Now, on to be one of the 12!!

Congrats!!

I am doing quite well in the competition at this point. You can vote every few hours if you have the time. Thank you for your help!

The Lincoln Crisis Pregnancy Center (recommended by Coby Mach)
Grants for parents seeking to adopt from within the US (recommended by Jonathan)
The Neil Schulz Gift of Hope Fund (recommended by Heather Schommer)
The Lincoln Music Teachers Association Outreach Program (Suggested by Judy)
Lighthouse in Lincoln, NE (Suggested by Jerrie Michaelson)

I need your help to nail down the final details and get things moving. I need the following:

An email or fax from the charity you recommended stating that I have permission to use their charity name in my audition video and that they are a 501c3 organization. I need a contact name at the charity and any contact information you might have. You can reply to this email or post this information on my blog.

Because this is a vote-based competition, I need to attract as many votes as possible to get on the show. I plan on issuing a press release to the local Lincoln media outlets describing the competition, highlighting my participation, and listing the charities that will benefit if I win the competition, as well as a brief description of each charity’s mission. If you know anyone in the media please ask them to cover this story. The additional exposure will help ensure I win a seat on the show.

I have to make an audition video and post it on http://www.nextinternetmillionaire.com where people will be able to vote on it. The more votes I receive, the greater my chances of making it on the web-based reality show. If I win the competition on the show, I will be awarded $25,000. That is the money I will be awarding to the selected charities.

Thank you for visiting my blog and making suggestions. The winners will be announced in July, 2007 so there is no time to lose!

There are SO MANY great charities to choose from. I will probably make a decision by next week. Either way, I will announce it here on the blog first!

I have been a mentor in the Teammates Mentoring Program in the Lincoln Public Schools for nearly 10 years. As a mentor, I go into a Lincoln Public School each week to mentor my child. I have become painfully aware of the gulf between children of poverty and children of average-plus means in many arenas but particularly in the computer skill arena.

My grandchildren have had the good fortune to have a computer in their home and therefore been computer literate since they were preschoolers. They sit in the same classroom with children who may never have a computer in the home. Yet, all these children have the same “mountains to climb” in each grade.

I have watched my high school mentee struggle to use the computer at school in order to complete an assignment, which is also a struggle. A machine, the computer is unwittingly creating even a larger gulf for those children of less means to hurdle.

It seems a program might be developed, computers donated, and a challenge to match your funds, to give these kids a good start on computers early in their schooling, perhaps in preschool, such as Headstart, programs.

I found a donor who donated a computer to the family of my high school mentee in hope that she and her younger siblings would benefit. However, the parent did not have computer skills to help the children nor the extra money to pay for the services. The computer soon disappeared.

My conclusion, after that experience, is that computer skills for these children need to be acquired and practiced regularly in the classroom at a very early age.

Having said all of that, if you find my suggestion more than you wish to take on, I would recommend donating the money to Teammates.

Teammates serves 3,000 youngsters in Nebraska and matches an adult with youngsters in grades 3-12. It is a school-based program where a caring adult spends 1 hour per week at the school with the child. The goal is high school graduation. The Kellogg Foundation has named Teammates the “Best Practices” Mentoring Program in the country. Gallup has gathered the data to support this designation. Suzanne Hince is the State Director and is located in Omaha. She may be reached at: 402-380-8326; metroomaha@teammates.org; 11850 Nicholes, Ste. 120, Omaha, NE 68131.

Thank you for this wonderful gift you will be donating. Thank you, too, for the helpful information and tips you give on your radio show.

I am not sure if I will submit a video or not. I will mention it on the radio show today and see if there is any additional interest. If not, I may just let it go.