<-- Push the Magic Button!

 Or let me beg for it!  Okay, it's like this:  I totally blow at asking people to give money for whatever fundraisers I'm involved with at any point in my life.  

The junior high candy sale of 1973? You probably have no memory of my asking you to buy a chocolate bar because I was too shy, so I blew my entire allowance on my inventory and got a one-way ticket to Weight Watchers.

Perhaps you were around for my high school magazine drives circa '75-'79?  I barely managed to sell a subscription to Grit and bought myself Creem Magazine for a year. Not surprisingly, I didn't get the days off from school the SuperSalesKids (read: the popular clique) got.

Don't even get me started on the 4-H raffles of the same era.  I knew none of you needed a tractor or a bull bander, so I didn't even ask.

Whether you endured or missed out on those fundraisers with me, let me tell you about AIDS Walk Boston 2009.  The Walk is an annual event that began in 1986, a year after I moved to Boston, and I've attended each one.  Typical me, my sales pitch has tended toward the passive:  "Hi, um, you probably don't, um, would you like to sponsor... I don't know if you know the AIDS Walk is coming up in June and... oh, you would?  Oh, wow, that's great."  

To those of you who've managed to hear and respond to my mumbled pleas over the years, a million thanks.  Here's our chance to add to those memories and my gratitude! To those of you I've never hit up before, obviously this doesn't come any easier to me in today's tough economic climate.

Of course, if times are hard for you and me, they're also hard for essential non-profits like AIDS Action.  So here I am asking you to contribute whatever you can to fund the prevention and education work of the agency with its cutting edge focus on sexual health (I love that stuff!) as well as the vital client services provided to those who are living with HIV.

If you are able to pitch in with any size donation at all, that's great.  And yes, I've set my fundraising goal to the astronomical sum of $1Million, which seems like a lot of money.  But, why not, right?  Maybe Elton John or my imaginary boyfriend Alec Baldwin or Bill Gates will see this page and say to his assistant, "That dude's got moxie!  Give AIDS Action a mil from me!"

It could happen!  So click on the "Support Chris!" button above for your chance to get in on the ground floor of this epic thermometer journey.

Love always,

Chris 

 Thank you so much to everybody who has pledged!  I heart you more than you know.