I have a lot of respect for Ali Edwards and always appreciate the daily inspiration she shares in her blog. Ali is a scrapbooking expert, and if you think about it, writers are really scrapbookers too. We just do it with words pretty much exclusively.
I met Ali’s husband Chris Edwards at the Willamette Writers Conference in 2005. He was one of those people I kept bumping into over and over between workshops and events. He said his wife was an author and we chatted about her and her career briefly. Then the parking shuttle came and off to the conference we both went.
It was about a year after the conference that I finally made the connection between the nice man I’d met at the conference, Chris Edwards, and the neat woman online whose blog I admired, his wife, Ali Edwards.
I only figured it out because Chris contacted me over the summer of 2006 to say he was running for office. A couple months later, when Ali mentioned in her blog that her husband Chris was running for state representative, I finally put the two of them together!
I thought that was a funny coincidence at the time. Chris had asked me to get involved in his campaign, and although I meant to take action on it, that sticky note finally came unglued from my computer and floated into the dead post-it note pile.
I felt bad about that, but I was in the throes of I’m-writing-my-first-book tunnel. It was what I needed to focus on at the time.
As it turns out, however, Chris and Ali’s son, Simon, has autism and Ali often talks about it in her blog. As a result she raises awareness and money for autism research. I am always quick to share her link with any mom I “meet” whose child had been diagnosed with Autism.
Today, I checked Ali’s blog and noticed that she has discovered an organization that will match the money she raises and then some. Now this is a campaign I can jump right in on! Thankfully, the organization hosting the fund drive, Six Degrees of Separation, has made this easy for bloggers to do.
Finally, a campaign of the Edwards family that I can support right this minute! Yay!
I encourage you, if you have a blog or website, to do the same. For more information on how to spread the love and raise money for Ali’s cause, simply click here or here. You can even get a copy of the badge that you can post it too. (I’m still trying to figuere out how to do that but hopefully I’ll get it eventually.)
In the meantime, go Ali. Go Simon. Go autism research. Go all the kids and moms and dads impacted by this baffling illness. I hope that Ali’s fund hits the mark she wants it to hit.
And, by the way, Chris Edwards won the seat in the legislature. And it’s an inspiring story if you ever have some time to while away.
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