The Power of Fandom

So a few days ago, @jarpad announced on Twitter that he and Genevieve will be having a baby. Apparently some people wanted to send gifts, and he asked for donations to St. Jude Children's Hospital instead. Someone started an official fundraiser, and in 12 hours, they'd raised $3,700 for cancer research.

Part of me thinks that's incredible. Sometimes entertainment seems so frivolous, and our focus on celebrity ridiculous. And then it's turned into something so beneficial and powerful. The ease with which a group can be incited to do good is astounding.

Part of me wonders why we need to be incited. Why do we leap into action just because some tall, good-looking, good-natured guy asks us to? Why is his request more worthy than the little entreaty cards we get in the mail every other day? Is it just because we want him to think well of us?

I hope that's not it. I hope it's more that there is so much need in this world, and we're bombarded with requests and get jaded because it seems so impossible. The focus by someone we admire makes it easy.

In reality, it's probably a combination of the two, and that's okay. The children being helped by that money don't care why it was given, after all.

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If you'd like to participate in this specific fundraiser, click here. They are just shy of $8,000 toward the goal of $20,000.