INVASION!

Announcing Our Charities for 2009…

Thank you for the great nominations for designated charities. A live vote was held at our October planning meeting, and the results are in! MarsCon 2009 charity auction proceeds will be split evenly between the Gordy Dickson Memorial Scholarship Fund and the Twin Cities’ Second Harvest Heartland.

The Gordy Dickson Memorial Scholarship Fund was established in 2002 for three purposes: (1) To honor Gordy Dickson, local fan and science fiction and fantasy pro writer who died in 2001. (2) To collect money to send potential new writers to the Clarion Workshop for SF and fantasy writers or some other workshop. Gordy always encouraged new writers. (3) To promote accord in Twin Cities fandom by having a project that various fan clubs and individual fans can work on together. For further news and information about the fund, see sffan.org/gdmf/.

Second Harvest Heartland is Minnesota’s largest hunger-relief organization with a mission to end hunger through community partnerships. The food bank solicits and warehouses large food donations, then distributes them to its 950 non-profit member agencies and programs in 59 counties in Minnesota and western Wisconsin. Second Harvest Heartland also operates a perishable food rescue program and provides direct service to seniors and families through its supplemental nutrition programs. 96% of donations are applied directly to programs. For every $1 donation, Second Harvest Heartland is able to distribute more than $9 worth of food. For more information about Second Harvest Heartland, visit www.2harvest.org or call 651.484.5117. If you would like to contribute to Second Harvest Heartland prior to the convention, consider bringing donations of non-perishable food items to one of these drop-off locations:

1140 Gervais Avenue
Maplewood, MN 55109

3100 California Street NE
Minneapolis, MN 55418

How You Can Help

There are many ways you can support our designated charities, both before, during and after the convention. Please consider any and all of the following suggested activities:

Donate cool stuff for the charity auction! Surely you have a book, toy, service or other treasure that another fan would appreciate. Drop it off at one of our planning meetings or at the Operations desk before 10am on Sunday, and we’ll auction it off for you.
Contribute to the food drive! Bring non-perishable items such as canned or boxed food, hygiene products and cleaning supplies to the Operations desk during the convention. Donations will go directly to Twin Cities Second Harvest Heartland.
Food drive party contest! Each non-perishable item you donate to the food drive counts as one vote for the party of your choice, and you may vote as often as you like. We’ll post a giving chart by Registration so you can keep track of how well your favorite party is doing, and possibly rush out to buy more cans/items to stuff the ballot box. Voting closes at 10am Sunday, and we’ll announce the winning party at Closing Ceremonies. Make sure to include a slip of paper with your donations specifying your nomination for best party.
Participate in the charity auction! Bring your money, and bid on things. Remember you are helping two worthwhile causes.
Volunteer! You can help with setting up the charity auction. We will need runners and tabulators during the auction. Volunteers are also needed to keep track of party nominations and update the giving chart. After the convention, we will need drivers to transport food drive donations to Second Harvest.

Please help make our charitable endeavors a huge success. If you are planning to host any other charitable activities or events at MarsCon, we would be happy to include those events on our programming schedule as well. Thank you for your continued generosity!

MARSCON 2009
March 6-8
Holiday Inn Select
Bloomington, MN

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