September 2007

Everyone loves a good party including myself. As a matter of fact we are having one this weekend in honor of my son who is shipping out to Camp LeJeune on Monday morning. I’ll talk about that a bit more later but this is about something that is at the same time almost as important to me and more important to everyone else. World Alzheimer’s Day is the 21st of September (this Friday) and all through the month of September concerned people the world over are holding Purple Parties to raise funds for the Alzheimer’s Association. You will remember that I have posted a couple of times about the Alzheimer’s Association over the last couple of months. While I am seriously against government involvement in charitable organizations and welfare I am all for the involvement of private citizens including myself. I donated a van to the Alzheimer’s Association a couple of weeks ago, and yes it was operational. Hopefully they can sell it for a decent amount and use the funds for something important. I checked the Blue Book value before I called them and it should go for quite a bit.

Anyway, back to the subject at hand. One of the really cool things about hosting a Purple Party is that during the month of September all donations that are made are being matched dollar for dollar by The Harrah’s Foundation. Now that’s a big deal. When a large foundation like that gets involved and is matching funds that is the time to help out. The Alzheimer’s Association has set a goal to raise a million dollars this month and you can help out by hosting a Purple Party yourself and to help get started the first 500 people that agree to raise at least $150 get a free World Alzheimer’s Day party kit which includes a DVD of Alzheimer’s Celebrity Champions, speaking points about Alzheimer’s, donation forms and envelopes (remember your donations are tax deductible), cocktail napkins and thank you cards. You will want to register your purple party so that they can send the kit.

When you register your party it allows you to create your own page for the party, send email reminders to guests and even lets your guests make donations online. I know from personal experience that I am more likely to make a serious donation with credit card in hand and a computer screen sitting in front of me where I can check out the group I am making a donation to than I would on a cold call or having someone come to my house.

There are several different ideas for parties as well. It doesn’t have to be some hoighty toighty expensive dinner party either. You can have a birthday party and in lieu of gifts have your guests make donations, or have a yard sale and donate part pof the proceeds, have a poker party and split the pot with the Alzheimer’s Association or do Movie Night and pass around an empty popcorn container to collect donations. There are countless different ideas that you can come up with. Don’t want to have a party or go to one? That’s OK, go to the site and donate the $25 you were going to spend on pizza tonight.