I never stop being astonished at what Thomas Stader and the Library Project accomplish. TLP is a testament to the power of good social marketing. More importantly the group delivers more than it promises.

Here is a letter from Thomas about their recent work:

I am so proud of what The Library Project has accomplished over the past three months. We have far exceeded The Library Project’s goals and expectations. There is so much to share - from an incredible and growing list of elementary schools which have benefited from new libraries to how you can get involved in helping to improve the lives of China’s rural children.

Before we start sharing our library’s successes, I would like to discuss how The Library Project is providing assistance to the people affected by the recent earthquake in China. On May 12, 2008 China experienced a 7.9 earthquake in Sichuan Province, located in central China, 70,000 people died, and over five million people were left homeless. Thousands of elementary schools were damaged in Sichuan, Gansu, and Shaanxi Provinces. The Library Project will continue to do all we can by providing books and libraries to elementary schools and orphanages by way of our new 2008 Earthquake Program. The Library Project will be providing our first libraries to six “tent schools” located 25 km from the epicenter. To learn more about this program, please click here.

Over the past three months The Library Project created twenty-five school libraries and donated more than thirty thousand books. Each of the twenty-five schools received a wide range of high quality children’s books including: history, science, short stories, fairy tales, reference books and comics. We also provided a full set of children’s encyclopedias for older students and pinyin language books for the kids just learning to read. The Library Project also provided colorful child-safe tables and chairs, posters and a world globe to all the classroom and/or library rooms.

These fabulous new libraries are located throughout China in the countryside of Shaanxi, Anhui, and Gansu Provinces. At each library site, The Library Project held book drives, which collected over thirty thousand quality second-hand books from local donors. We also purchased over ten thousand first-hand books from Xin Hua Books Stores at just $1 a book.

In addition to books and supplies, the school librarians received library management training. Since most rural elementary schools have never had a single book in their libraries our Librarian Training Program gets them up to speed starting day one.

The Library Project is very happy to announce that Scott Perkins and Nicholas Ingleton have joined our Board of Directors. Scott Perkins is President and CEO of Connectify Networks based in San Francisco, California. Nicholas Ingleton has lived in Asia for 50 years and currently is a director of Aston Holdings (Overseas) Limited in Hong Kong and Aston Associates Limited in Beijing. I am honored to have them a part of our growing team.

In addition to providing libraries to twenty-five elementary schools in rural China, we have had over twenty small awareness and fundraising events since March. Our volunteers hosted most of these events around Asia and the world. For example, Celia held an all women’s wine tasting in Beijing that raised enough funds for one library. Siok Siok Tan has been doing charity screenings of her new documentary on the 2008 Beijing Olympics, “Booming Beijing” and raised enough funds for five libraries. Sophia and Eric organized an event at Kommune (great Ozzie BBQ) and a lecture on ”rural education in China” at the Glamour Bar, both in Shanghai. We raised enough funds at these two events for libraries in two different rural elementary schools. I would also like to thank everyone that came out to our San Francisco, Phoenix and New Jersey events. We raised enough for seven libraries during that USA fundraising run! Finally, a huge thank you goes out to Napoleon and Marcel in Hong Kong for organizing our lecture at Web Wednesdays and the XL Results Foundation. We raised enough for three libraries at these events. Thank you everyone for your hard work and dedication!

WE NEED YOUR HELP

There are three ways to get involved:

Help by spreading the word. You can help out in so many ways. Forward this newsletter to your friends, family members and coworkers, make a post on your MySpace page, blog to help raise awareness for The Library Project, or join our Facebook Group by clicking here. You can also help by hosting a small event at your home, work or local restaurant. . If you need help organizing a fundraiser, please contact me anytime at tom at library-project.org. Thank you!

Help by volunteering. You can make a huge difference in the lives of countless children in the developing world by becoming a volunteer. There are so many different ways to volunteer: you can throw a wine tasting or dinner to introduce The Library Project to others, hang a poster above the water cooler at your office, or introduce us to your company’s HR Department.

Help by making a donation. Without money, we can’t buy books. At a dollar a book, most of us can afford to buy 10, 20 or even 100 books. Make a donation and help bring the gift of education to countless children. Our libraries generally contain about 500 - 1000 books, thus every donated book (or dollar) helps!

Lastly, please check out some of our new products. We created 50 book, 100 book, 250 book and 500 book gift cards available at $1 a book. Each card also has a beautiful picture of a library we have donated. The gift cards are a perfect gift idea.

The Library Project is a non-profit organization. Your donation is 100% tax deductible. Thank you in advance for your kind support of our efforts.

Sincerely,
Tom Stader
The Library Project
Founder

STAY AWAKE WITH THE DREAMBLOGUE ON 9-9-08! to benefit Charity!

08年9月9号，为慈善与DREAMBLOGUE齐通宵！

The survivor-thon is a way to celebrate triumph over adversity and to support those on the same path!

生存者马拉松是一种庆祝和支持人们战胜逆境的方式。

PLEASE JOIN US NOW!

马上加入我们吧！

The Seven Steps to a Highly Successful Survivor-thon:

七个步骤，举办一个成功的生存者马拉松：

For a detailed version, please see below.

下面将有一个更为详尽的版本。

1. The survivor-thon is a one-day, 24-hour event that celebrates individual triumph over adversity. It begins on 9-9-08, but the real work begins now!

生存者马拉松是一个持续一天二十四小时，给所有战胜逆境的个人祝捷的活动。这项活动将于9月9号启动，但实际的工作现在就得开始。

2. Supporters should install the application and begin testing our new social broadcasting application for us.

支持者需要先安装应用程序，然后开始帮我们测试这项新的社会传播应用程序。

3. Purchase the film Boomtown Beijing or the other products we have on offer, make a donation to one of the charities, involve friends, family and businesses through pledges for every hour you are awake (or trying to be) and posting messages, photos and stories of success during the survivor-thon.

购买电影北京沸腾或者我们提供的其他产品，为其中一个慈善团体捐款，让亲朋好友、生意伙伴赞助您保证为生存者马拉松醒着（或努力尝试醒着）发表信息，照片及成功故事的每个小时，让他们都参与到这项活动中。

You will support for the cause of your choice (we will offer 3 options on the site) and your sponsors or you can send the gifts directly to the charities through Paypal.

您可以支持您选择的慈善事业（我们将在网站提供3个选择），您和您的赞助者可以通过支付宝把爱心直接送到该慈善团体手里。

The recruitment of survivor-thon supporters and participants, by you, will begin on the 8th day of the 8th month of the 8th year at 8 o’clock AM China time. We will have a month to gather steam, sell promotional items and the all-day Thon will be held on September 9th.

您将在08年8月8日北京时间8点开始招募生存者马拉松支持者与参加者。这样，我们就有一个月来汇集各方力量，卖出宣传产品。全天的马拉松将于9月9号开始。

The all-night Thon starts on the 9th at 9:00 AM (9 represents endurance and overcoming adversity in the east) and ends at 9:00 on the 10th, China time.

通宵的马拉松在中国时间9号早上9点开始（9在东方代表持久和克服困境），19号早上9点结束。

4. Use this special application: (http://www.new.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=35756756576) designed to coordinate all pledges and make our cause fun!

我们运用特别的应用程序：(http://www.new.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=35756756576) 管理所有的保证，让您的行善之路充满乐趣。

5. Please invite a few friends every day so you are able to get familiar with the application before full recruitment begins on the 8th. Then please invite up to 20 a day! You will find it very easy and very fun to use. You can sign on, invite people early and even buy Dreamblogue products during any time (you mighty want to consider the Yunnan Coffee if you will be staying awake for the Thon in Sept!)

请每天邀请一些朋友参加。这样，您就能在8号全面招募开始之前对这款应用软件比较熟悉了。全面招募开始以后，请每天邀请最少20人！您会发现它使用起来轻松又有趣。您可以提早报名参加，邀请朋友，甚至可以在任何时间购买Dreamblogue产品（如果您要在9月通宵马拉松的时候保持清醒，或许您可以考虑购买云南咖啡）

6. This micro-love project is created by the 2-year old Dreamblogue and will offer products for sale and made by economically disadvantaged districts in China. The purchase of Dreamblogue products are encouraged but not required. Profits made will support projects like the survivor-thon and the Dreamblogue abled-intern Program. For more information about the Dreamblogue and what it does, please visit: http://blogofdreams.com/

这项 Micro-love 计划是由两岁大的Dreamblogue 创立的。我们鼓励您购买Dreamblogue产品，但这不是强制的。销售产品的利润将用于支持生存者马拉松，Dreamblogue 残疾实习生计划等的慈善项目。更多关于Dreamblogue及Dreamblogue所从事活动的内容，请浏览：http://blogofdreams.com/

7. Embed codes for your website and your Facebook are available after you sign on. Please add them and encourage others to do the same.

在您报名以后，请您在您的网页或Facebook个人主页中嵌入应用程序的代码，并鼓励其他人也这样做。

***************************

The top 10 Recruiters will get 10 hours of free consultation and planning each for a media campaign of their choosing for a product, service or cause!

头10名招募者每人可以就自己选择的产品、服务、慈善事业等的媒体宣传策略获得10小时免费的策划咨询。

The top 50 recruiters by 9-9-08 will receive a special gift from survivor-thon. (It is INCREDIBLY special).

头50名招募者将在9月9号获得由生存者马拉松送出的特别礼物（真的是无与伦比的特别啊……）

And for an incentive: We will give away $1,000,000,000 IN REAL MONEY (Yep it is a gimmick, but one you will value….more on that later) to the top recruiter in the Thon…
作为鼓励：我们将送出 $1,000,000,000 现金给本马拉松的最佳招募者……（您猜对了，这是个小花招，但您也会觉得它物有所值的……稍后再详细说明）____________________________________________

The money will be a unique social awareness exercise all its own…The billion dollars is from Zimbabwe a country devastated by corruption, inflation and a shortage of staple foods.
这些钱本身就是一个唤醒您社会意识的独特方式。这几十亿来自津巴布韦，一个深受政府腐败、通货膨胀及粮食缺乏摧残的国家。

The Whole Story:

完整版本

This is the planning group for those that will be involved in the World Survivor-thon ( WST) as group sponsors, developers, designers and volunteers….
这是生存者马拉松（WST）的筹办小组，专为这项马拉松小组的赞助人，开发人，设计者和志愿者而设。

Please read all of this so you understand that we hope to benefit the causes.
请阅读以下整篇文章，您就会明白，我们仅仅希望能使您的慈善事业受益。

Here is the latest (and greatest) news! :
以下是我们最新（和最大）的新闻！：

When:
We start recruiting supporters right away! We start raising money for our causes right away with sales of the movie Boomtown Beijing and other great products.

The survivor-thon RECRUITMENT will begin on the 8th day of the 8th month in the 8th year — regarded as the most auspicious day in Asia this century. You can help recruit participants for our all-night THON that will start on 9-9 at 9:00 (nine symbolized courage and endurance) and run for 24 hours.
时间：
生存者马拉松的招募活动将开始于08年8月8日— 亚洲本世纪最吉祥的一天。你能帮助我们为这项通宵马拉松招募参与者。本马拉松将于9月9号9：00 开始（9代表勇气及长久），持续24小时。

Who:
Groups and organizations on Face book that will celebrate a 24 hour survivor-thon, that encourage the success of people who have triumphed through personal, physical, medical, military or environmental trauma or to those onto the same path. This event is supported by the dream blog which has for 2 years provided support to survivors of cancer, natural disasters like the Sichuan quake, orphans, children from low-income families, and newly-abled interns and those with literacy needs.
人物：
Facebook 上的群体和组织将投入到一个24小时的“生存者马拉松”活动，鼓舞更多的人去战胜由个人经历，健康，医疗，军事或环境造成的创伤。这项活动将由您来赞助，Dream Blog 提供支持。Dream Blog 已连续两年为癌症、自然灾害（如四川大地震）的幸存者，孤儿以及低收入家庭的儿童，还有残疾的实习生提供支持与帮助。

What:
The 24hr survivor-thon will enable individual Facebook groups help us raise money for worthy causes.
What does the group get in return? Besides the satisfaction of a job well-done for good causes (The Library Project, The Reading Tub, The Dreamblogue, The Sichuan Volunteer Teachers and The League of Extraordinary Chinese Women Cancer Fund) the top ten recruiter may select a group to whom we will give 10 hours of consultation and support to create their own viral campaign using Involver (the application) and social media releases.

Currently we will be selling Coffee from quake affected Yunnan, Hats with our logo made in Guangdong where 1.2 million were displaced by flooding and a documentary movie about the Olympics made by our good friend Siok Siok Tan.
事件：
这项24小时“生存者马拉松”能帮助各种慈善团体为各自的慈善目的筹款。注意：我们将添加一个到GUIDESTAR的链接。（Guidestar是一个列出及评价了超过一百五十万个慈善团体的小组）参与者可以指导他们的赞助人点击链接GUIDESTAR(http://www.guidestar.org/index.jsp)，然后他们就可以对苏珊•柯曼，蓝斯•岩士唐，红十字会以及其他一百五十万个慈善小组的任何一个作出一次性或长期的保证，然后透过一个安全的渠道为自己的保证付款。这样，捐款就能确保不落入任何与马拉松直接相关的人员手里。我们愿意为任何没有在Guidestar上列出的团体提供链接，只要您提供该可靠慈善组织的图像和支付宝链接。
另外：我们将借助社会传媒的力量售卖来自贫困社区及Dreamblogue实习生计划—庇护工场的宣传产品。我们希望有一天能为全世界其他慈善团体的销售品创造出一个数码市场。因此，要是您希望添加产品到马拉松的话，请务必通知我们！
目前，我们将销售产自受地震重创的云南的咖啡，产自海南岛的咖啡，产自有一百二十万人后因洪灾被迫迁移的广东、印有我们标记的帽子，以及由我们的好朋友Siok Siok Tan制作的关于北京奥运的纪录片。

Where:
The event will be primarily on Facebook, and also in other social networks like Twitter and blogs for the 30-days leading up to the THON. We are using a great application called INVOLVER to help you recruit. It is a fun application, please get familiar with it by the launch on the 8th! During the actual 24-hour Thon, participants must SMS or direct update their blog, profile or the comments section on the Cause page once in an hour. We will ask a question each hour if you get stumped The WST will re-post the best we discover throughout the WST on the BLOG OF DREAMS.
地点：
在马拉松前，这项持续30天的招募活动将主要在Facebook进行，也会利用其他的网络沟通工具如Twitter，博客等。我们还会利用一个叫INVOLVER的应用程序来帮助您招募。这个应用程序十分有趣，我们将在一两天内向您发出邀请。这样，您在8号招募开始之前就能对这款应用程序比较熟悉。马拉松正式开始后，参与者必需每小时通过短信或者直接在他们的博客、个人资料或INVOLVER上的评论区更新。“生存者马拉松”将在BLOG OF DREAMS上再次发表本活动中的最佳评论。

Why:
The survivor-thon has 3 aims:
•To Link together people across globe who want to celebrate a global spirit of charity and cooperation
•To test this new way for groups to make money or promote a film or idea for their own needs
•To use the sales of the dreamblogue’s high-quality promotional items to assist its efforts for their abled-intern program.
理由：
“生存者马拉松”有三个目标：
• 凝聚全球有志于发扬国际慈善合作精神的人
• 帮助各个慈善机构为自己的慈善目的筹款
• 通过销售 Dream Blog 的优质宣传产品，建立一个以中国为大本营的数码庇护工场， 支持和帮助全球各地的慈善活动；指导非政府/非盈利组织以及其他慈善机构如何创造和营销产品、信息和服务，并分发到全球各地，以这种方式持续为他们的工作筹款。

How:
• We are using one of the coolest social media related apps on Facebook. You will love INVOLVER!
• We ambitiously hope for many people involved on Face book and other websites, where we will re-post pictures, status updates and stories of hope, humor and inspiration.
• Participants will be able to encourage friends, families and Businesses to sponsor them for each hour they are awake and posting. Participants and sponsors will send raised money will send it via the Dreamblogue Paypal Page .
• We will give away donated gifts through our applications on Facebook and also randomly during the WST on BLOG OF DREAMS.
方式：
• 我们将使用Facebook上与社会媒体相关最酷的应用程序之一—INVOLVER。 您会爱上它的！
• 我们热切希望能有许多人通过Facebook和其他一些网站参与到这项活动。我们将在这些网站上再次发表活动中的一些图片、资料更新，以及一些幽默、带给人希望或灵感的故事。
• 所有在Dreamblog上注册的用户都可以发表他们博客的链接，并对我们在世界各地发现和发表的东西，以及网页上的RSS反馈发表评论。
• 参与者可以鼓励朋友、家人以及商业团体赞助自己醒着更新的每个小时。当然，他们首先要声明这些钱将用于何处，但所有个人筹得的善款都将被送到参与者自己选择的慈善团体。筹得善款以后，参与者将亲自把钱交到慈善团体手中。
• 在“生还者马拉松”期间，我们会通过Facebook上的应用软件以及在BLOG OF DREAMS的WST页上随机派发几千份捐赠的礼物。

The survivor-thon will hopefully make the money it needs by charging for promotional items participants choose, like hats, coffees and ethnic items….
“生还者马拉松”将销售参与者选择的衬衫、咖啡和富有民族特色的产品如手镯等宣传产品，为庇护工场筹取经费。

Why should you join?
•To be a founding creator of an event that uses the Internet for social good and promotes engagement and charity
•To learn more about Involver, and to see if the application can be used for your group.
•We aspire to a set aside monies for a world gift shop with items from NGOs/NPOs around the globe, where the biggest percentage of the monies can return to the creators of the goods.
为什么要参加？
•您可以成为第一个利用互联网推广社会公益，增加社会对慈善事业参与度的活动的基金创始人。
•您可以免费帮助培训世界各地的非政府/非盈利组织利用数码技术发展慈善事业。我们将指导任何想增加可见度、扩大商业市场的群体关于公关、搜索引擎市场营销、图片设计和升华印染技术方面的知识。
•我们将努力为非政府/非盈利组织以及其他的慈善筹款机构举办互联网峰会，教会他们使用广为全球商业工业采用的公关市场营销，搜索引擎营销以及广告宣传技术。
•我们希望能成为一个世界性的礼品店，专门售卖来自全球各地非政府/非盈利组织的物品，然后将80%-90%的盈利返还给这些团体。
Why we ask you to belong to the planning group?
Because you are the leader of a group who can make a difference in the lives of thousands of survivors. You can learn more about raising money for your own group and at the same time be a part of an international phenomenon.
为什么要加入这个群？
因为您将成为facebook上面一个可以改变千千万万的人生活的群的领导者。您将对建立全球首个数码慈善工场有直接贡献。您可以为了您自己的慈善团体筹款，同时成为一个国际化现象的组成部分之一。

We hope to create ongoing survivor-thons every few months for interested groups, and we need your ideas on how to attract donations and get people involved on a long-term basis.
我们希望能为有兴趣的团体每半年举办“生存者马拉松”，因此，我们需要您在吸引捐款，增加人们的长期参与度等方面的建议。

Admittedly, this is our first time; it will be basic in the beginning.
诚然，这是我们第一次筹办这类活动，开始的时候都只限于基本的活动。

Groups under 5000 people can message their members to join the cause. For the groups that have over 5000 members, we can help you to create separate events where only you can invite people to join.
5000人以下的群可以直接通知成员加入这项活动。对于5000人以上的群，我们将在 上创建一些独立的活动，让您能邀请其他人参加。然后，

Every group and every individual involved would get listed on our website. CFM, a worldwide web marketing company, will do all PR, SEO and promotion at no charge.
所有参加本活动的群体和个人 都将在我们的网站上列出。CFM，一间国际性的网络营销公司，免费负责所有的公关、搜索引擎优化以及宣传。不博取任何成为赞助商的宣传效果。

There is a new blog in town. China Golf and has courses from around China featured on its pages. Soon, about 300 courses from around China will be featured on the site with prices, play dates and more.

新的博客来了:中国高尔夫 ,在上面有中国各地的高尔夫球场的信息

网站很快会提供大概300多个遍布中国的高尔夫场的信息 包括价格,场地数据等等

China Golf : Hainan, Mission Hills, Sanya, Great Wall Golf Tours

中国高尔夫:海南,观澜湖,三亚,长城高尔夫之旅

A couple of days ago my girlfriend HuaDi went to He Yuan city, China on a business trip, where she witnessed the first hand beauty of this marvelous fountain known as the biggest one in Aisa. The height of this gorgeous fountain is 169 meters, or 554 feet tall. The giant tall fountain is located in Xinfengjiang forest park in He Yuan.

几天前我的女朋友华Di去了中国的梅州市出差,在那里她看到河源亚洲第一高的喷泉.这座美丽的喷泉169米高,也就是554英寸.喷泉坐落于河源的新丰江森林公园

See the magnificent fountain below

看看下面这座宏伟的的喷泉的图

To get a better view of the fountain, refer to this video I found on Metacafe

想看清楚点的话,下面我找到个在Metacafe的视频,也是这个喷泉的.

[metacafe 849525]

I met this morning with two Chinese Sea Turtles: both recent graduates of the University of Michigan. They are part of the organizing team for a new NGO with a powerful mission. They are tasked with providing teachers and training for 100 children orphaned by the Sichuan earthquake and now living in Beijing, aiding schools in the quake zone that have teacher needs, and the giving of time and talent to a hospital for young amputees in Chengdu.

今天早上我和两个中国的“海归”见面.他们都是密歇根大学的毕业生,现在在一个非政府组织的组织队伍里工作.这个新的非政府组织现在有一项新的任务-为100个现在住在北京,在四川地震中变成孤儿的孩子提供老师和培训,支援灾区急需老师的学校,以及利用他们的时间和能力在一间成都的医院为截肢者提供服务

I too have been part of the planning committee and have volunteered my Internet and educational skills to help recruit short-term and long-term help for the group.

我也一直是组织委员会的一分子,利用我的互联网和教育技能,义务为团队招募短期和长期队员提供帮助.

Teachers in every discipline and at every level of education are needed for in-province and Internet distance learning. English teachers will not need a to speak Chinese, but other disciplines will require fluency in the subject matter.

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现在我们需要各个学科和各教育水平的老师参与到省内和互联网的远程教学中.英语老师不要求会说中文,但是其他学科的老师需要能用的流利中文进行授课

Volunteers who feel they need preparation before heading into Sichuan and other affected areas will be trained in teaching methods, first aid, trauma counseling and critical incident stress de-briefing.

对于觉得在去四川和其他受灾地区之前需要一些准备的志愿者,我们会提供教育方法,急救,心里创伤咨询, 危机情况压力处理减压方面的训练.

You may leave your name, email, and teaching area of interest and in the comments section of this post if you’d like to be contacted. Your information will not be published on this blog. You will be emailed and asked for a resume and your expected availability so we can best match you to schools/students. Volunteers may come for training and a visit of the area before accepting an assignment.

如果你有兴趣和我们联系,你可以在这篇文章的评论区留下你的名字,电子邮箱,和刚兴趣的教育领域.你的信息不会在这博客上发表.我们会通过发邮件来索取你的履历和你能工作的时间.这样我们可以最好的安排你到最适合的学校,教最适合的学生.志愿者在决定接受工作前可以先来进行培训和去将要的工作地点观看

A tribute to the victims Called Love and Hope and written by popular singer JJ. You don’t need to know the language to understand this video rife with both heart-wrenching and triumphant images familiar to those of us living here.

这是一段向受害者表示敬意的视频,名字叫做爱与希望,作曲人是流行歌手林俊杰.就算你不懂歌曲的语言,你也能感受到其中令人心痛欲绝的情感和鼓舞人心的力量.

1.4 Million people in 4,000 villages were financially ruined by the earthquake ongoing aftershocks. There is much to be done for several years to come.

持续着的地震余震使4000多个村庄的1400多万人蒙受巨大的财产损失,在未来的几年,我们依然有很多的工作需要做

This picture was taken at Detian Falls in Guangxi, China by Robert Daboss

这是一张Robert Daboss在中国广西德天瀑布照的图片

It has been a year since we began this blog!!! We have traveled, written, photographed and even started a business to help fund this adventure–more on that one day soon. It has been amazing and we love China even more than we did when we started.

We have had a rough few weeks for a number of reasons. The toughest thing to recover from was a spam hack of the site. I think we are OK again, but we lost a lot of pages to a security flaw in Wordpress. We are still working to get everything back.

You have helped immensely and we are asking you to give us a few minutes one more time!

At the bottom of tis post please comment and tell us why YOU love China. And help us reach the goal of becoming one of the longest comment threads on the net.

About us for those who are new:

For a year has been a place where we have posted positive stories, pictures, travel adventures and announcements about ways to help where help is needed.

All ad proceeds from the site are immediately donated to the Library Project which now has an earthquake rebuild fund.

The Dreamblogue is one long-term solution to this tragedy and any others that may come our way. It is also a way to support positive projects in China like the Library Project’s commitment to orphanages and rural communities.

We don’t ask for donations ever. We do ask that you send us original photos that we can post, keep us informed about great stories and do five simple things:

1. Favorite the blog on Technorati by going here:

TECHNORATI

We want The China Dreamblogue to be the #1 favorited blog on the planet. How great would that be?? It will take about 10,000 favorites to make that happen.

2.Comment on our “Why I Love China” post. We want to set a world record for longest comment thread in cyber-space.

3. Link to us on your own blogs. We will have badges later on, but for now a text link will do it.

4. Invite your friends here to ILC! so we can have a place to announce when other groups, like now, need your support. And feel free to post any needs and connections that fit with this goal!

5. Add this post to your favorite Social network: Facebook, Digg, Stumble….

We are already #1 in many key words on Google and Baidu for China Travel, China Pics and such. As we get bigger and stronger we will expand the site, so people can find only engaging and positive information about the country we all love.

Help us get to #1 and we’ll try to help people for years to come in China….

<h1>UPDATE </h1>

You can also help us by joining our group on Facebook: A Million People who Love China.

It has been a short two years since I first encountered David DeGeest. I met him shortly after he came to an exchange program’s rescue by traveling to China to replace a teaching fellow who could not accept the annual honor. The volunteers from Grinnell College, one of America’s top liberal arts schools, are competitively selected by Grinnell’s office of Social Commitment and spend one to two years in cultural education pursuits around the world. In order to come, David had to first surrender admission to a law school in America and then join Grinnell’s long tradition of International humanitarian service–unequaled in numbers by any college of any size.

Within a few months of his arrival David was forced by local immigration laws to leave his duties because host and parent institutions had failed to make the proper arrangements for his visa. He spent four months of uncomfortable nights on my sofa in Guangzhou waiting to return and finish what he had started. During his layoff David made use of his time in ways that would soon change him, and those around him, forever.

“Dawei ” as he fast became known by his admiring students, fervently studied Chinese, gave freely of his time to help an insecure translation student edit several hundred pages in a world-class set of books on Chinese Penjing (the parent art of Bonsai), served as an administrative assistant for the interim CEO of China’s top corporate leadership training company, studied Taekwondo with Macau’s Olympic Team players, wrote articles on his experiences in China for the Blogger News Network and became the beloved “American Son” of the Unsinkable Ms Yue, the cancer survivor who, along with The League of Extraordinary Chinese Women, would become the inspiration for this blog.

During his stay in Guangzhou his association with Ms Yue inspired his voluntary, and uncompensated, co-teaching of college classes on blogging, SEO and International e-Business. It was in in concert with his students that he co-developed the Dreamblogue and helped write and promote the Onemanbandwidth blog that won the Best Blog in Asia prize at the annual Weblog Awards in 2006.

By the time he returned to Guangzhou, after finishing his fellowship assignment, he had a deep and abiding love for China, one that permeated his personal and professional aspirations.

Within a few months David, once again sleeping on the sofa, had written more than 50,000 words in support of the Dreamblogue in the form of: grant proposals to Global Voices Online, and the Knight and MacArthur Foundations. He drafted sponsorship support proposals for colleges in the UK and the US; authored PR Web releases about our mission; sent out hundreds of e-mails to potential supporters (not donors as we decided never to accept funds directly); developed project profiles on social networking sites; created several successful groups on Facebook; corresponded and coordinated activities with intended recipients of our charity; edited and revised over 22 articles about the mainland provinces we intended to visit; and trained handicapped and able-bodied interns in the subtleties of SEO and online networking.

David helped transformed my apartment into a two-man hermitage where he literally spent 15 to 20 hours a day, carpals to the keyboard, in preparation for dreamblogue adventures. The only breaks he took were to watch reruns of House, M.D. (while he kept editing and planning) and to play an occasional round of online Scrabble. Chinese studies continued and Mr. DeGeest devoured dozens of books on Chinese history, business, language and culture while learning podcasting, photography, HTML coding and more. He spent a few weekends traveling the roads running through rural China and wrote beautifully of the magical work of the Library Project, the Volunteer English Program and the US-China Medical Foundation.

David made his spending and food money by teaching corporate communication classes for one of China’s top companies. Later, the generous support of students and staff of the best pound-for-pound MBA program on the planet, Cal Poly, kept us traveling, writing and promoting…

…until David realized that a more sustainable income was needed. Being in a country where non-governmental charities cannot be officially sanctioned, David pointed us toward creating money the old-fashioned way: earning our keep by giving something for something and then turning any profits into good works. He suspended travel in hopes of bringing in much needed funds.

We started offering SEO services to SMEs and Multi-nationals. It was during this time that David learned that Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has a long maturation period ahead of it and is not always born of true good will or altruistic intentions. David was lied to, cheated and humiliated by some of the most high-profile advocates of engagement and good on the Internet. It was enough, at times, to make a saint doubt his world-view. But, he always looked for the good that came of his efforts and the fantastic people he met along the Internet Superhighway

Years ago, there was talk of a self-perpetuating machine…If he could have figured out a way to not take a food break daily he would have.

After we were contacted last year by a Fortune 100 company in Silicon Valley, David was certain that we would have the money we needed to help our interns and continue this blog’s original goal to promote rural education, literacy, charity and a positive understanding of China through travel and blogging.

The call I mentioned, and subsequent promises from Silicon Valley, were cleverly crafted lies that cost both of us hundreds of hours of labor and all of our savings. Culture Fish Media was born to accommodate the wishes of a company that we now know never meant to follow through with assistance. But, David learned much from the ordeal and undaunted, kept right on writing the blog, managing the photo group on Facebook (it now has amateurs and professionals lending him their work), writing business plans and teaching 20 hours a week at a college as a China certified foreign expert in education and culture –did I also mention he filled in for free when graduate professors in South China’s best University needed a replacement in Literary Studies?And he tirelessly campaigned for a chance to carry the torch in the Olympic relay (a glitch in the Lenovo voting software cost him a slot) as a tribute to the cancer victims to whom he had dedicated so much time (his essay is still in the top five results that come up on Baidu for “Olympic Torch Dream”)… He did all of this while negotiating with respected country and international marketing managers, answering digital marketing request for proposals, and optimizing small and formidable websites with only two, 3-day vacation breaks the entire time: one was to Yangshuo where he spent half of his time working on the computer and the other half in playful contemplation…

David went from reticent, inquisitive new graduate to passionate liaison engaged in negotiations with world renowned companies, service providers, Internet luminaries and educational institutions. He practiced and succeeded at tasks, with a BA in Math and English, that MBA students only dream of tackling….No, it wasn’t all work and no play–almost–and yes, there were cherished moments of complete frivolity:

There is more, but I will save that for future posts and maybe even a book. Many of his well-researched proposals are still making their way through the digestive tracks of various commercial and organizational enterprises–and anything that is achieved by the BOD, or its soon to be retired offspring, is directly due to David’s perseverance and dedication.

I’ve read several stories on the Internet this week bemoaning the lack of medical care in China, the widening gap between rich and poor, and descriptions of the continuing disasters in north and the south that have devastated China. We have a “surviverthon” scheduled for October that will aid the blog’s regular charities and contribute to cancer and disaster survivors. While some people may think the fforts are new others know that David started work two years ago trying to make life better for those challenged by cancer, flooding, poverty, earthquakes and lack of educational opportunities. Just ask Thomas Stader of the Library project what part David’s viral marketing gifts played in the building of numerous libraries this year in orphanages and rural communities throughout China. The first 400 members of the Facebook group devoted to their project were in some way connected to David and the BOD. And he has never asked for credit.

David has been my colleague, student, family member, friend and valued counsel. The only thing he has ever wanted in return for his efforts is that people would socially network his honest requests, give a few minutes of time and space on blogs (which he knows are valuable), and share when and where they could of their time and talents.

And before he sounds a little too altruistic to be true, you need to know what has been in this for him: He has selfishly wanted Ms Yue and the League of Extraordinary Chinese Women to live longer, he has wanted a new prosthetic leg for “Coffee” and he has wanted Chinese students to be able to achieve dreams of a better life.

He is off now to graduate school in pursuit of an MBA en route to a finance/Business PhD so he can teach at the University level. Some farsighted college needs to be putting in an early bid for his services.

Thanks David.

Post Script:

One of my favorite stories of the year was David’s first short return to the US after the visa issues. It involved his bewly learned ability to communicate with his adopted Chinese mom, Ms Yue, and her unique language. It seems appropriate to end with it here:
Read on »

An update for new readers and a reminder for long-time fans: we regularly publish photos from our readers and group members who want to show others the interesting, curious, creepy, unusual, mysterious, elegant, odd, lovely, frumpy, and otherwise fantastic China that they have found from behind the lens. We publish work from beginners to veterans of photography, and our only requirements are that you only send us photos you have taken.

Some examples:

These first photos come from the China Photo Contest group on Facebook and were posted by Robert DaBoss.

These next photos come from our Facebook group A Million People Who Love China and were posted by Elisabeth Rowley Mitchell.

To see your photos here, post your photos first on the Blog of Dreams’ associated groups on Facebook: China Photo Contest and A Million People Who Love China. We will feature weekly photos on the blog from each group and from any part of China and its autonomous regions. Stories, anecdotes, notes about context, and information about the location where the photo was taken are more than welcome.

All money raised as a result of views of these photos and click-throughs on ads for these sites go directly to the Library Project and the Library Project Earthquake Relief Fund, a China charity now leading a campaign focused on helping to rebuild libraries and schools.