Results tagged “charity”

Today's featured Twitter user is @Drew. Known in meatspace as Drew Olanoff, he is a Philly blogger engaged in his own fight against cancer. He was diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma in May 2009. In an effort to put the disease in its place, he started the #blamedrewscancer hashtag on Twitter, which has since gone viral and turned into a powerful movement.

I'm Jewish, so Fat Tuesday was never anything but a holiday to me. I knew that it kicked off Lent, but seeing as I'm not supposed to give anything up for the next forty days (instead, I'll spend a week in April when God puts me on the Atkins Diet), the significance of the holiday that many of us will celebrate tonight (pass the beads, please!) has always been lost on me. As has the meaning of its name.

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Tomorrow night, Philadelphia's thriving Twitter community, in which we're increasingly trying to participate, will descend upon the Get Happy Pub to, well, get happy. But it's all in the name of charity, a concept that's anything but foreign to Philly's burgeoning 2.0 community.

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Okay, we're now a week into 2009. The holidays are officially over, and that means some people—whether rightfully or wrongfully, that can be debated—have had it with ponying up money to charity, at least for a few months. (After all, charities are the seventh pain of Christmas.) But there comes a point when post-holiday ambivalence crosses into hostility. And some people can take that hostility too far. Some people, like, this guy, whom we mentioned in yesterday's news. The unidentified man walked into an Exxon station in Phoenixville and proceeded to steal a jar that was being used to raise money in connection with Ride for Kids, a motorcyclist-based cause that supports the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation. The jar had about $50 in it, and once this guy took it, he went out to his car, stashed it, and then went back into the store to make some purchases (allowing himself to be caught on the store's camera not once but twice, very smooth).

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Show some compassion for your fellow man and also have a few beers with some fellow Philadelphians next Tuesday, December 9th at the Geeks Who Give Food Drive & Tweetup at National Mechanics. The event is being held to benefit Philabundance: admission is five non-perishable food items, and will include drink specials and prizes.

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Bowling for Bears will hold its fourth annual fund raising event this Sunday, December 7, 2008. Bowling for Bears, the creation of Jenny Silver, began in 2005 to bring joy to children affected by Hurricane Katrina. Jenny’s fund raising efforts enabled her to send a teddy bear to every child at The Children’s Hospital of New Orleans. Her project was so successful that she repeated it again in 2006 and in 2007 shifted her efforts toward children here in Philadelphia. In three years, Bowling for Bears has been able to donate 1,583 Build-a-Bears to children in need during the holidays. Jenny, a truly remarkable middle-school student, has even founded her own non-profit organization, Bowling for Bears, a New Jersey Nonprofit Corporation.

               

On Friday night, Sisters Nightclub (1320 Chancellor St) held the first of several Pink parties: the Pretty in Pink Runway Contest. Parties are being held this month as part of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Portions of the proceeds will benefit the 3-Day Breast Cancer 60 Mile Walk. Contestants got their pink on in front of a very enthusiastic audience. The winner was Deb from Deptford.

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It's a tough sport to play and Philly is a tough town in which to play it. But Eagles guard Shawn Andrews, who has two Pro Bowls under his belt, has bigger problems on his plate than the mere pressure of playing in a city whose sports crowd is notoriously self-loathing. He failed to show at training camp recently and, according to the Daily News, Andrews is struggling with depression . We tend to be pretty hard on our athletes, especially when it comes to football (Phillyist has only mentioned him once, and it wasn't kind). But if you're an Eagles fan, consider being patient. Despite being charged $15,000 a day for his unexcused absence from training camp, Andrews is scheduled to see a doctor tomorrow and is confident that he'll regain his mental footing. Meanwhile, if the Eagles decide to give his money back in lieu of his evaluation (an unlikely but possible scenario), he plans to donate the sum - well over six figures - to a mental health charity. Maybe this city isn't so crazy after all.

HOW MUCH: Free!

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While an undergraduate psychology minor, I learned about any number of behavioral studies involving children that went something like this:

We already know that you like to put your money where your mouth is and support food-based fundraising efforts. Fortunately for you, summertime means there are plenty of opportunities to stuff your face and ease your conscience all at the same time. One of these, Fox Chase Cancer Center's 16th Annual Plain & Fancy: A Taste of the Greater Delaware Valley (a mouthful in and of itself!), happens next weekend.

Philadelphia may not be perfect, but on the whole, we're a city full of big-hearted people willing to open their hearts—and, sometimes, their pocketbooks—to those in need. The latest group to benefit from this philanthropic city of ours is the family of the late Sergeant Stephen Liczbinski, who, you might recall, was killed while on duty just a few weeks ago. And funds will be raised in Phillyist's favorite fashion: through our stomachs.