As described in our earlier update, Dana will be traveling to Lawrence to present the Lawrence Community Shelter with 50% of the funds raised during our first campaign. Here is the rough schedule for the weekend:

Saturday, September 1st

• Arrive in Lawrence around 3PM
• Check into the hotel
• Visit the local area and have dinner with fellow fans

Sunday, September 2nd

• Go to the Lawrence Community Shelter around 12PM
• Present the funds to the Board of Directors at 12:30PM
• Tour the shelter immediately after
• Go to the soup kitchen at 1PM; help serve and meet with shelter guests
• Visit with LCS staff, Board of Directors, and guests
• Visit the local area, possibly Stull, with fellow fans

This is a great opportunity to meet our fellow Rockers face-to-face and learn how our campaign will empower the mission of the shelter. Do you have ideas for other local sights we could visit? Leave a comment! Will you be there? Let us know!

Don’t forget we have until September 1 to reach our goal. We are only $200 away. That means we would hit the target if:

10 fans donated $20 by skipping the mall this week
20 fans donated $10 by skipping a movie this week
40 fans donated $5 by skipping Starbucks just once this week

We can do it.

Fellow Supernatural fans, we have just two weeks left for our first Fandom Rocks campaign, and so far, we feel we can call it a great success. Here is what you have helped accomplish in our first two months:

• Creation of Fandom Rocks website, Livejournal community, CafePress store, MySpace group, and Facebook group.
• Affiliation with various Supernatural communities and web sites, including Supernatural Underground.
• Press release on Fandom Rocks distributed by one of our chosen charities, Lawrence Community Shelter.
• Lawrence Journal-World newspaper interview with one of the Fandom Rocks maintainers.
• Initial $1,000 contribution goal met in just under one month.
• Written communication with Kim Manners, Eric Kripke, Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki informing the Supernatural cast and crew of Fandom Rocks.
• Face-to-face discussion with Jensen Ackles regarding Fandom Rocks and its goals, as well as confirmation of receipt of the Fandom Rocks letter.

We currently stand at 83% of our raised contribution goal of $2,000. With the matching funds during this last month and Dana’s pledged donation to cover Paypal fees, we have just over $1,700 to divide between Lawrence Community Shelter and SOS Children’s Villages.

We aren’t done yet! We still have until September 1 to meet our goal, and we’re anxious to prove what we’re made of! Help us reach that goal by donating in this last push before September 1!

As maintainers, we’re very proud of the work we’ve done behind the scenes, and especially proud of our fandom for stepping up and making this group venture a successful reality. Everything Fandom Rocks has accomplished so far, all our hard work, is about to pay off. It will be time to celebrate!

We are inviting our fellow Supernatural fans and Rockers to join us as we present funds in person to the directors of the Lawrence Community Shelter.

(more…)

The one month marker for our first campaign has come and gone. Today, we have a brief update for you.

First, we are pretty sure everyone knows we made our first goal of $1000 — and then promptly passed it. Congratulations! As of right now, the donations and store purchases add up to a total of $1373! Based on a poll in the LiveJournal community, we are going to make the final goal of the first campaign $2000.

If you haven’t donated yet, please don’t let the fact we reached the first goal stop you now. We have a new goal ahead of us, and we are confident we can reach it by September 1st.

Second, it is almost time to start voting on the next two charities. In order to give everyone adequate time to research charities and then vote, we would like to post the poll here on the web site starting July 27th. It would run until September 1st. The poll choices will include all the previously mentioned charities, and you will have the ability to nominate charities as well. Be sure to research your nominees. They should be a registered non-profit in the US or UK.

To look up registered UK charities, visit the Register of Charities.

To look up registered US charities, visit the Internal Revenue Service.

To look up registered Canadian charities, visit Revenue Canada (English, French).

Lastly, if you are going to send a note in for the Comic-Con letter, you have until the 19th. So far, we have half a dozen notes, which is fine, but we want to make sure everyone who has donated or made a purchase in the store gets a chance to send in a brief note if they wish.

Okay, that’s it — spread the word, send in pictures of your Fandom Rocks shirts, and have a great week!

We have four more days until we reach the one-month milestone of our first campaign. However, it is with great excitement that we can share with you that we reached our goal for the first campaign — in fact, we exceeded it. Since the distribution of the press release and posting of the Lawrence Journal article, activity picked up dramatically. As of this moment, fans have come together to raise $1100!

We can only hope this momentum will continue throughout the remaining eight weeks of the campaign. Even though the first campaign has met the goal of $1000, Fandom Rocks will continue raising funds for Lawrence Community Shelter and SOS Children’s Villages until September 1st. If you have been waiting to be a part of the campaign, now is a great time to donate. Donations have ranged from $5 to $100, and no matter the amount, the total raised wouldn’t be possible without each and every one.

Don’t forget to send in your note for the Comic-Con letter by July 14th, and thank you for making the campaign a success.

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In other news, Fandom Rocks was recognized at the television web site BuddyTV.com earlier today. You can read the article here.A Google News feed for Fandom Rocks has been added to the News Feeds page as well.