Office of Good Deeds Update

I just emailed this note out to everyone on the Office of Good Deeds mailing list. But in case you're a good deed doer not on the list, here's an update. If you want to be on the mailing list, just drop me an email at spike@spikeg.com. thanks, spike

OFFICE OF GOOD DEEDS UPDATE

Hey Everyone!
Lots of good news from the Office of Good Deeds and a couple of little requests. I think I'll include a table of contents here so you have an idea of what's in this note and can skim to the parts you want to read. So we have:

*A Thank You re: the clothing drive
*An Announcement about the Great Ping Pongathon
*A Whimsical Request re: grilled cheese
*A Personal Request re: Spike's workshops

***So, here we go. First the Thank You. A while back I asked y'all to donate women's and kids' clothes for a drive to help low income families. Boy did you come through. I got a note today from Michelle, who headed up the drive, and here is what she said:

[ Hi Spike,

Myself and the Austin Bar Association and the Austin Young Lawyers Association wanted to extend a special thanks to you for all of your amazing work collecting clothing for the Women's Resource Fair. Thanks to you we were able to collect approximately 3,500 pieces of clothing. We provided unlimited amounts of clothing to 300 women and 100 children.
Thank you again!
Michelle]

WOW-- 3,500 pieces of clothing. Nicely done. Thank you very very much.

***Next: Ping Pongathon. When I started the Office of Good Deeds in 2006, my friend Kris Schultz threw a Ping Pongathon to raise some dough for a good cause. She and her twin sister Kirsten are awesome athletes and rock out pretty hard on the ping pong table. Well, they're gearing up for another Pongathon, and here are the details from Kris:

[ Just wanted to let you know The Great Ping Pongathon 2009 is happening May 2-3, at Pure Austin Gym 907 W 5th St. Proceeds will go to The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.  As always, we're accepting pledges and donations ahead of time, and there will be donation boxes on site, as well.  Kirsten and I will both be playing for 24 hours this year, and there will be two tables, so people can challenge either of us, or challenge other people.  We're also having an hour where people bring or suggest odd objects for us to attempt to play ping pong with, which ought to be interesting. So far, people have suggested everything from books to top hats, and one person even hand-made ping pong paddles out of duct tape. We're also going to have a drawing every hour for door prizes.  The gym will be open for the full 24 hours for anyone who wants to drop by and play, donate, etc.    We'd love to see you there, and if you feel so inclined, please feel free to forward the info to your friends/good deeds list, etc.  It should be a lot of fun. It's a difficult time to be asking people to give money, but I think it's a time when organizations like The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society could use all the help they could get, too.  We're hoping to have a great time and help them out.]

Please mark your calendars and go challenge the ladies.

***Now, the Whimsical Request. My friends Garreth and Kristine won a local Grilled Cheese competition, which entitles them to go to LA to compete in the national competition. They need to raise some funds to cover expenses. Some of you have already sent in a little dough. I'm asking, in the name of pure whimsy, that everyone send in a one dollar bill and together we help represent Austin in the extremely important competitive sport of cheese grilling. You can send donations to;
Office of Good Deeds
C/o Spike Gillespie
P.O. Box 4843
Austin, TX 78765

***And finally, my personal requests. Y'all, I am hosting one adult writing workshop (I mean, a workshop for adults not "adult writing" as in XXX stuff). I am also hosting two weeks of kids' writing camp in June and two weeks of kids' fashion camp in July. I am still taking enrollees for all of these workshops/camps and I could really really used help getting the word out. Here are links with info. Would you be so kind as to tell your friends?

Adult Writing Workshop Link:
http://spikegillespie.blogspot.com/2009/02/finding-your-voice-writing-workshop.html

Writing Camp Link:
http://spikegillespie.blogspot.com/search?q=writing+camp

Fashion Camp Link:
http://spikegillespie.blogspot.com/2009/02/announcing-fashion-camp-2008.html


Thanks y'all. Hope you are digging this unbelievably awesome spring weather. Happy good deed doin',
Spike