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    • Read-A-Thons

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    Saturday, October 11th, 2008

    Horses Helping Humans

    Did you know that the 24 Hour Read-A-Thon is starting October 18th? And this year we get to pick the charity for which we want to raise money. I’ve chosen TRIPLE CREEK RANCH INC - a nonprofit therapeutic horseback riding center for kids and adults with disability. It is staffed 100% by volunteer effort!

    Triple Creek Ranch employs 6 horses and 1 mule for its programs.

    Meet the horses of Triple Creek Ranch:

    *Click on each thumbnail to enjoy a larger photo

    Casper is a 25 year old Arabian who is a retired endurance horse. Casper was donated to the program in 2007 by Sherry Bice and is the program’s smallest horse. He is often used for those students who are working on reining skills as he is very sensitive to his riders.

    Uno is a 16 y/o American Quarter Horse and former calf roping horse donated in 2006 by Shane Dunning. Uno was TCRI’s therapeutic horse of the year in 2007. He is the tallest horse at TCRI and a student favorite.

    Tuch is a 14 year old American Quarter Horse owned by Carla and Dwayne Bell and leased to Triple Creek for their programs. Tuch’s background is as a working ranch horse out of Oregon. His smooth gait and gentle temperment makes him an ideal therapeutic horse.

    Charlie is a 26 year old Polish Arab donated by Jody Peltier in 2005. Charlie’s background is as a trail rider who is also a graduate of Shasta College. He is a pro in the arena and a favorite of the students who ride at TCRI.

    Red is a 25 year old American Quarter Horse and retired ranch horse donated by Tommy Reid in 2005. Red was TCRI’s Hippotherapy horse of the year in 2007. His gentle nature and “concern” for his riders makes him an excellent choice for Hippotherapy.

    Two Brands is a 23 year old American Quarter Horse and retired mounted police horse who was donated to TCRI in 2006 by Roger Keenan. His enthusiastic spirit makes him a good horse for those students learning advanced skills.

    Ollie is a 30+ year old retired pack mule owned by Carla and Dwayne Bell and leased to Triple Creek. He is a ranch favorite and is especially helpful in teaching students grooming and tacking skills.

    Did you know that the MINIMUM cost to care for ONE horse for ONE year is approximately $3000? So if Triple Creek’s horses have no health problems, it costs approximately $21,000 to feed, and provide preventative veterinary and farrier services for them for one year.

    Triple Creek Ranch could use your help to continue providing excellent care for these amazing horses - horses who help their students to gain confidence, self-esteem, strength, balance, empathy and functional independence.

    To sponsor me during the Read-A-Thon and commit to your donation to help this worthy cause (and to learn more about Triple Creek Ranch), visit MY POST about the fundraiser and use Mr. Linky.

    Triple Creek, its students and the horses all will THANK YOU!

    **ALSO, you can win a FREE BOOK! I will be giving away a hard cover edition of The Emperor’s Children, by Claire Messud on October 19th - to learn how YOU CAN WIN, visit my post about the giveaway. (International entries accepted)

    Wednesday, October 8th, 2008

    Book Give-Away - The Emperor’s Children

    Sign up to win a HARD COVER edition of The Emperor’s Children, by Claire Messud

    Drawing will be held October 19th, 2008

    Messud’s wonderful novel was a New York Times Most Notable Book in 2006. I read it in December of 2007 and loved it (read my review). I’m giving away my hard cover copy of this book - it is like new!

    I will ship Internationally for this give-away.

    There are THREE options to enter this contest:

    I. For ONE entry - Blog about my fundraiser for Triple Creek Ranch by linking to my post about this event. Once you have blogged about the event, please come back here and leave me a comment with a link to your post.

    II. For THREE entries - SPONSOR me in the upcoming 24 Hour-Read-A-Thon on October 18th by committing to donate to my chosen Charity (Triple Creek Ranch). To do this, you must leave me a comment on this post, then go to my post about the event and sign up for your donation using Mr. Linky there - please let me know what your planned donation will be either in the comment OR with a link to your blog post about it.

    III. For FIVE entries: Do BOTH option I AND option II.

    Good luck!

    Wednesday, October 8th, 2008

    October 2008 Read-A-Thon Fundraiser

    The 24 Hour Read-A-Thon starts on October 18th and Dewey has challenged participants to raise money for the charity of their choice. I have chosen:

    TRIPLE CREEK RANCH INC

    Triple Creek Ranch Inc is a non profit, charitable organization (ID # 34-1998921) which provides therapeutic horseback riding and Hippotherapy to children and adults with emotional, learning, behavioral and physical disabilities. TCRI is a member of the  North American Riding for the Handicapped Association (NARHA) and as such follows the National standards for therapeutic riding programs and certifies all their instructors through NARHA. But, do you want to know the most amazing thing about TCRI? It is staffed 100% by VOLUNTEERS. Since its inception in the fall of 2004, TCRI has logged over 7500 volunteer hours!

    **Photos are some of students from the 2008 classes - click on images to enlarge

    TCRI helps bring smiles to the faces of its students - would you like to be a part of our team? Sign up below to sponsor me during the 24 Hour Read-A-Thon and donate to keep TCRI’s programs running!

    Consider:

    I would like to improve my “stats” from June…ideally participating for a total of 20 hours and reading at least 500 pages. To help you in choosing a way to sponsor me, here is how I fared in June:

    Any money you donate should be contributed directly to TCRI through one of two ways:

    1. Use Paypal through the TCRI donation page
    2. Send a check directly to TCRI at PO Box 493369, Redding, CA 96049-3369 (make checks payable to Triple Creek Ranch Inc.)

    To sponsor me and commit to this cause, please use Mr. Linky below to link DIRECTLY to your post about this program and your commitment. If you do not have a blog, you can simply type in your name and leave out the html code OR leave a comment on this post. I will MATCH any contributions up to at total of $100.

    THANK YOU!!!!!

    Thursday, October 2nd, 2008

    24 Hour Read-A-Thon October 2008

    October 18, 2008

    It’s that time again…the 24 Hour Read-A-Thon hosted by Dewey is just around the corner. I won’t promise to stay up for the full 24 hours, but I intend to participate.

    Beginning at Noon GMT (which converts to 5:00AM my time), the 24 Hour Read-A-Thon is a challenge includes reading, blogging, mini-challenges and prizes (check out this link for the June 2008 prize list).  Participants can choose to be Readers, Cheerleaders and Prize Donors…Dewey has definitions of each on the FAQ page for this event.

    In June, some participants helped raise money for Reading Is Fundamental (RIF). This time around, Dewey is leaving it wide open if you want to raise money for ANY charity. I’ve decided to raise money for a charity near and dear to my heart: Triple Creek Ranch Inc. is a non-profit therapeutic horseback riding center for adults and children with disability. It is fueled entirely by volunteers and is a non-profit organization. I’ll be posting how you can support this wonderful program as we get closer to the Read-A-Thon. In the meantime, do check out their website.

    I’ve already started gathering books to read for this amazing event. So far, this is what I’ve targeted:

    Will you be joining in? I hope so - it is always fun!

    Sunday, June 29th, 2008

    24 Hour Read-A-Thon: The Wrap Up

    By the time I finish this post, the 24 Hour Read-A-Thon will be finished. Phew! What an amazing event. Dewey has asked us to complete post-event survey…so here goes:

    1. Which hour was most daunting for you? The 16th hour was when I finally crashed and needed to sleep. Then when I woke up during hour 20 I was really done in. This last hour has been a struggle.

    2. Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year? I was really happy with my last book: Down River, by John Hart. It is a very good, compelling read that kept my attention despite my fatigue. I also think choosing a book of short stories is good.

    3. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year? None what-so-ever. This was a fantastic challenge - very well organized and with enough stuff to keep participants going.

    4. What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon? I thought the cheerleaders were amazing and also other participants who stopped by and left comments. I tried to visit people and leave comments because I know how much that was helping me.

    5. How many books did you read? I finished 2.5 books and read one individual short story.

    6. What were the names of the books you read?

    7. Which book did you enjoy most? Probably my current read - Down River.

    8. Which did you enjoy least? Mr. Bones - because it was a little deep and I think it is hard to appreciate deep reads during these kinds of events.

    9. If you were a Cheerleader, do you have any advice for next year’s Cheerleaders? N/A

    10. How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time? Oh, I’d definitely do this again…and I’d be a reader again.

    My final stats for the Read-A-Thon are as follows:

    Many thanks to my one lone sponsor - the fabulous Terri who is donating $30 to Reading is Fundamental (RIF). I’ve decided to match her donation to support this worthy cause…so Team Caribousmom raised $60 to help put books into the hands of children.

    Also thanks to all the cheerleaders and other participants who visited me and left comments during the challenge…and finally a HUGE thanks to Dewey who hosts this extreme event each year!

    Sunday, June 29th, 2008

    24 Hour Read-A-Thon: Closing in on 22 Hours

    I am in awe of those people who have stayed up all night - I’m barely functioning and I slept for 4 hours! Just over 2 hours left of this amazing challenge an Dewey has given us some challenges.

    1. Visit the Readers of the Hour
    2. Thank the Cheerleaders
    3. Do the post-event survey

    I’ll wait to do #3 when I’m done. But, I visited the Readers of the Hour and thanked our AWESOME cheerleaders.

    Here’s my update since my last post:

    Sunday, June 29th, 2008

    24 Hour Read-A-Thon: Hour 20 and I’m Baaaaaaack

    I meant to get up at 4:30, but somehow I did not hear my radio alarm. So instead, I woke up at 5:00AM - Hour 20. Looks like some of you have stayed up the entire night! Terri, did you really get up at 4:30 to cheer me on!??!?!? OMG - what an awesome friend you are. I’m going to brew up some coffee and get reading. Back soon….

    Sunday, June 29th, 2008

    24 Hour Read-A-Thon: An Update and Need for Sleep

    It is after midnight here on the West Coast and I’m in need of some sleep time. So this will be my final update until probably 4:30AM.

    For those of you still awake and reading - WAY TO GO! See you in a few hours.

    Saturday, June 28th, 2008

    24 Hour Read-A-Thon: Hour 15 Mini-Challenge

    I’m on a roll. Dewey’s just posted a mini-challenge for hour 15 and this will force me to choose my next book. Dewey writes:

    This hour’s mini-challenge should be easy enough for anyone interested in a short break. Where is your current book set? If it’s a real place, go to wikipedia and find five interesting facts about the place and post about it in your blog. If it’s an invented place, you may actually still find it at wikipedia, depending on the book. But if you can’t, then tell us some interesting facts about it that you picked up from the story itself.

    I’m going to start reading Down River, by John Hart (which is this year’s Edgar Winner). My hope is that it will be fast paced and thrilling. Anything to keep my eyes open! The novel is set in Rowan County, North Carolina. Here are five facts about that setting (from Wikipedia):

    1. The County was named after Matthew Rowan - the acting Governor from 1753-1754
    2. Current US Senator Elizabeth Dole is from Salisbury (located in Rowan County)
    3. The median household income as of 2000 was $37,494
    4. The county’s total area is 524 square miles of which only 2.4% is water
    5. In 2000 it boasted a population of 130,340
    Saturday, June 28th, 2008

    24 Hour Read-A-Thon: Update at Hour 14

    I had to quickly post Vasilly’s challenge to just get in under the time limit. I’m growing very weary…and my brain is getting fuzzy. I hope to make it past midnight before having to get some sleep. My update is as follows:

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