Blogathon is returning to Vancouver this year as I will once again be hosting an on-location event August 21st.

Kristi Ferguson from Fraser Valley Pulse will be heading up Blogathon Fraser Valley on the same day with another on-location event so we’ll have the region well-covered. Raul will also be helping me with the Vancouver event as we’ll be celebrating our 5th year of Blogathon’ing together.

How it works
Bloggers sign up to blog for 24 hours straight, publishing an original post every 30 minutes (think walk-a-thon or spell-a-thon etc.) They do this marathon blogging in order to raise funds for the charity of their choice. The collect donations online to help keep them going.

We will be arranging CanadaHelps donation pages for all registered Blogathon Vancouver & Blogathon Fraser Valley participants so that all donations go directly to the charities of choice automatically, online. The campaigns are a challenge but it’s absolutely worth the time to support a cause in which you truly believe — using your blog for social good.

History
Since 2000, Blogathon has been run during the month of July through an online community and pledge system on Blogathon.org. We’ve taken this model and customized it, creating the first on-location events (in Vancouver and the Fraser Valley) in 2009.

In 2006 I participated after seeing Alanah and Barbara (the only two participants in BC I knew of at the time). In 2007 I had my own campaign up and running alongside Raul’s. In 2008 we then had 11 local bloggers sign on for Blogathon and along with my friends Duane and Raul we raised $10,000 for our causes.

Photo credit: Tiny Bites on Flickr

In 2009, the numbers grew to over 30 local participants and close to $20,000 raised by bloggers collectively for each of their causes.

I’m so excited to see how it’s caught on across the province over the years. In my first year I raised about $500 for the Surrey Food Bank and with my last 3 campaigns my generous readers have helped me raise about $15,000 for the Union Gospel Mission.

For 2010
This year we’re bumping Blogathon to August in order to hopefully have more participants (who won’t be on vacation) and more of an audience to help keep us going for 24 straight hours of blogging.

Our on-location events will have wifi, food (for sponsorship please contact us), and a community of bloggers all going through the same campaign — which helps when you start losing steam at 3:00am after blogging for 17 hours straight. Last year we were at Workspace and we enjoyed treats from various sponsors, visits from non-profits that were being supported, and even a private lightning-lit concert from Mojave.

Photo credit: Duane Storey on Flickr

This post is to serve as a “Save the Date” for August 21st so please stay tuned to BlogathonVancouver.com for updates and information. We will be posting information on how to sign up, how to get your donation page, and the venues for the on-location events (in Vancouver and the Fraser Valley) shortly.

The tag for the event will be #Blogathon10 (on Twitter or Flickr).

We hope you’ll join us and use your blog to help support the cause of your choice.

Update Please note Blogathon.org (the global event run by other bloggers) is NOT running this year. Blogathon Vancouver and Blogathon Fraser Valley ARE happening this year per this announcement. We’ll have a sign-up site available soon but please stay tuned to BlogathonVancouver.com for updates.

Post #49 of #49 – Over the next 24 hours I will be raising funds for the Union Gospel Mission during Blogathon 2009 by writing a blog post every 30 minutes. Please consider donating to my cause to keep my going until 6am PT July 26th.

We made it. After 24 hours of blogging Miss604.com readers have donated and pledged over $3,000 to the Union Gospel Mission. The support in all forms has been overwhelming and I cannot say it often enough but I have the best readers in the world.

There has been a group of bloggers here at the on-site event who have worked hard for their causes as well. Each and every one has put in an amazing amount of effort into their individual campaigns.

I’ll be heading home soon with John and getting some sleep so the site won’t be updated for the next day or so, understandably. I will keep the donation page live until Tuesday at which time I’ll draw the winner of the Granville Island Brewing fireworks boat cruise experience as well as the $25 Kingston gift certificate donated by John Biehler.

If you would like to re-live my 24 hours, you can read all of my Blogathon 2009 posts here. Thanks again everyone, and goodnight (good morning) from Gastown.

Post #48 of #49 – Over the next 24 hours I will be raising funds for the Union Gospel Mission during Blogathon 2009 by writing a blog post every 30 minutes. Please consider donating to my cause to keep my going until 6am PT July 26th.

Photo credit: UGM on Flickr

23.5 hours ago I began blogging for a cause and thanks to my readers and their generosity, over $3,000 has been donated to the Union Gospel Mission through my campaign.

With 12 facilities placed between downtown Vancouver and the city of Mission, UGM is ideally positioned to help those who need it the most. Employing a full-time staff of approximately 130 and relying on a broad base of loyal volunteers, Union Gospel Mission provides meals, shelter, education, counselling, housing and more to hundreds of people each day.

From pancakes in the park, Easter dinner, clothing drives, and support services. I truly believe in the work the UGM is doing in all corners of the Lower Mainland and these funds will help support their efforts.

Over the last 24 hours, and especially now in the wee hours before it all comes to an end, I found myself craving my own warm bed, a hot shower, and a change of clothes. I then realized that UGM supports people who simply may not have access to any of those things, all of the time.

I would like to thank everyone for their contribution to my campaign – whether you re-tweeted a post, left a comment, stopped by Workspace, or donated to the cause. Your kindness kept me going this entire time and continues to motivate me to provide quality content on Miss604.com.

Post #47 of #49 – Over the next 24 hours I will be raising funds for the Union Gospel Mission during Blogathon 2009 by writing a blog post every 30 minutes. Please consider donating to my cause to keep my going until 6am PT July 26th.

My husband John joined us here at Workspace in the late afternoon and he’s pretty much here for the long haul at this point. He’s offered companionship, post ideas, a guest post, and support while my eyes became heavy.

Once Blogathon is all over, and I’ve recovered my sleeping patterns, we’ll be heading to a tropical location for five days of sun, sand, and hopefully some good old fashioned disconnection time. John and I have never had a honeymoon and well, unfortunately this upcoming trip doesn’t quite qualify.

You see 99% of all of our trips are working holidays and this is no exception. So even though I’ll be in the tropics for the first time in my life, with the love of my life, he’ll still be spending some time on the clock. I remain optimistic however that one day, this won’t have to be the case.

Post #46 of #49 – Over the next 24 hours I will be raising funds for the Union Gospel Mission during Blogathon 2009 by writing a blog post every 30 minutes. Please consider donating to my cause to keep my going until 6am PT July 26th.

If you use the popular microblogging service Twitter you’ll notice that it tracks the top trending topics at any given time around the world. These hot topics are listed on the sidebar of your profile page and also on their Search directory.

But what happens when you see 10 topics trending and you have no idea what they mean or what their significance might be? Do what I do and check out What the Trend. Users can update and explain why topics are trending so that you’re not so lost and wondering why “NKOTB” or “cupcakes” are suddenly in the middle of the latest media buzz.

Post #45 of #49 – Over the next 24 hours I will be raising funds for the Union Gospel Mission during Blogathon 2009 by writing a blog post every 30 minutes. Please consider donating to my cause to keep my going until 6am PT July 26th.

I’ve been waiting all day to link to Karen’s cookie recipe and it looks as though it has now been published on TinyBites.

Her mother in law’s Winnipeg Folk Fest cookies are really delicious and were the perfect treat this afternoon.

Post #44 of #49 – Over the next 24 hours I will be raising funds for the Union Gospel Mission during Blogathon 2009 by writing a blog post every 30 minutes. Please consider donating to my cause to keep my going until 6am PT July 26th.

“You’re probably not expecting to drown today” is the slogan used in a recent campaign to raise awareness for water safety this summer, and at all times of year. The Community Against Preventable Injuries and the Canadian Red Cross want British Columbians to think safety when engaging in activities on or near the water.

Though a grass-roots initiative, The Community Against Preventable Injuries has become a province-wide, multi-partner organization designed to raise awareness, transform attitudes, and ultimately change behaviours. Its goal is to significantly reduce the number – and severity – of preventable injuries in BC.

You can find out more about this campaign and others over on the society’s website, Preventable.ca.

Post #43 of #49 – Over the next 24 hours I will be raising funds for the Union Gospel Mission during Blogathon 2009 by writing a blog post every 30 minutes. Please consider donating to my cause to keep my going until 6am PT July 26th.

On August 30th, Kimm aka Paddling Geek, will take to the water to raise funds for the BC Childrens Hospital. For the 11th annual Paddle for Kids, Kimm is coaching a team called H20 Geeks and has already met her personal fundraising goal and is still looking to get her team to theirs.

Post #42 of #49 – Over the next 24 hours I will be raising funds for the Union Gospel Mission during Blogathon 2009 by writing a blog post every 30 minutes. Please consider donating to my cause to keep my going until 6am PT July 26th.

We’re almost done this year’s Blogathon and I’m truly glad that I organized the on-site event at Workspace. Things have been much more exciting, pleasant, and fun with others around. Aside from the group of about 10-15 bloggers, we’ve also had all sorts of interesting guests stop by.

BC SPCA

Keira-Anne & Jordy

John Biehler along with Tris Hussey

Tyler Ingram

BC Cancer Foundation

Dave Olson with storytelling and analog hero card gifts.

Mojave with vegan cupcakes and tunes

Others including Derek Miller and Jenn Lowther stopped by while I was out but their presence was greatly appreciated by all. Jane Victoria King and other bloggers popped in for various amounts of time and it was a pleasure to see them.

Post #41 of #49 – Over the next 24 hours I will be raising funds for the Union Gospel Mission during Blogathon 2009 by writing a blog post every 30 minutes. Please consider donating to my cause to keep my going until 6am PT July 26th.

The following guest post was contributed by John Bollwitt

Hanging out at WorkSpace today for Blogathon, Rebecca snapped this great picture. It’s one of many, many streaks of lightning that filled the sky in the late afternoon, and these things aren’t that common. I don’t think I’ve seen a storm like that in about four years, which is when I moved here from eastern Iowa.

In the Midwest, you expect these things, and that’s because you have to.

As I watched the wall cloud come in over Mt. Seymour, that was a site that would strike a little fear into your gut as it came out of the horizon back home. What followed that was anyone’s guess. Intense wind to bust up trees, torrents of rain that could sweep your car off the road, baseball sized hail that would lead to cheap new car prices on damaged stock, or the ever friendly tornado that might knock on your door as an uninvited guest.

Watching the lightning zap the holy hell out of the mountains, it reminded me of those times when it was, “Get to the basement!” And it always seem like at that very moment, you’ve got to pee. The adrenaline kicks in and you do what you’ve been told over and over to do in school, but you still have this worst timing hit you at the same time.

That’s because tornadoes are pretty damn scary. They are additively fascinating to try and catch a glimpse of, but you just don’t want it to get too close because I’ve driven through towns that were ripped apart on a direct hit. I’ve grasped onto my mother under a blanket while the wind thumped against our house, sort of saying good-byes to each other through mutual I Iove yous.

That was one of my first times being on the radio when WMT called our house to speak to a witness. I barely had my nerves together enough to say my name correctly yet alone recount all the trees and power lines down in our neighborhood.

Everyone seems to have a personal story or knows a story of someone else with experiences like this. You can never be too careful when it comes to any storm, but the one that reached downtown today was fairly impressive in its own right. Like I said, it’s been a long time since I’ve seen something like that.

Photo credit: penmachine on Flickr

About John: John Bollwitt is a blogger, podcaster, radio broadcast engineer and Co-Founder of sixty4media. You can find him on Twitter @JohnBollwitt.