Simple plea for a few votes for my grassroots charity, Cheer New York.
Follow me to past the fold, if you need more convincing this is worth a click.
Update: We won round 2 & 3, but like March Madness, the matches go on. Added poll for fourth and final round.
Winning this would put another $250 in our "Cheer for Life" charity fund.
Cheer New York is a 501(c)3 non-profit adult all volunteer GBLTS cheerleading squad. We make appearances at athletic charity events such as the Avon Breast Cancer Walk, AIDS Walk, MS Walk and many others (click links for pics). We also cheer on local gay and lesbian sports leagues having cheered for the NY Ramblers soccer team,Team New York Aquaticsand the NY Sharks Women's Professional Tackle Football league. (Yes, you read that correctly, women's tackle football. Life is fun, huh?)
Through fundraising efforts, dues and fees collected for occasional commercial job we get hired for (like The Colbert Report: "Truthiness Cheer"), we donate a portion of our revenues to other, mostly small, grassroots charities, through our "Cheer For Life" fund.
We just gave $3,500 to Haven of Hope for Kids. Haven of Hope for Kids provides FREE camp-style retreats for families who have a child battling a serious illness. Truly grass-roots and local, I met local families who told me how much they enjoyed entertaining the families by sharing their resources of private lakes and horse ranches, or spending the day at the local water park, or doing arts and crafts projects. It was heartening and very much the kind of community organizing that would make Barack Obama smile.
Interestingly, when we met with them, I discovered they were an outgrowth of the local Episcopal Church, yes, a faith-based initiative. I was quite unapologetic about the team being largely gay and lesbian and they were very nice and respectful, as well as very grateful. They said, and I believe, $3,500 was quite a large donation for them. I'm glad we likely helped build bridges or strengthen ties between the communities of GBLT and faith.
I became involved with the team 5 years ago and now serve on the board and day to day administration. Words can't express the fun and friendship I've found. I truly believe too, in a community where so many of the entertainment choices involve drinking, drugs or indiscriminate sexual encounters, we are providing an outlet for young people to participate in something healthy, challenging and (relatively) wholesome.
Cheer NY is part of a larger umbrella group of similar Pride Cheerleading Association teams scattered throughout the country that include Cheer San Francisco, Cheer Los Angeles, Chicago Spirit Brigade, and hopefully soon, Cheer DC (send an email here, if you're inclined to join). If you're inclined to donate a few dollars to keep our team going via our "Cheer For Life" fund, you can do so here.
Thanks for the time and attention if you've gotten this far. (This is me below, "flying" as we call it.) Cheer Loud, Cheer Proud!
Why this isn't spam: spamming is indiscriminately emailing and posting in communities people to whom you have no connection. I've been lurking and later posting and diarying here for nearly two year. I'm just asking a little favor. I hold no animosity those who ignore my request, just as I ask you not hold animosity to me for making it. Thanks!
If the embed is not working, you can find the poll here:
http://www.outsports.com/...
UPDATE: DailyKos rocks. I've known that for a long time. But this? Knocks! Me! Out! Now, an hour after I posted this, CNY made a serious surge and at this time are quite ahead. (FWIW, Facebook didn't compare! :-) This is by far the most personal diary I've ever posted and thanks for supporting me in this. And if anyone knows how to clean up the garbage text from the embed, I'd appreciate it. It previews correctly but displays wrong. I'm afraid to futz with it as I assume it's working correctly, yes?