What are you wearing to pick up HBP?

[Heidi]

No, it's not quite as salacious as it sounds. While I am interested in
whether people are coming costumed, I wanted to plug a fundraiser FA
is doing, and also see if anyone wants to help FA at Books of Wonder
in NYC or at Spellbound2005.com in Chicago - email me offlist if
you're interested.

And I had a quick question - is anyone going to be in LA for the book
release weekend? Even if you have plans for HBP release night, do you
want to join me and some of the Lumos 2006 team at PoA in Santa Monica
on Sunday evening? More info at
http://www.wizardnews.com/story.20050528.html

Now, for the plugging. Some of you may have seen the wristband
fundraiser that FA is doing - but here's what's up.


FictionAlley has launched a fundraiser to raise thousands of
dollars for a scholarship fund named after a teenaged writer who died
of leukemia earlier this year. The site is selling wristbands online
and will have them available at Harry Potter parties around the world
on July 15 in conjunciton with the release of Harry Potter & the
Half-Blood Prince.

In March of 2005, thirteen year old writer Katie O'Brien lost her
battle with leukemia. For over two years, Katie had been writing a
story based on the Harry Potter books called Anna Grayson & the Order
of Merlin (http://www.schnoogle.com/authorLinks/Dave_OBrien/),
assisted by her father Dave. Katie was so passionate about her
writing; even while she was in the hospital fighting against her
illness, she continued to find strength in her writing. As her father
said, "Katie always wanted to be a writer, and she used this forum [at
FictionAlley] to fulfill her dreams. Correspondence with those who
read and enjoyed her story sustained her even during the worst of
times."

Katie finished writing her story six days before she died; her father
has continued to upload those chapters onto FictionAlley through the
spring.

When FictionAlley's staff learned that Katie had passed, they realised
that the best way that the site could honour her memory would be to
provide other writers, as well as artists and those who give back to
the community, with help in making their dreams come true

With the permission of Katie's family, FictionAlley has established a
scholarship fund in Katie's name. Over one thousand dollars have
already been raised from the sale of wristbands, and from donations
from FictionAlley members and their parents, but the site needs to
raise nearly five thousand dollars to fund the three scholarships for
three years. FictionAlley is confident that they will reach their
goal, and so, begining in 2006, they plan to award one for writing,
one for art, and one for community service; each recipient will
receive $500 (US) from FictionAlley to use towards his or her
education. We've already sold out of the first run of 500 wristbands,
and ordered another 600 to see us through HBP - if we sell all of
them, the scholarship program is fully funded for the first three
years! As of the now, we are fully funded for the three scholarships
for the first year, which is more than we dreamed at this stage.

FictionAlley volunteers will have wristbands available at HBP parties
in New York (Books of Wonder), Chicago (Spellbound2005.com), Los
Angeles,
London, Ann Arbor, Melbourne, Washington DC, Boston, Houston, Reno,
Seattle and at least a dozen other cities around the world. They can
be purchased for five dollars at those events, or online via
http://www.fictionalley.org/wristbands. We'll have a snail mail order
form up later today.


Thanks for reading!