Clean Sweep

Today is Day 2 of Highlowaha's week of Unfinished Business. Our blog community is gearing up for the celebration of our one year anniversary, on Wednesday, February 18. But, before we can walk the red carpet at our much anticipated People's Choice Award Show (8:00 p.m. CST), we have some unfinished business to... well, to finish.

On Monday, readers generated a list of 16 topics for which some sort of closure was being sought. Unfinished business with people was the focus of yesterday's housekeeping. We followed up on letters written, outcomes of suggestions made by fellow readers, and the unresolved question... When is Ray's birthday? Before we switch gears and begin talking service projects, let tick another unresolved topic off my list...

After lots of adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing Ray Wattson's birthday has been determined! 16+6x2.2+540/8.5-6x2+0+3x7.5 (average of 6 or 9 cookies) = 970.85. Drop the zero and the .85, leaving us with 97... September 7! A quick glance at Highlowaha's favorite reference book, Colorstrology, reveals the following about Ray...

First of all you will all be relieved to know his colorstrology color is Dahlia PURPLE - a shade of purple that looks amazingly close to Ray's purple boots! 

His profile reads..."Good-looking, Discriminating, Verbal. If you were born on this day you are smart and discriminating and tend to choose your words carefully. You have an understanding of true beauty and good health. Although you are outgoing and friendly, it is not always easy for people to get to know you on a deep level. You save the more intimate parts of yourself for a chosen few. Compatible birthdays: January 8, April 27, October 27.

Pretty good, huh?

Onto service projects. There were two projects for which readers wanted closure. First the Helping Hands Holiday Project and second, Project Paint the Town Red. All tolled, Highlowaha engaged in four service projects this year. I'm proud of our commitment to service, and already planned to make mention of during next Wednesday's award ceremony. In an effort not to be redundant, today I will share enough to make good on my promise, but not so much you have no reason to tune in next Wednesday night.

Helping Hands Holiday Project. Success. Highlowaha rose to the challenge and adopted a family for the 2008 holiday season. The family we helped was a single mother with five children, living in Pennsylvania. Two fundraisers yielding approximately $500.00, plus more than 100 donated items helped assure this family had a memorable Christmas. Items included everything from clothing, to book bags, legos, sleeping bags, craft items, bedding, books, games, and gift cards to purchase food. Special thanks to Sue Kolkmeier, who coordinated the project early on and who involved her co-workers in donating items. Additional thanks to Brian Root, and Maureen Peres for also coordinating the project early on and to Tera who allowed items to be shipped to her home and who took responsibility for delivering the items to our family. What a great team effort.

Project Paint the Town Red: Anticipated Success. I say anticipated success, because there are still four days to participate in this project (it ends on Valentine's Day). This project is compliments of Heather who told us about, Julie, her friend that is suffering from a terminal illness. Julie loves Coca-Cola, so building a service project around Coke seemed like a match made in heaven. For the past six months our blog community has been competing, by regions, to see who can collect the most Coke reward numbers. In the end the reward numbers will be donated to Julie, so that she may use the points to buy items she otherwise might never afford. Six of the eight regions have actively participated, racking up more than 5,000 points! Coke is red... Red is the color of Valentine's Day. Maybe - if we put our minds to it - we can reach 5,500 points by Saturday. Nothing says I love you like a Coke!

Two for two on the service projects.  I call that a, "clean sweep!"

One more quick note before the week gets away from us. I'd love to declare this week Amnesty Week. When I was in college the library and campus dining halls used to declare one day a semester Amnesty Day. What it meant was you could return all overdue books to the library and stolen utensils to the dining hall without being questioned or penalized. If you are anything like me, you might have an outstanding item or note that should already have made its way to a fellow Highlowaha reader, but hasn't. Join me in starting off our new year with all of last year's Highlowaha business resolved. Stick that package - no matter how long overdue - in the mail. You'll feel better and I'm sure you'll bring a smile to another reader's face.

Signing off until tomorrow when we bring you up to speed on Highlowaha Programs.