Create for Life

Last spring and summer, Roisin expressed a wish to involve fandom in a charity event to raise money for cancer research and increase awareness about the disease. She came up with the idea of Create for Life: an event a lot like Relay for Life but aimed at writers and artists. We were working on the idea over the summer when she started getting really sick, and we weren't able to continue. However, it was one of her wishes and one of my promises to her that I would help to make her event a reality, in case she didn't get to see it come to fruition herself. Sadly, she did not, but Eli and I have not given up on her dream.

Eli and I have been talking back and forth over the last month and working things out, and we've decided to hold Create for Life on the weekend of 12-14 November, when Roisin would have celebrated her 30th birthday. Now, you're probably wondering, what the heck does one do to participate in Create for Life? Well, it's quite open, actually. Like Relay for Life, you can solicit sponsors, who will make a donation to the American Cancer Society (or a similar charity) for progress or completion of a project of your choosing that weekend. You can also work on a creative project that weekend with the goal of spreading awareness about cancer and cancer prevention. You can also create something that you sell or auction with the proceeds going to a cancer-related charity. The choice is yours, and we've kept options open so that there are ways for anyone who wants to to become involved.

My project is going to be rather insane. I am going to write for 24 hours on a novella I have wanted to work on for some years now. I will be accepting pledges for every 1,000 words that I write. I will also be accepting cheerleaders bearing heavily caffeinated coffee! :) It's an original novella, so I will eventually have copies of it available with proceeds going to ACS in Roisin's name. My idea was inspired by the founder of Relay for Life, a physician who spent 24 hours running on a track to promote cancer awareness and raise money for research.

Obviously, most projects won't be that intense, and we don't expect them to be. Even if you have an hour to write a few drabbles and post them to your journal with a banner and link to a site about cancer prevention, every effort is welcome and appreciated. You do not need to finish your project that weekend, and in-progress projects are welcome as well. We also welcome NaNoWriMo writers who want to try to complete a certain amount of progress on their novels that weekend as part of Create for Life.

We have a community on LJ, Create for Life, which will act as a headquarters for announcements about the project, a place to ask questions, and a community for sharing ideas about your project and, after CfL weekend, for celebrating your progress. Please do join there if you're interested in the project.

I do have one favor to ask of Ye Olde Flist. Even if you're not able to participate this year, if you know of a person or group that might be interested, please please please help us out by passing the word along. Getting the project off of the ground has left us with precious little time for promotions, and word of mouth about the project really is one of the best contributions we could receive right now. I'll put an announcement below the cut that you can copy and paste if you want to share the project with other people or groups. If you comment here with a link to your journal with a CfL announcement there, I will write a story for you--Tolkien-based or original--next summer when I'm off from school. No, I am not above bribing. ;) Please also remember that artists, craftspeople, musicians, and all other creative sorts are welcome to participate as well, not just writers.

Thank you, and I hope to "see" some of you on the weekend of the 12th! :)

( Create for Life Announcement )