I am really blessed to have friends who are smart, funny and inspiring — I’ve worked at cultivating relationships with people who help me be the person I want to be.
Latest case in point: young adult novelist Lara Zielin. (I blogged about Lara’s fabulous reinvention last summer)
On her blog, Lara writes:

Between now and March 27, I will donate $1 for every comment posted to this blog. $1! For every comment! The money will go to support 826michigan, an organization founded by David Eggers that’s dedicated to helping kids cultivate a love for writing. The goal is 250 comments and $250 for 826michigan.
Since writing doesn’t pay that much and I can’t fund the entire $250 solo, I’ve reached out to friends to help me with this challenge and they’ve answered the call. The first 50 comments (and $50), will come from yours truly. But after that, I have some kick-butt sponsors:

• Comments 50 to 100 are sponsored by Jim Ottaviani and Kat Hagedorn. Jim is a nonfiction comic book writer extraordinaire, and his recent book, T-Minus, about the race to the moon, was featured in the New York Times (the Times! Squee!). Kat is a pop culture maven whose book reviews and movie reviews are thoughtful and entertaining (want to see a review of The Hurt Locker in 18 words? Kat’s your gal).
• Comments 101 to 150 are sponsored by the creative team of Colleen Newvine and John Tebeau. Colleen blogs about finding meaning in your work and life, and John creates awesome artwork that adorns most walls in our house. And should adorn yours. Just saying.
• Comments 151 to 200 are sponsored by the best agent in the world, my agent, Susanna Einstein. I love her. She gets me. She also likes it when kids read and write. Win, win, win.
• Comments 210 to 250 are sponsored by Susannah Nichols, an English teacher in Southeastern Michigan and soon-to-be-finished-with-her-debut novelist. Since she’s around kids all day long (and trying to infuse them with a love of words), Susannah was totally set to support this challenge.

Lara is using her blog as a force for good and she’s recruited the rest of us to help support her in raising money for a cause she believes in. She’s getting us all to do something worthwhile we might not have otherwise done.
Meanwhile, we all help promote each other’s blogs, increasing awareness of the cool, creative things Lara and her co-sponsors are doing.
Win-win? Yeah, I think so.
What are you waiting for? Get over to Lara’s blog and leave a comment! It costs you nothing and could potentially cost me and John 50 bucks. But I’m totally OK with that.
—–

Did you like this post?
Share it on Facebook / Twitter / Digg / StumbleUpon / Reddit / Fark / Del.icio.us