Book-loving blogger to spend day online

By Blu Gilliand
Montgomery Advertiser

 

WANT TO HELP? There are two ways to help Heather Truett raise money for Reading Is Fundamental during the Saturday Blogathon: Go to her Web site: Visit http://www.xanga.com/mommyheaver. Click on the "Blogathon" logo to go to her sponsor page Go to the Blogathon site: Visit http://www.blogathon.org/ and click the "Sponsor" link, and search for Truett. Other bloggers and their charities also are on this site

Heather Truett has enjoyed books her whole life, so she figures giving up one day to help pass that love on to others isn't too much to ask.

Truett will spend 24 hours in front of her computer as part of the 2003 Blogathon, an Internetwide fund-raising event Saturday. Participants will update their personal blogs -- a journal, or Web log, that is maintained on a Web site -- at least once every half hour during the event.

Sponsors are asked to make pledges to a charity of the participant's choosing -- in Truett's case, the Reading Is Fundamental organization.

"I grew up in South Carolina, and every semester the RIF people came and would fill up the library table with books," Truett said. "Growing up, we weren't poor, but we couldn't afford to run out and buy a book whenever I wanted one. That's how I got books."

Truett just began keeping her own blog in March of this year, so this year's Blogathon will be her first. She said she originally decided to get involved as a show of support for a friend.

"My friend is blogging for the Young Survival Coalition (a group for cancer survivors) and I've always supported her when she works for her charities," Truett said. "I was going to blog for her charity, but then decided it was a way to do something for my own."

Truett, who works as a freelance writer out of her Tallassee home, credits the RIF program with instilling a love of books in her.

"It's just that feeling, when you're little, of being able to write your name in something, and have ownership of it," she said. "Now I'm a writer, and I attribute some of that to them."

Craig Culp, a spokesperson for RIF, said that Truett's story gets to the heart of what the program is about. "It's important for us to have volunteers, and to get the input of time and money from the community," Culp said. "This young lady is one of those 'thousand points of light' that makes a lot of what RIF does possible."

Truett has thus far received pledges totaling $22 for her efforts, but hopes that more will come through in the days leading up to the Blogathon.

"I didn't set a goal. I had no expectations, since I haven't done this before," she said.

According to the event's Web site, the Blogathon has its origins in the summer of 2000, when blogger Cat Connor decided to try a marathon session of updating for her and her readers' amusement.

Finding that to be a success, she invited fellow bloggers to join her in a similar session the following year, only this time with the goal to raise money for their favorite charities.

The event has continued to grow, and the Web site reports that there are already more than 500 participants signed up for this year's event, with nearly $50,000 being raised for various charities.