Tweeting for Haiti

@mcawilliams was tweeting yesterday, as per usual. He announced that he needed to come up with something special because in 1000 more tweets he would have hit a huge milestone in his twitterific life: 50,000 tweets broadcast on the service. An epic number by anyone’s standards. So he put the concept of doing something special out there, and some people replied.

My idea was to auction off the 50,000th tweet in aid of the victims of Haiti which seemed to go down well. You donate more money then anyone else was willing to and the 50,000th tweet will end up being yours. A plug for a business, a poignant statement or just a “haha I’m gay” type of comment.

John went ahead with the idea but developed it a bit more. The way he’s doing it is that he has about 1000 tweets to go, so why not curtail the number of tweets he can say? He can only send a tweet for every €1 he gets donated from people, and the target is 1000 tweets, i.e. €1000 which is then passed on to his charity of choice, Goal. An excellent idea to generate some fun and money for an incredibly good cause.

For those unaware, a few days ago Haiti was hit with a huge earthquake which has obliterated the entire region, killing hundreds of thousands and displacing millions from their homes. The death toll continues to rise while countless more are injured and homeless. Relief efforts are slow moving because the single airport cannot cope with the influx of aircraft. While aid is being set aside and money coming from both Europe and America, no real plan is in place to direct how the aid moves, making matters worse. It will take a few days for plans to properly take shape and the recovery begins. But recovery will take months, if not years. This is a humanitarian disaster on a scale we cannot even fathom.

@evertb has begun plans to provide emergency communications on the island. Details are on his blog. He needs all the help he can muster for that, especially if you’re a business who can provide vital equipment and manpower.

On John’s side, after only 1 day of promoting this idea the target of €1000 is looming close at about €730. Not far to go before the target is reached.

Click here to donate to John’s Goal campaign

Here’s what the man himself has said on this;

Thanks for visiting my personal fundraising page in aid of the horror that has happened in Haiti since the earthquake some days ago. The GOAL charity is a very worthy cause and I would very much appreciate your support in helping me to raise funds for this charity.

I have decided that my 50000th tweet should be dedicated to Haiti somehow, all I am asking for is if you could donate even just €1 to whatever, to this great cause and make the 50000th tweet somewhat more special by me announcing how much has been donated. Why €1000 as a target, well it matches how many tweets I had to go before hitting the 50000th. So I am only going to tweet to match the figure donated, so for example if you donate €1 I am allowed one tweet, if you donate 20 I am allowed 20 tweets etc etc. Obviously if more money comes in, fantastic.

This money will be transfered at the start of next month to Goal but as soon as I hit the 50000th tweet I shall get either John or Lisa O’Shea into work for a photograph and to show them how great the twitter community are.

Of course in true McAWilliams style there has to be a double edged sword for me, if you want me to shut up, which I imagine some folks do, dont donate and I shall be unable to tweet again, this is the deal and is something I must honour! Now of course if the donations come in as fast as they seem to be and hit the target, if I have not been able to tweet as fast, then please keep donating while I try to get to 50000.

Many thanks in advance for your support and thanks to Kevin Dowling for putting the idea into my head.

The Irish twitter community is large and in charge, and here proving once again that they’re more then willing to mobilise in aid of a good cause. Once again, donate here. It doesn’t matter if it’s €1 or €100, anything will help.