Gratitude for TodayPin

Gratitude for Today

ByMike McBride Reading Time: 2 minutes

Because we can all use a feel good story these days, I wanted to share something that occurred on Facebook, of all places, this week.

My 50th birthday is coming up shortly, and I wanted to go ahead and use Facebook’s new feature to create a fundraiser for it. I participated in a walk to raise money for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, and with all of the news lately around that topic, I thought it’d be nice to do the same with my birthday fundraiser. As I mentioned on the site yesterday:

Wow. Last night I told Angela that I was going to make the goal $500, “I’m not going to actually raise that but I like the alliteration for my 50th.” When I woke up this morning it was already halfway there, and before noon central time we went right on past it. 14 hours was all it took. You all, friends, family, and friends of friends, are amazing. I cannot thank you enough. You have already made my day, and it’s still a couple of weeks until my actual birthday. So let’s keep it going and see what we can raise until then folks!

Seriously, I would have never imagined that kind of response. I am overwhelmed by it. I am also determined to continue promoting the fundraiser, asking folks to contribute as they can, and/or share it with their networks, etc. Clearly, I have no idea how much this could raise, so why not keep it going?

If you want to do something to help me mark making it to 50, and also help support an organization doing what it can to stop an epidemic that causes us to lose 123 people per day in the US, feel free to do so.

For those of you outside the US, or who don’t want to use a Facebook account to donate, I encourage you to find a local charity that does similar work and contribute there if that makes more sense for you. You can leave me a comment telling me, or just donate quietly, knowing that I appreciate you either way.

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