Olympus OM-2N | Delta 100 | Fotokemika Emaks K-888 #2

Cute kids, right? There's a small thing you could do to help keep them in school.

We're planning our "annual" fundraiser. "Annual" in quotes because we're a small group of busy friends without a board to answer to, so...our last fundraiser was actually December 2007. Luckily it was successful enough that we haven't been hurting yet, but it's definitely time for another.

We Are One Malawi raises educational funds for high-school and university students in northern Malawi, an area largely ignored by the NGOs in the capital. Our main focus is 12 special boys who are mostly still in middle school at this point, but with the money we've raised, are being pulled out of the free, overcrowded government schools. You can read about the boys and the history of our org on the website, but feel free to ask if you want more details!

Anyway, as you can see from the link, we had a silent auction last time, and we'd like to do another. I'm definitely not asking for any financial outlay on your part, but if you or your wife or your father or your best friend has a connection to a place that could offer goods or services for auction, please send me a message! Services of course should be something either New York metro-based or national (hotel stays, airline miles). If you don't live in New York but have goods to offer, write to me and we'll figure out how to get it here.

Also, if you work for a large, seemingly faceless corporation...there's probably a philanthropy department to check with. That's how I got stuff from my office last time.

These do NOT have to be big-ticket items. But if you have a Wii to offer, you win! (Prize TBD). Don't worry about what you think you'd bid on in an auction. One of the more random items we got last time was 4 hours with a car service. Our silent auction fairies combined it with other items to make a "Weekend in New York" package, and they're ready to work their magic again.

Send me a message if you have something to offer, or just have questions. The fundraiser will be during the first week of May, so there's some time...just want to get an idea of what's out there. Thanks for reading :).