Uncover a revealing breast-cancer fundraiser
Web crawlers can view a vast assortment of unclothed breasts for free anytime (or so I’ve heard), but today’s the last day this year folks can pay to ogle them online for a good cause.
That’s because the Sixth Annual Blogger Boobie-Thon is drawing to a close. The fundraiser has brought in nearly $40,000 – primarily for breast-cancer research – since 2002. That includes $3,060 donated to this year’s campaign by last Thursday afternoon. The group hopes to meet or beat the 2006 total of $9,260.50 by midnight tonight.
The event started out as something of a gag. Robyn Pollman (then of Tampatantrum.com, now of Shutterblog.com) wanted to fly a lonely pal from Pennsylvania to Florida for Thanksgiving. Pollman and several blogger friends proposed sharing wet T-shirt shots with anyone who donated money for a plane ticket.
That “Boobies to Florida” fundraiser brought in surprisingly big bucks: $1,610. After paying for the flight, the bloggers donated $1,251 to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. They also made good on their naughty word by posting several wet T-shirt shots on Pollman’s site. Thus a quirky annual benefit was born.
In a nod to its roots, Boobie-Thon always earmarks at least $359 for a worthy blogger selected by organizers from a list of nominated sites. This year, donors have chipped in more than $400 to the Deb Fund. That money will go directly to the woman behind Debutaunt.com, a single mom in remission from acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
Pollman handed the Boobie-Thon reins over to New York-based Web designer Melissa Connolly this year, but it’s otherwise been business as usual.
The Boobiethon.com homepage contains no risqué photos, so it’s safe for work. Links to internal pages with erotic shots are marked with an asterisk. Those include several galleries of breasts covered by hands, lingerie and the like. Think of them as previews of coming attractions.
Anyone donating at least $50 receives access to the Pay-Per-Boobie area, where some 125 pairs of fully exposed, albeit anonymous, breasts await. How many times do good deeds and guilty pleasures go hand in hand like that?
And all donations are tax-deductible, which means supporters enjoy a write-off while participants take their tops off.
Connolly’s not only the event organizer – she’s also a donor and model. Like many others who send in photos, she’d never had topless shots taken before.
“It was pretty exciting, actually,” Connolly said. “It’s nice to have your photo up there and know you’re helping.”
Although the site fields its share of complaints from feminists and even rude dudes who “don’t think we should feature anyone over a size two,” she said the positive comments outstrip the negative ones.
“There are other ways to support breast cancer research,” Connolly added. “But do something other than complain.”
Underscoring the seriousness of the cause, Boobie-Thon features a survivor’s gallery. This year, it includes photos of two women who’ve beat cancer.
One of them first sent in topless shots in 2005. She was then diagnosed with breast cancer in 2006. This time around, she submitted pictures of her reconstructed breasts.
“Last year she was going through the treatment, but this year she’s doing great,” Connolly said of the survivor.
Here’s hoping she stays the picture of health.
Stay on the QT with NFYB
How can you keep private comments offline when chatting with confidants who moonlight as online diarists? Seth Godin has a suggestion: “Just say NFYB (‘not for your blog’).”
It’s no longer safe to assume heart-to-heart conversations and e-mail exchanges with friends and family members will remain confidential. “Now, more and more, there is a bias to post,” the marketing guru wrote recently at Seth’s Blog. “When everyone is a journalist, most things are on the record.”
And you can quote him on that.