Help out and get a chance at winning an ARC of THE MISSING and some $$$

There are some bad things going on down south right now. In the southeastern US and in the Bahamas, Cuba. Haiti, in particular, looks like it’s been utterly devastated.

As always, in times of crisis, certain charities focusing their efforts on getting food, money, medicine, clothes, emergency shelter, anything and everything they can to the people devastated by such natural disaster.

I was skimming blogs, checking out weather.com, and worrying about a loved one that I’ve got down south, as well as a number of friends. Tried to figure out what I could do to help-can’t do what my loved one is doing, he’s down doing repair stuff and I’ve been told, many times, in very clear language, by a number of people, never to do anything that involves screwdrivers (unless it involves OJ and vodka), engines (unless it involves just starting a car), or anything mechanical (no exceptions).

Family obligations keep me from heading down to help out in any emergency capacity and since I’ve only got a limited amount of $$$$, I can only donate so much.

Doesn’t seem like enough to help people in areas like Haiti, Houma, LA or New Orleans, areas that have already been devastated.

Can’t go down there. As much as I wish as a bank account that would let me send buckets of money, I don’t.

But that doesn’t mean I can’t help, right?

So the way I decided to help is via a contest. Not an another auction this time, just a straight out contest.

The prize?

An ARC of THE MISSING and a GC for $40 to Borders, as well as some of my backlist books (your choice from what I have available-we’ll say…hmmmm… three books, sound doable?) So an ARC, $40 to buy more books, and a couple of my books.

How do you enter?

Donate.

Taking inspiration from the fundraiser that the Smart Bitches did to help out the cute little ferrets, all you have to do to win is donate.

You can pick and choose your charity, but I do ask that you pick one that specifies the money will go to the areas so hard hit by the hurricanes and tropical storms that have hit over the past few weeks. There are a lot of worthwhile charities out there, but I’m doing this specifically to help out the victims from these storms.

One of my fave charities is World Vision-why? Because 86% of all monies received go directly to their programs. Not into the pockets of the board members, not in adminstration, not in whatever, but to the programs. They also let you specify what programs, like US Disaster Relief, and they have programs already running through Haiti.

Other good ones:

Compassion International (lets you earmark the donation for Haiti specifically)

Doctors Without Borders (although I can’t find an option where you can request the money go specifically to current emergency relief)

Save the Children (lets you earmark the money for domestic emergencies)

Mercy Corp (lets you earmark the money for victims of Hurricane Gustav)

Or you can check out your fave charity on Charity Navigator’s page. It lists some of the charities well-known for mobilizing in an emergency, and you can check out information on the charity)

Once you donate, all you need to do is send me the confirmation #, the amount you donated and to what charity. PLEASE DO NOT INCLUDE PERSONAL INFO. Don’t want it, don’t need it… just email me the conf #, the dollar amount and the charity. There is no set minimum. You can give $5 or you can give $50 or you can give $500. Send the info to contest4shiloh(at)gmail.com and put HELPING OUT in the subject line, so I can make sure my spam filter doesn’t eat it.

That’s it…it will take a few dollars, a few minutes of your time but it will make a world of difference to some people right now who are seriously suffering.

The contest will run for the next few weeks, possibly thru the end of September, not sure and I’ll try to keep people updated on how we are doing. Hope you can help.