Skepticism

You Saved Skepticon!–EDIT

Perhaps you’ve heard the rumors. About your AWESOMENESS. In two short days, the skeptical community stepped up and donated about $6,000 to save Skepticon. Six freaking thousand. It is almost what they need for the venue, and it is definitely enough for Lauren to announce that Skepticon will not be cancelled! You can read her post about it here. And you can read JT Eberhard’s post about what Skepticon means to him, and to the community, over on the Friendly Atheist blog.

So I’m thinking, while we’re wielding all our amazing powers for good, why not throw some more toward the latest needs of people affected by Hurricane Sandy? I don’t doubt that most of you have already been doing what you can. I know many people are donating, opening their homes, and giving blood. In another post, a commenter, embraceyourinnercrone, added some information about a ground relief effort in New York and New Jersey, Occupy Sandy and Occupy Sandy New Jersey. The sites have a constantly updated list of the most urgent needs, such as blankets, flashlights, food, water, diapers, etc. Check it out to see what you can do to help.

And of course, you can donate through the Red Cross or the Foundation Beyond Belief’s Humanist Crisis Response to help victims in the Caribbean as well as in the eastern U.S.

If you have any other ideas for helping people out or updated information on needs, please leave them in the comments and I will update this post.

Edit:

THIS is brilliant: Occupy Sandy has set up a wedding registry on Amazon, so you can donate items they need by checking out this registry and seeing the top priority items and how many have been purchased so far. (This and more in the comments from embraceyourinnercrone.)

 

Melanie Mallon

Melanie is a freelance editor and writer living in a small town outside Minneapolis with her husband, two kids, dog, and two cats. When not making fun of bad charts or running the Uncensorship Project, she spends her time wrangling commas, making colon jokes, and putting out random dumpster fires. You can find her on Twitter as @MelMall, on Facebook, and on Instagram.

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3 Comments

  1. Excellent news to hear on the response made to save Skepticon!

    I hope an equal response will be made to help the victims of Sandy. Things like this, IMHO, reduce the “suck” of life. And I don’t just mean gravity.

  2. Also urgently needed: Cleaning supplies and bleach Trash bags Serving dishes and utensils Anything that produces heat, Winter wear (jackets, hats, gloves, warm stuff)

    There is a list on the main Occupy Sandy link of drop off sites in Manhattan, NJ, Staten Island, etc)

    If you want to give supplies but don’t live close enough to donate in person, Amazon.com has an Occupy Sandy gift registry, you can go through the list of stuff they need and chose what you want to donate and it will be shipped to the main Occupy Sandy distribution hub:

    http://www.amazon.com/registry/wedding/32TAA123PJR42

    A nice feature is that the Occupy organizers have noted the priority of each item and there is a count of how many they need and how many have been purchased so far. Here is an article about the project from The Atlantic:
    http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/11/occupy-sandy-hacks-amazons-wedding-registry-in-a-good-way/264543/

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