Thursday, March 4, 2010

Final Shameless Guilt Trip

I promise this will be the last blog post (for now at least) asking for donations to mothers2mothers for my birthday wish.

A) A huge, huge thanks to those of you who have donated, to those of you who have checked out m2m's website and facebook page, to those of you who have educated yourselves on the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV (PMTCT) and HIV/AIDS in general, to those readers out there who have stuck with me since September 2008 or started reading since then, and especially to those of you who will continue to read my blog after I've bugged you for three consecutive blog posts about donating to mothers2mothers.

B) My birthday is tomorrow (March 6), so the clock is a-tickin' for donating to m2m as part of my birthday wish, either through facebook or on the m2m website. Please consider giving a gift to m2m.

C) I have a history of having not-so-great birthdays. One year I was sick and and had to lie on a couch while everyone else had a good time with ice cream and cake. My freshman year of college I had mono over my birthday. Last year, all hell broke loose for a variety of reasons in Sierra Leone that I won't go into. The worst and most memorable was the time I got a Raphael Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle piƱata for my party and it was dropped on my head mid-way through the first swing.

But the thing is, someone always did something really wonderful for me that made these crappy birthdays better: That first sick birthday my family and friends put on a play of the Pied Piper, which was just as fun to watch as it was to participate in. When I had mono, my friends all surprised me with hot chocolate and presents. In Sierra Leone, the volunteers held a surprise party up at our local watering hole, Georgetown, with the most ridiculous cake I have ever seen. And after I was betrayed and grievously injured by Raphael the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, a favorite student (for those of you who don't know I grew up on a boarding school campus as a faculty kid) beat the crap out of it and I got first pick of the candy.

So here's my (slighly/incredibly selfish) thinking: you giving to m2m will make my 24th birthday rock no matter what, since your gift will mitigate the potential weird/unfun factor that could occur this time around. And as a bonus, you will be able to help a mother living with HIV stay healthy, keep her baby from contracting HIV, and promote empowerment of women marginalized by gender and their serostatus, just by giving a couple of bucks to mothers2mothers. And that's a whole extra layer of feeling-goodness and positive karma rays that's going to make you feel good too. So, please consider a donation to mothers2mothers, either through my birthday wish on facebook or through the m2m home page. To sum up: good for me, good for the mothers and babies, good for you too.


Many thanks,

Julia


Update 3.15pm: Many thanks and a big shout out to Cait, who just donated to m2m! Thank you!!!

Update 3/6 at 10:55am: Thank you to Katherine, for giving to mothers2mothers (among many other things)!!!

Update 3/7 at 10:20am: A final big thanks to Derick and Helen for donating! And thank you again to all of you for your donations and your birthday wishes, for continuing to read here, and for your support.

1 comment:

  1. Because you made me laugh out loud (albeit discreetly, as i am proctoring my French 1 exam just now!), I will make a contribution as soon as I get home!

    So looking forward to seeing everyone in CT next week!

    Hope your birthday is actually happy this time around!
    xo
    Katherine

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