birthdayToday is my birthday!  I’m sharing because I want to tell you about last year’s birthday, which was my best ever so far: my friends staged a surprise talent show and live auction fundraiser for me!

Here’s how it went down:

After a nice dinner with friends, I was blindfolded (!) and taken to a room in a basement down the street (sounds creepy but I swear it wasn’t!).  When I opened my eyes, I could see tons of my friends gathered around, a microphone, and a whole bunch of pictures of me posted around the room.

In the first half of the evening, each of my friends performed their “talent”.  Some read poems, some sang or danced, one made a video, and two even re-wrote the words to a Beatles song especially for me!

In the second half of the evening, I found out what the pictures of me were for (and also found out they were the goofiest, most embarrassing photos possible!): they were going to be auctioned off to the highest bidder, with all the proceeds going to charity.  My boyfriend had learned how to be a live auctioneer using YouTube, made auction paddles using wooden spoons, and had two lovely ladies to show off each photo as it came up for bid.  In the end, we raised more than $250 for a great cause.

Last year, I also used Facebook’s Causes application to encourage friends outside of Toronto to donate.  If you haven’t used it before, its pretty easy…you follow the instructions, and in 5 minutes, you’ve created a cause page and published your birthday wish for all your friends to see in your status and via invitations.  I was able to raise $425 from my generous friends who weren’t able to come to my birthday party through Facebook Causes!  Another way to do it would be to make a Because I am a Girl account, and then send the link of my fundraising page to friends and family through Facebook and email.

We’ll see what this year holds!  For those of you with January birthdays, have an amazing time!