What happened to the Blogathon?

Recently, I’ve received a few private notes, as well as a few e-mails from some friends, all asking the same question: Where is this year’s Blogathon?

That’s a very good question, and to answer that I have a very simple answer: there was no blogathon this year. This year’s blogathon was supposed to take place on July 26th, which was five days after the Eagles concert, but it didn’t happen. Believe it or not, it didn’t happen because I didn’t want to. I was ready to do another 24 hour marathon for another worthy cause.

For those who are not aware of what the hell I’m talking about, a Blogathon is an online event where bloggers write a entry in their blog/journal/diary online once every 30 minutes for 24 straight hours. That’s 48 original entries written on the fly as the day goes on. No writing material in advance, all of it has to be writting during the 24 hour period in question. It’s basically a marathon for your mind and fingers. Basically like any other walking/running charity event, people sign up before hand and donate pledges, and it’s up to the writer/blogger to finish the event to claim the pledges for his/her charity.

This year would have been my fourth Blogathon. Until 2008, I had successfully completed three consecutive years:

In 2005 I completely my first blogathon for Amnesty International, raising a really decent $240, which was really good considering that I had been late getting into the thing.

In 2006, I wrote for the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. I didn’t make as much that year for my chairty but $150 for a children’s hospital is better than nothing.

Last year in 2007, I blogged for antoher charity that I support a great deal… the Greyhound Protection League. It was my most successful blogathon to date, raising $360 for GPL.

This year I hadn’t decided on a charity, but I didn’t have to. The people who run the website and the event every year decided to take a break this year and resume the event in 2009. So there wasn’t a blogathon this year… and all bloggers took a break from doing the insane 24 hour scribble.

But that’s okay, I plan to return next summer and do it all over again. My goal is to one day raise over $1000 for a single blogathon. I’m going to keep writing every year until that happens. It’s only one day a year of my time, and that’s a small price to ask for to raise a good chunk of change for a good cause whatever that might be. If anyone wants to suggest a good charity for next year too, I’m all ears as I usually like to pick a new cause every year.

So that’s what happened to this year’s blogathon. It didn’t happen, but not though any action on my part. I was making plans to go ahead with another successful campaign. I had a new digital camera, videos, and other cool stuff I was going to use to fill up the entries and make it all fun, but I’ll have to save it all for next year and I will.

I hope everyone is having a good weekend, and I’ll be back to post something else later… not sure what, but something. Until then, take care.

Peter