Harry Potter fans have joined with members of fandoms from other popular books, movies, and tv series (including Heroes, Lost, True Blood, The Wire and Firefly) to create Helping Haiti Heal, a home-grown effort to contribute to the growing humanitarian aid and charitable relief activities in Haiti.
This Saturday, January 23rd, at 2 P.M. EST, HPA’s Potterwatch, PotterCast, MuggleCast, Hogwarts Radio, and FictionAlley will come together for a live fundraising webcast here on Livestream to benefit Partners in Health. This four hour live event will feature a donation drive where donors have the opportunity to win prizes, live performances from many wizard rockers; leaders in fan communities; personal interviews with Haitian-Americans about the importance of giving to Partners In Health; human rights activists; a representative from MIT’s Media Lab discussing ways that we can donate our time using new media; and much more.
Help spread the word by Tweeting the following:
We’re Helping Haiti Heal - learn about a huge fandom event happening Sat. from 2pm to 6pm ET! http://bit.ly/5603s6 #hhh
A major part of this event will be raising funds to help those in Haiti through Partners In Health. Countless fan sites, wizard rockers, authors, entertainers, and organizations have donated to this donation drive. A full list of items can be found on the Helping Haiti Heal website.
Funny that yesterday at the used bookstore I picked up a copy of Colin Beavan’s No Impact Man, and then today, lo and behold, saw this post about the upcoming No Impact Week!
Starting October 18th, No Impact Week challenges us to consider our environmental impact in a new way and start to make new goals that better ourselves and the environment. Huffington Post has published a great and helpful guide, so please check it out and participate!
Matt and I will be guest on a live Pottercast this Thursday evening. During the show we’ll be talking a bit about the 2009 Wizard Rock EP of the Month Club (which benefits the HPA). After the show, we’ll be hanging out and talking some more about No New Stuff and answering any more questions you may have about the campaign.
Here’s the schedule:
7:15pm EST - live Pottercast broadcast with Paul and Matt
8:30pm EST - Paul and Matt talk about No New Stuff and take questions
The second HP Alliance Dumbledore’s Army meeting will be this Wednesday at 9 p.m., on UStream.
During the last meeting hundreds of Potter fans came together to talk about helping those less fortunate in Burma and Darfur. This time the call will focus on consumer culture, and being conscious consumers in a tough economy: Paul DeGeorge and Matt Maggiacaomo, of Harry and the Potters and the Whomping Willows, respectively, will talk about their vlog project, “No New Stuff,” which is updated twice weekly at the HPA YouTube Channel. It will also feature information about a new HPA campaign to make sure all products sold in Harry’s name are done so under the banner of Fair Trade. Author Peter Gould, the author of “Write Naked,” will also be on hand to talk about breaking out of consumer culture. We encourage all of you to check out Peter’s book, “Write Naked” and it’s totally cool to go out and buy it. One of the exceptions in “No New Stuff” is helping independent artists!
So please step into the Room of Requirement and Join us for a fun call, which will end with a major HPA announcement, a great surprise that’s sure to excite everyone…one for which it is very much worth DVR’ing Lost.
See you there! Remember, it’s at 9 p.m. at this channel. You can listen to the call and interact with the participants by going to this page. You should sign up to be a member at UStream, as if the chat gets too crowded we will require membership to chat.
The Hampton Roads Harry Potter Alliance Chapter is getting involved with No New Stuff!
Until February 22nd, the Hampton Roads Chapter of the Harry Potter Alliance will be collecting used greeting cards for St. Jude’s Ranch. St. Jude’s recycles these cards and then resells them to help fund their facilities.
St. Jude’s Ranch for Children rescues abused, abandoned and neglected children of all races and faiths from the vicious cycle of child abuse.
This is a great “No New Stuff” project that hits on a lot of things - not buying new things, recycling the old, and cleaning out the clutter that surrounds us. And, it’s a way for all of us to get involved in No New Stuff…one step at a time.
If you’re interested in helping with this project, gather up your old greeting cards and send them to:
St. Jude’s Ranch for Children
Card Recycling Program
100 St. Jude’s Street
Boulder City, NV 89005
Make sure you comment on this post with how many cards you donated - and include in your package a note that this is for the Hampton Roads Harry Potter Alliance Chapter. That way, we can keep up with how many cards we send.
Paul asked me to send this out as he’s on his way right now, driving to Washington DC. Couldn’t imagine what’s happening in DC that would make Paul drive there from Kansas. Any thoughts?
Any way, this is a pretty cool installment of No New Stuff where Paul takes on his hero Bruce Springsteen. Check. It. Out.
I just posted the 3rd video for the No New Stuff project. Check it out on YouTube!
I had a cool trip to Seattle this week where I was hanging out with all of my siblings. Since this project started, I’ve been keeping track of everything I spend money on. After 6 months I think it will be really enlightening to see what I’ve spent money on. Plus, every time I consider buying something, I realize that I’ll have to write it down and then I wonder if it’s even worth all the effort. I think this will really help curb spending. In looking at the data so far, it looks like I spend most of my money of food. I love EATING!
I did end up buying a few new things under the artistic exemption clause. These are as follows:
Steven Jesse Bernstein CD - $9 - from Sonic Boom Records, Seattle, WA
Cursive 7″ - $3 - from Sonic Boom Records, Seattle, WA
Papercutter Issues #3 and 5 (comic book) - $3 each - from the Grass Hut, Portland, OR
the Portland Funbook #3 (art zine) - $5 - from the Grass Hut, Portland, OR
Just had to get that off my chest.
Coming up…I desperately need a new acoustic guitar!!! I have it all picked out and everything. I’ve been hitting Craigslist hard, but have struck out so far. Should I break down and buy it new!?!?
Many of you know of the No New Stuff campaign by Harry and the Potters and The Whomping Willows. So what do you think of it? Are Matt and Paul inspiring? Are they crazy?
What do you think of the idea of conscious consumption? Would you try something similar? What could the larger impact be on the environment, the economy, worker’s rights? Discuss this and more at the new forum topic for No New Stuff ‘09.
