I had the chance to speak with the local traditional media giant KELO yesterday about using text messaging to donate to earthquake relief efforts in Haiti. I hope this encouraged people to chip in to this important effort.

If text donating isn’t your thing, I would strongly encourage donations to Partners in Health. This is an organization started by Dr. Paul Farmer that has focused for many years on improving the well-being of Haitians. If you need even more encouragement to give to Partners in Health, we will be giving free Cubicons to anyone who donates. Click here for all the details. Make a difference and get cool safety goggles for the cubicle. What could be better?

Why all this solicitation you may ask? Well, first off, this is unique opportunity to not only help relief efforts but to help put Haiti on the right foot once and for all. With a history of outside intervention, natural disasters and dictators, the second oldest nation in the Western Hemisphere after the US has been given the short end of the stick to say the least. Wouldn’t it be great if this disaster could be used to make lasting positive change?

Secondly, this disaster has hit close to home for both John and I as one of our Luther College classmates was killed during the earthquake. Ben Larson was a friendly, warm and contagiously positive friend who arrived in Haiti the day before the earthquake. While his wife and cousin were able to survive the disaster, Ben was not so fortunate. Now, our thoughts are with his family and friends who will miss this great man.

You can read more about Ben here. Thank you for helping with the relief efforts.