (I’ll also post links to the videos on my blog.)
And if the entire Foundation Beyond Belief team reaches its goal of raising $500,000 in 2013, I will walk across the entire city of San Francisco, in the wildest outfit I can come up with. (With sensible shoes, though — I’m not stupid.) Yes, I’ll be doing my very own personal Bay to Breakers, with whatever friends and family I can sucker into joining me.
I won’t be the only one doing assorted forfeits and dares if we reach various fundraising milestones, btw. PZ Myers, Ed Brayton, and Avicenna are all offering themselves up as sacrificial lambs as well.
In addition to (or instead of) being part of our virtual team, you can actually take part in the Light the Night walk in your own city: as part of a Foundation Beyond Belief team, or as part of some other team, or just on your own. You don’t have to be part of an official team to be part of the walk — you can just register as an individual, either online or at the event.
So sign up! Be an official part of the Freethought Blogs Light the Night team! Get me, PZ, Ed, and Avicenna to do awesome, embarrassing, painful, or hilarious things against cancer! Let’s make use of human beings’ evolutionary tendency towards tribalism and group loyalty, and turn it towards good! Go, team, go!