Charity

I will admit that I can be overly generous or stingy when it comes to charities, all based on my mood at the moment. I focus on a few areas of personal interest (mostly outdoorsy stuff) and then give whatever feel right. The more solicitations I get, the less I tend to give because I get annoyed and feel like "punishing" the solicitor. There is one exception to this - Elden, AKA the Fat Cyclist.

I had been reading his blog for a little while before I realized the situation with his wife's battle with cancer. All I knew was that for some reason the really cool swag he sold came in the site colors of orange and black, and (at the time) what I thought was an oddly un-manly pink. The I read about Susan's fight with cancer and it all made sense.

Maybe it's because Fatty has done such an amazing job of personalizing his requests for help (no form letters in the mail), maybe it's because he is so open about what the funds are used for, maybe it's because he comes up with creative ways to ask (yes, the man did a century on rollers), or maybe it's just because he's so darn funny, but whatever the reason I never hesitate to toss my hard earned money his way.

The point of this? If you haven't seen his blog, go now. If you haven't helped out, please think about it.

(This was inspired by a reference at another site to making donations to LIVESTRONG, a group Fatty regularly champions)