And now, my guilt trip to convince you to join Facebook

My nature is to think up a bunch of clever, pithy comments to my blog topic, so that you think I'm smart and funny and want to take me out for a Starbucks and giggle at all my jokes while we overlook the fact that I just downed two of their muffins, but I can't manage that today.

Curing SMA is such a dead serious subject that I have to resist the urge to drop an f-bomb when talking about it. If you want to know how I really feel about my twins being diagnosed with a terminal illness, reminisce with me here. But I hope that the two more minutes you might have spent getting your usual chuckle out of my usual narrative could instead be spent viewing the video below from Bill & Victoria Strong. It contains the vital info about this disease and why $1MM to SMA research could make more of a difference than if it went to any other charitable organization. We're [thisclose] to a cure, folks.

Chase--as in, the bank--is awarding one million dollars to the charity with the most votes to their campaign on Facebook. There are so many deserving charities out there. The organizations which help kids are my personal priority, but there are so many other deserving groups, too. I get that. The good news is that Chase allows you five votes, so surely there's enough to go around so that you can vote for four charities close to your heart and also include my charity of choice. One million dollars is quite a chunk of change, but to the SMA community--the community to which my family has belonged since the twins were born--that million could be all that we need to find a cure for Spinal Muscular Atrophy.

So, to summarize:

1. Watch the video
2. Join Facebook
3. Fan the Chase Community Giving page
4. Vote for the Gwendolyn Strong Foundation beginning this Friday Jan 15.
5. Beg everyone you know to do the same.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQkUwDEou7Q
(If my other mom bloggers were to mention this Chase contest and the Gwendolyn Strong Foundation on their own blogs, or if you would allow me to guest post on the topic this week, that would be awesome. Ping me and I'm glad to help. Voting goes from 15 Jan through 23 Jan.)

And if, after all this, you still can't be bothered to vote for the Gwendolyn Strong Foundation or even join Facebook (I'm talking to you, sister), the least you can do is send an email to all of your friends and coworkers begging them to vote, and then move ALL of your banking business to Chase out of sheer gratitude. Really, it's the least you can do, wouldn't you agree? And if you fail to support us in any of these ways, I'll be forced to add 'communist' next to your name in my Christmas Card Record book. I'm just sayin'.

C'mon and help me, Obi-Wan. You're my only hope.