This is from a friend of mine, Alyson, who is about to graduate college and go spend two years in Africa! It’s a great cause, so if you’re inclined to help, please do. And, hey, you get a shirt from Alyson … and for those of you who donate as a result of this post (i.e., you send the money to my PO Box or my paypal account, as set out below) I’ll send you a book from my backlist. Feel free to specify which book you want, and I’ll do my best to accommodate, but I have limited copies of some titles. (Please note, this is time sensitive!!! As they say on TV, this offer expires April 19 … while supplies last!)

(THE ABOVE IMAGE IS WHAT WILL APPEAR ON THE SHIRTS!)

(the rest is from Alyson)

Alright so here’s the deal:

As many of you probably know, I’m leaving in August to spend the next two years in Malawi, Africa. I’ll be just outside of Karonga, a town in northern Malawi. My official placement (through the Marianists Brothers based in St. Louis, MO) will be within a women’s empowerment program that provides orphaned girls with trade education that they can later use for employment. The program also gives loans to women who want to start their own businesses.

I will also be working to create a library within the local school and maybe even – depending on how much money I raise – for a nearby orphanage. Obviously, literature is a passion of mine, but I know a lot of us just take books for granted; unfortunately because Malawi is such a poor country, many children don’t have these resources available to them.

And this is where ya’ll come in!!

I’m selling t-shirts to raise money to fund this project. Some of the money will go to the Marianists to offset my living expenses (since I’ll be there for 2 whole years), but I will also be using the fundraising to support my library plan. Since there’s obviously not going to be a big stack of money just sitting around, waiting to be used by me, the success of this project will depend upon how much I can fundraise!

So please SPREAD THE WORD! Tell your children, grandchildren, friends, clubs, siblings, neighbors, co-workers, – anyone you think might be interested in helping me out. It doesn’t matter if I don’t know them… In fact, I kind of like the idea that people I don’t even know will be wearing my shirts!

Obviously, any additional donations would be greatly appreciated. So you can pay more for the shirts or even just give a donation without requesting a shirt. Whatever you feel compelled to give will truly be greatly appreciated!

If you’d like to order a shirt, please reply with –

1. NUMBER OF SHIRTS YOU WANT

2. SIZE OF SHIRTS

3. ADDRESS (only if I need to mail the shirt to you)

I’ll send your shirt to you as soon as I receive your money in the mail. (Or via Paypal)

Rather than sending the organization small amounts over many months, I’ve decided that it will be easier and more organized to just collect everything and then send it all in to them as a lump sum. So my parents have graciously agreed to serve as the mailing point for all donations. (*Julie here: rather than give out her parents’ address, I’m going to collect for Alyson via my Paypal account and PO Box.)

So send cash/checks with your name & mailing address included (ONLY if we are NOT exchanging money and shirts in person) to:

Julie Kenner (for t-shirt)
PMB 12
1200 East Whitestone, Suite 120
Cedar Park, TX 78613

or send your money by Paypal to julie@juliekenner.com

MOST IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

Prices:

* $10 per shirt
* $15 per shirt if I have to mail it to you

Order Date:

* In order to save costs, I don’t want to just order a bunch of excess shirts. So I’ll be doing pre-ordering. ORDERS ARE DUE BY SUNDAY, APRIL 19th! I know this isn’t a lot of time, so just respond now while you’re here!

Many thanks in advance for your support and prayers!!

Check out this new video from my buddy, New York Times bestselling author and all-around cool gal (no, really!), Julia London:

The Julia London Show

So check it out … my very good friend Sam (we’ve known each other since high school, when we used to hang out after school at my house and add grated cheddar cheese to the Chef-Boy-R-Dee ravioli — radical!) has started a webseries based on his blog, Kill Your Inner Child

Here’s episode #1 (and to think that once upon a time, I thought my childhood was colorful …)

Check out this fun little movie by and about my buddy Julia London!