“Mom, Jake’s Already Dead.”...

Recently, Griffin (my five-year-old son) came home from school and handed me a flyer.

As he handed me this flyer, he told me the story of Jake, diagnosed with cancer when he was four years old and in junior kindergarten. Then Griffin told me that he wanted me to go donate blood.

“You want me to donate blood for Jake?” I asked.

His reply? “No, Mom. Jake’s already dead.”

BAM.

I’ve considered donating blood for the past couple of years, ever since my stepdaughter Laura organized a blood drive at her high school. I went and tried to donate, but they couldn’t take my blood that time because 1. I was dizzy and 2. I had traveled to a malarial area within the past year. I’m not going to lie to you, I was relieved. Like many people, the idea of giving blood makes me feel a little…weak. And I won’t be able to work out the next day. You know what? BIG FREAKING DEAL. Because there’s a boy who died when he was 7, who won’t be able to work out, oh, EVER. And donated blood gave him three more years of life, and gave his parents three more years with their beautiful son, Jake. So, on April 9th, I plan to donate blood for the first time at Jake’s Blood Drive.

Tomorrow, April 1, marks the start of #DonateLife month and I am asking you, too, to donate blood. BloodCenter of Wisconsin is a client, and is a phenomenal organization, and that has nothing to do with why I am writing this post. It’s just disclosure. I’m writing this post because it is truth. Think about it…you have the power to save lives.

I’m also encouraging you to sign up to donate organs and for the National Marrow Donor Program. I did last year, because of another boy, David, my friend’s nephew. In 2008, David went to donate blood for the first time with his dad. He was told that he was not eligible to donate that day because a pre-screening determined that he was anemic. Three months later, he was diagnosed with MDS, a form of bone marrow cancer. His only treatment option was a life threatening bone marrow transplant. David has had ten rounds of chemotherapy and recently had his 35th bone marrow biopsy. He is doing OK, thanks to donor T-cells that have given David and his family hope.

I’ll let you know in a 8 or 9 days what my first blood donation is like. If you’re already a regular blood donor, thank you, and I encourage you to leave you own story in the comments. Why do you give blood? What does it feel like? If you signed up to donate organs or are on the bone marrow registry, why did you do that?

Thanks.

 

 

 

SXSWi 2011 begins!...

4:59 AM. Definitely a bit earlier than I planned to be up on the first day of SXSW interactive in beautiful Austin, Texas. I *might* be a little excited I guess. I’ve been wanting to come the past several years, and this is the first time I’ve been able to make it down. I’ll be posting some personal thoughts/journals here and also blogging here on the Jigsaw blog, posting photos to the Jigsaw Flickr stream (and they WON’T be snow photos. Woot!) and posting some tweets to the Jigsaw Twitter feed although like many people this year I’m committed to not spending all of my time on Twitter, but rather being present, really soaking it in and engaging with the people around me instead of just my iPad.

So what am I so excited about that I’m up before the sun? Well, the first thing has to be the people. Tonight, seeing old friends like @TomMartin and @AugieRay at dinner and the Ignite Social Media bash. Meeting new friends IRL that I know only through Twitter. Beyond the people, the reason I am here is really to immerse myself more in mobile. Just as agencies a few years ago were just starting to think social, now we’ve got to think mobile, and not just as an afterthought.

So, after getting some serious coffee, and breakfast since I missed dinner last night, and getting down the convention center to wait in line for my badge, and renting my bike at Mellow Johnny’s to be my primary form of transport, I’ll be starting to check out the trade show and hitting some sessions which mostly start at 2:00 today. Some tough choices to make, and it can be hard to get in. But some things on the agenda today might include:

Micromarketing: Get Big Results by Thinking and Acting Small
Your Meetings Suck, and It’s Your Fault
Do Agencies Need to Think Like Software Companies?
App, Schmapp, Tell Me What Works Across Platforms
Focusing In On the Future of Social Photography

Then, of course, it’s also a matter of seeing “what’s hot” this year. There is of course lots of talk about Hashable, which is, more or less, a personal CRM tool through which you can exchange contact information, track your connections with people, see who they are connecting with and earn “hashcred” if you’re into that sort of thing (which I personally am not.) The Hashable CEO, Mike Yavonditte, was kind enough to indulge me in some Twitter chat on the subject of “why use Hashable” the other day. He says, “As Foursquare is to location, Hashable is to people.” Hashable and Foursquare just formed a partnership, so soon you’ll be able to check into Foursquare and log your connection with a person, all through the Hashable app, which could make it more interesting for people (like me) who just aren’t that concerned with logging it every time they #meet or have #coffee or #drinks with someone. The Hashable team blog describes it this way: “It’s kind of like seeing your second degree network develop before your eyes; you feel a little like God.” Umm….no. I’ll also be checking out contxts which lets you gather contacts and turn your phone into an interactive badge.

Well kids it’s time for a stretch on the yoga mat, a hot shower and a ginormous latte before the long day ahead. A little more sleep would have been helpful but I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one down here who didn’t get much sleep. ; )  More to come.

Spaight