Baseball

“I wrote 63 songs this year. They’re all about Jeter.” Just kidding. The game we love, the players we hate, and more.

Culture and Criticism

From Norman Mailer to Wendy Pepper — everything on film, TV, books, music, and snacks (shut up, raisins), plus the Girls’ Bike Club.

Donors Choose and Contests

Helping public schools, winning prizes, sending a crazy lady in a tomato costume out in public.

Stories, True and Otherwise

Monologues, travelogues, fiction, and fart humor. And hens. Don’t forget the hens.

The Vine

The Tomato Nation advice column addresses your questions on etiquette, grammar, romance, and pet misbehavior. Ask The Readers about books or fashion today!

Home » Donors Choose and Contests

Contest: Sunday drive

Submitted by on October 25, 2009 – 11:09 AM43 Comments

$118,266. That’ll teach me to sleep in during the contest.

Please see the below entry for this weekend’s fabulous prizes, and why we need to raise a shit-ton of money by tonight so that HP can bet big on Bet Red.

A Mysterious Friend has offered to throw in $1,000 when we hit 119K. That brings us to 120K…which then brings us to 125K.   Almost there!   SO CLOSE.   And a bunch of new (this year) donors jumped on board; thanks, guys, and welcome.

Our triumph is nigh.   Again!   Congratulations.

Share!
Pin Share


Tags:  

43 Comments »

  • Toni says:

    I love the fact that the “completed projects” page in the spreadsheet is finally longer than the “need to finish” projects page.

  • The Clan of the Cave Interns says:

    GOOD MORNING, lovely readers, and hello to YOU, $118k!

    It turns out I’m going to be at work most of the day (brrrr), but I go to work secure in the knowledge that you guys will totally smash $120k and make it beg for mercy. Updating the spreadsheet after all is said and done tonight is going to be awesome.

    (Speaking of awesome: on another, completely unrelated note, is anyone doing NaNoWriMo this year? I just signed up!)

    And yes, someday I will get tired of intern-izing movie/book names. That day is not today. (And then I’ll move onto poetry. “I am Aman-dias, intern of interns! Look upon my works, ye mortals, and despair!”)

  • Sarah D. Bunting says:

    Less than $300 until 119. At 119, we get 1K more. Then it’s 120, where we get 5K more.

    Current percentage of all money raised is hovering around 41.

  • Allison says:

    Good morning, Nation!

    If I may so humble as to suggest a project, please consider acquainting some very small kids with a very large snake:

    http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=304947&challengeid=23248

  • Allison says:

    “may BE”. Dangit. Apparently it’s time to go get caffeinated.

  • Academic says:

    Looking at the project page is almost as dangerous as looking at PetFinder.com for too long. Eventually one of the proposals says “PICK ME! PICK ME! PICK ME!!!!” And I’m thinking we’re hitting those matches soon…..

  • Claire says:

    $119 K!

  • Academic says:

    Yay mysterious friends! Yay for Asirda! Yay for 119K! Yay for Tomatoes!!!!

  • Brittany says:

    $119,018 now! Awesome!

  • Woot! We’ve hit $119k. Go, nation, go! Just because we’re getting matches doesn’t mean that we can’t keep donating…

  • Sarah D. Bunting says:

    Sarah in Brooklyn concurs with Sarah in Ottawa: what we want now is to own the percentage. If you haven’t donated yet, now is the best possible time to get after it.

    $120,076. Huge thanks to our mystery matcher — and to all of you. On a SUNDAY you do this.

  • charmaine says:

    Yeah!!!! 120K, and now onto 125K..don’t forget to share and share alot! There is still work to be done. Army of Awesome you ROCK!

  • Krissa says:

    For a second I was all, “Wait, who is Sarah in Brooklyn?” Heh.

    SO Excited about hitting $120k!! We rock so hard, we actually roll. Awesomely.

  • Sarah D. Bunting says:

    The Asirda swoop will likely happen around 5 ET. Rock steady until then, folks.

  • Katya says:

    “I Need a Place to Sit” and “Bring Culture Into My Classroom” both need just another $99 to complete.

    http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=303256&challengeid=23248

    http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=310194&challengeid=23248

  • Michelle says:

    I just took care of “I need a place to sit” in honor of my dad, a 26 year veteran of the woefully under-funded Oklahoma school system. He passed away 3 years ago but I know he’d want those kids to have desks.

    Dudes, I was totally planning on making my donation this today to get us to $120K but apparently that was taken care of whilst I was at the grocery store.

  • Elizabeth says:

    To quote: Put the baby in the tomato DO IT RIGHT NOW.

  • I could not resist the kids and the big snake, so I finished off “The Zoomobile…”. And it looks like we’ve hit $121k before Asirda’s match. That’s all kinds of awesome!

  • Jackie says:

    I was off camping with the Cub Scouts and was unable to track the widget progress because the iPhone doesn’t support flash (because Steve Jobs thinks I don’t need it). Anyway, I just kept thinking “as soon as I get home Sunday morning, I’ll help with the push to $120K.” But… y’all beat me to it. Oh well, I still kicked in the last of the garage sale profits for a math club and some digital cameras. Now I’m off to check the couch cushions and the seats of the car for loose change.

  • charmaine says:

    When can we reach 1000 donors…call your friends who haven’t donated yet.

    And here is photography and poetry. $88 left http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=295565&challengeid=23248

    And performing arts group to make full body casts for a theatrical production $107 http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=309382&challengeid=23248

    How many can we check FUNDED today…20, maybe 30!! What a Sunday.

  • anotherkate says:

    Challenge tshirts? I know I’m not the only person who wants a Bet Red ’09 tshirt. If we use something like cafepress we can maybe even have all profits donated to DC. And once we kick $150k in the butt I want some version of the tshirt with a cute baby in a tomato costume. In fact, if someone sets this up I’ll donate $50 in your name, plus buy a tshirt.

  • Sarah D. Bunting says:

    I’ll try to get t-shirts set up this week; Amanda and I will handle it (please don’t freelance it yourselves — not to sound ungrateful, obviously, but given the IP issues, etc. etc. — thanks).

  • Sarah D. Bunting says:

    Asirda has swooped. Almost at 127K — percentage hovering around 43.

    THAT IS WHAT I AM TALKING ABOOOUUUUUUUT.

  • charmaine says:

    $127,711 WHAT A SUNDAY!!!

  • Rachel says:

    I’d been thinking we needed some sort of t-shirt for this, but kept forgetting to mention it – I know Pamie.com had one for the Dewey Donation Drive a few years ago and I still get questions when I wear mine.

    Also, almost 128K!

  • Academic says:

    We almost have the tubas!!! Get those tubas, tomatoes…. http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=295568&challengeid=23248 $129 remains…..

  • Rain says:

    Ooh, let’s get this Kurt-Vonnegut-needing-project knocked out: http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=299815&challengeid=23248

  • LaSalleUGirl says:

    Special request for Amanda the Great: If we do T-shirts, can we please please please try to make sure that they come in plus-sizes? I would really, REALLY love a T-shirt, but I’ve learned my lesson about buying a size that’s too small to realistically fit me in the hopes that it would be an incentive to lose weight. I will totally understand if that’s not possible, though.

    Also: Amanda rocks! Sars rocks! Asirda rocks! The Nation rocks! I can’t believe we’re almost at $130K for pete’s sake!

  • Rebecca says:

    Just donated again to finish the Vonnegut project. Score!

  • Sarah D. Bunting says:

    @LaSalle: I have a few of those shirts. No worries; we’ll make beaucoup sizes.

  • Maria says:

    Dude. DUDE! 10K in the last 10 hours! So many more projects funded! T-shirts! Baby in a tomato! Unbridled use of exclamation points!

    WOW is it getting dusty in here. Again. Some more.

  • Vanessa says:

    Sarah and Asirda are angels on Earth! The tuba project was so near and dear to my heart and they made its funding a reality! Thank you to all those who donated to this project! On behalf of everyone who has been touched by music, thank you for allowing more people to experience the activity that has changed so many lives

  • karen says:

    Daaaanng! I checked it this morning and we were only at $118k. I go out for the day, get some much needed fresh air, come back to check thinking we might have hit $120k and am floored to see it at $128k!! This nation totally rocks!

    It’s enough to defrost my cold, hard heart a thousand times over.

  • Cristina in Vienna says:

    Obviously, I can’t just leave you for a few hours without all records being broken. One big WOW, from across the ocean.

    Also yay to tshirts and plus sizes.

    Check out this project. The picture has an actual beautiful cute as button red tomato with feet and glasses. Don’t you think that’s a sign?
    http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=289206&challengeid=23248

  • Lara says:

    Silly technical question, the widget on the tomato nation page list just over 128 K donated, but the amounts on the DonorsChoose social media blog challenge page lists Tomato Nation at 134 K. Is the difference due to matches?

  • Jenno says:

    My kid got a shit-ton of dental work in August, and when they told me what I owed, I was like, insurance didn’t kick in very much, did it? Turns out the dentist made me pay for ALL the work up front. Then insurance paid, and the dentist sent me a check for almost $500! Being that that was now “found money” in October, I dropped $500 on BET RED in the last half hour. It was really fun! Thanks Sars for making my cheeks hurt from smiling!

  • Sarah D. Bunting says:

    @Lara: the 134 figure is all money raised in the General Blog category. The widget is sometimes a few minutes behind, but it is correct. And should be close to 129 right now.

  • Anne-Cara says:

    *snif*

    I love October, you guys.

  • $129k!! Let’s make it to $130k (at least) before the percentage gets tallied!

    There are only $92 left to fund a ‘Lord of the Flies’ proposal request:

    http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=314221&challengeid=23248

    Any Golding (or Survivor) fans want to hook a classroom up?

  • Caitlin says:

    10:52pm EST, and we’re at $130, 270!

    This is just so awesome, I can’t even cope.

  • Jenn says:

    Do you guys realize we added $47,000 in five days?

    I need to sit down.

Leave a comment!

Please familiarize yourself with the Tomato Nation commenting policy before posting.
It is in the FAQ. Thanks, friend.

You can use these tags:
<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>