All the Perl that's Practical to Extract and Report

Triple Your Charitable Donation

mattriffle on 2004-11-02T16:05:57

[Disclaimer: I do realize I'm pushing an American organization to an international audience. Research is universal, though.]

Well, it was 2 months ago today that I last posted. That post contributed to the irritation of a former pumpking slash maintainer of the CPAN.

Where does one go from there? Why, now I'm here to ask for money. ;)

My wife and I have joined the American Stroke Association's Train To End Stroke program. In a nutshell, we are raising $7600 for the ASA, and training to run a half-marathon this coming January.

You can read all about our efforts here:

http://www.jennandmatt.com/ttes

Here are a few facts about stroke, copied from there:

  • Every 45 seconds, someone in America has a stroke.
  • 700,000 people will suffer a stroke this year.
  • 170,000 people will be killed this year by a stroke.
  • According to one study, nearly 1/3 of stroke victims are under age 65.

Let me get the Perl hook in at this point -- I'm offering to double-match any donations I receive through this posting. For instance, if you donate $50 through the secure link at the URL above, I will donate an additional $50 to the ASA, plus another $50 to the Perl Foundation (up to $600 total donation on my part).

I should also note that if you itemize on your tax return, the donation is deductible.

So, why are we doing this? In part it's because we wanted a structured program to get in better shape, honestly. But the research the ASA is doing is very important, most of all.

My family lost my Aunt Janet to stroke when she was still in her thirties. I was a small child at the time, and my only memories of her are fragments of a trip we took to her house in Michigan a year or two before she died.

  • Her being exasperated as my first shot at the mini-golf course skipped out of play and in to the parking lot.
  • Her being exasperated as my misinterpretation of her shower instructions resulted in the bath mat in the shower, and a flooded bathroom.
  • Her being exasperated as I finished a McDonald's hamburger (a feat for me in those days) only to promptly throw it back up after gagging on a stray onion (still don't like those) that was in the last bite.

As you can see, I was pretty exasperating in those days. I'd like to think I'm not now, and I wish she were here to see that.

The point is, given the statistics, every day there are a bunch of little kids like I was, suffering similar losses. I can't help my Aunt; I can try to help others. So that's why I'm here asking for money.

Thanks for listening.

-Matt