TN Fall Contest: Breaking News
I just received an email from Charles at Donors Choose with the header “Claire Danes’ manager just called…”
And he and Claire love your challenge. Claire will be sending you a signed DVD complete set of My So Called Life, which is coming out next month and which you can give away as a prize. Claire will also be giving $5,000 to projects on your challenge page if the TN community makes it to the $50,000 mark. Crazy!
YOU GUYS. NO WORDS. AWESOMENESS BLOCKING NEURAL PATHWAYS.
…Okay, I’m good. So, to review: $35,000 is our initial goal. $40,000 gets you the tomato dance. Every dollar over $40,000, I match to $50,000, so that’s really only another 5K. And then Claire Danes, who already did a pretty rad DC challenge of her own back in the day, will kick in another 5K. So that would mean we raised $55,000.
Looks like Claire Danes doesn’t fuck around either. I feel that.
You amazing, crazy people have raised…hold on, let me just refresh the page here…75 percent of the initial goal. Three quarters of the 35K, in less than two days. I don’t want to put any pressure on you guys, but I feel pretty good about your chances.
Other administrative notes
Having problems donating? Not getting your receipt emailed? Drop Zach Walker a line: zach at donorschoose dot org. He’s happy to help.
And if someone could repost the NY/00000 zip code trick in the comments for our Canadian/overseas friends, I’d appreciate it.
Tags: contests TV
That is just too awesome. I am having to remind myself that I have actual work to do, beyond checking the leaderboard every 15 minutes. Eeeee!
Sniffle. You Guys….. :D
And Claire Danes is now my favorite actress. Way to go Claire!!
Verklempt. At work, yet. It could be the thought of the DVD set but it’s more likely the PMS/TN awesomeness combo. Dance, Tomato, DANCE!! {taking deep breath, awww, misting up again}
…*faint*
In a word: amazing.
Thanks for putting together an awesome challenge this year, Sars. You and the great TN readers are doing a lot of good for our public schools and it’s appreciated more than you know. I have no doubt in my mind that we’ll get to the full $40k now.
Can’t wait to see the tomato suit!!!
Mouth. Will not close. Teeth all over floor.
HOLY CRAP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It’s a festival of awesome! Wow. Just… wow.
Overseas people!
Put your city, country, and post code in the city part, and choose your state as NY, then put the zip code as 00000. This should work. Please someone correct me if not, I haven’t actually tried it as I’m from the US but I’ve seen it several places.
Oops! Forgot to say how unbelievably awesome this is. Wow and holy crap and you rock so hard, Sars. And also, TN readers, and also also Claire Danes. Woo!
What Cjj said.
This inspired me to donate outside the contest to a class of local fifth graders who needed Shakespeare. Funded the whole shebang.
Wish I could sit in on THAT class!
(I always did love me some Claire Danes!!!)
I am all choked up at this. There are not enough awesome words out there for the awesomeness of this awesome thing.
For all you generous non-US-address-having people:
When registering you should include your town/city in the “Address Line 2†field and your postcode & country in the “city†field. Select New York as your state. Enter 5 zeroes as your “zipcode.†For example:
Name: Sarah Bunting
Address: 123 Featherstone Street
Address 2: London
City: EC1Y 8SY, GREAT BRITAIN
State: NY
Zip: 00000
(FYI – That is Sars’s real mailing address.)
Ok, and, as a huge whole bunch of people, we need to let Claire Danes (who I was never a big fan of, but I seriously am, now…) know that she rocks and we appreciate her rocking!
Can. Not. Stop. Refreshing the DC page with the TN challenge. Holy shit, y’all. We RULE.
GODDAMMIT ZACH.
…”COURT.” “Featherstone COURT.” God!
Also! 78%.
I’ve been refreshing all day, too. And tearing up at my computer. My coworkers think I’m crazy, but I don’t care. This is AMAZING.
Only seven projects left to fund. Amazing.
Silly question probably, but first time poster and lurker since around the time you shaved your head last year. This contest has been so inspiring. I don’t even have the words. Just wondering, since I don’t have the funds to donate until day 12, will you continue to collect money after you hit 45k? Also: Do you think Claire Danes would do “the dance” with you???? So awesome.
78%! I’m just antsy because I can’t donate until after this Friday! Also my coworkers have been looking at my funny since I keep periodically tearing up and snuffling at my desk. So, so awesome.
That is so freaking cool! I already loved Claire Danes, but officially love her even more because of that.
Way to go, everyone!
I love Claire Danes so much. So so so much. And I love all you crazy diamonds who are making this challenge such an insane event.
And I wonder how in hell Sars is going to follow this up next year.
I know, KLM – renews your faith in the human race, huh?
(I’ve gotten the nicest notes from the teacher – that’s a big change from my schoolgirl days!)
OMG! I can’t believe how much we’ve raised — my few dollars kicking around in there are part of a phenomenon. Woohoo!
And the MSCL DVD prize? If I won that I might have to do a little dance myself. But for now, I dance symbolically at my desk, for the children.
Hey, Sars – this contest is just so FANTASTIC. I’ve donated twice so far, but when I read the Claire Danes news I was so giddy that I told my boss all about it. And guess what? Because he is such a wicked awesome boss, he offered to match anything I and my co-worker donate to the contest. I think he’s looking forward to watching the vid of the Tomato Dancing, too. WOOO!
That’s awesome! I posted something about it on my blog because I’d love to see the kiddos go to The Lion King..but man, it is not like you need my help! Way to go!!
All y’all are so amazing (oops, I meant *awesome*). Just donated what I can (not as much as I’d like) in my three-month-old daughter’s name. It’s not to soon to set a good example!
Go TN!
@Katie: not sure yet. Probably, though!
@Ibis: tell your boss thank you from me.
@baggage: nonsense, of course we need your help. If everyone were like, “Bah, I’m just a drop in the bucket,” we wouldn’t have all these awesome drops.
That made no sense. You know what I’m saying.
79%, is what I’m fuckin’ saying.
…Oops. 80%.
What impresses me the most is the average donation amount – as of this writing, it’s sitting at just over $70. That’s a lot of tomatoes, y’all!
SQUEEEEE!!!! No original thoughts here, just general state of overwhelmed excitedness!!! Participating in the TN Fall Contest is hands-down the most gratifying thing I’ve done in recent memory. It’s so much fun to be a part of it. Every year we keep raising the bar…wonder how far we could go?
Heh. TN is coming within hailing distance of the rest of the entries… combined.
Claire Danes is extra-super-awesome because she and I share the same birthday. And she um, is kicking in for this contest. That’s extra-super-awesome, too.
This contest rocks so hard, I cannot believe it! I am serious about wanting to know what day the dancing happens so we can get a gang together to point and giggle. And probably join in, because who HASN’T done The Dance at least once?
I did it!
We need more projects in there! I am all for some NorCal projects, that’s where I’m at and I think I could get some good participation from my coworkers and friends.
…81%.
Donors: 404
Hee. I’m a geek.
This is all just so awesome! Kind of restores my faith in humanity a bit, which is always a good thing. And who knew Claire Danes was so cool?
*sniff* Group hug, everyone!
Oh lord. May the visage of Angela’s melty-crying face come down and smite me… I just let out a “squee!”
The total is so bloody inspiring… damn y’all for making me get choked up at work. Yay for us! Yay for tomatoes and twirling and table tennis!
Also: I’m hunting for some good projects in Chicago. I’d donate again to a local project if it was up there.
I’d like to nominate this project for the next round, since we will rapidly hit $35K at this rate. Because I am a GIANT CLASSICS DORK.
What I want to know is if you win the Yahoo Blogger Challenge award, will you wear the tomato suit to lunch with the head of Yahoo?
Oh, NEAT, Nomie! I’ll totally chip in again if that one goes up. Aw, it’s been up since April and they haven’t gotten anything yet! Also, 83%. Holy shit, y’all.
*puff puff puff* Whew, just made it!
I was seriously afraid there wouldn’t be anything left to fund by the time I got over to the site, but just squeaked in there! As icing on the feel-good cake, I got to write my new married hyphenated name (Oct 10 is the big day!) and so got to feel very grown up before I squealed like a nine year old.
Oh my god. That is just so awesome.
Dammit, credit card company, acknowledge that I gave you money so I can donate already!
So what happens if a Canajun person, in the process of doing the donation, decided to make herself come from Alaska instead of NY? (it seemed funny at the time….) It’s not like I expected the tax receipt, and indeed, I don’t know if I can even submit it for a tax deduction, since it’s not in Canada (anyone?), but I’d like to be sure that the contribution actually went through.
This is just amazing, Sars and everyone! Claire Danes! Good god, I’m sending more people to donate!
Five! Projects! To go! 84% funded! I can’t tear myself away from my desk long enough to DRIVE HOME. Because it might be done before I get there and I will have missed the final moments of page refreshing.
I tried, but it wouldn’t let me past the payment screen, nor would it tell me what the error was. I tried two credit cards, both of which work everywhere else. Kind of sad.
Get Zach to look into it.
Their server may also be fritzy right now because everyone’s refreshing the page; if you’re having issues, maybe wait an hour?
Oops: zach at donorschoose dot org.
Also: 85%.
Man, I just got so excited I whipped out the Secret Emergency Visa and slapped ‘er down on a bunch of art supplies.
Sars, Claire Danes, et al: you rock the freaking hizzouse.
OK, now I, too, am obsessed with refreshing the donorchoose site. Also, choked up. Sars, you are so great for reminding us to do this. 87%!