Via the Slog, I found that my neighbor and friend, Jonah Burke, had been written up in the PI for his non-profit web project benefiting the victims in Darfur, called the Darfur Wall:
By asking visitors to the site to contribute $1 or more, Burke has so far raised more than $28,000. Each dollar turns a dark gray number into a white one on the site, “lighting” it up as a visual to represent each of the estimated 400,000 people estimated to have been killed because of the fighting between Sudanese armed forces and rebel groups.
It’s a very cool project, and I definitely recommend that you head on over there and light up a few numbers (click on a number to light it up by donating $1; every additional dollar you donate will light up a random number elsewhere on the wall). I finally lit mine.
On a side note, I was amused by this little bit of the article:
The first donation came in November from a friend in China.
I know that friend in China. He’s back in Seattle now though. :) (Seattle really is a small town, isn’t it?)
Hey Lauren, thanks for posting. Actually, that friend in China was not the well-connected Filipe (Zil) Fortes but another Microsoftie you may know.
Today we got some more press! http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/living/2003537959_darfurwall240.html