My Tribute To The Blogging Community's Response to Nie Nie

Can I just say, again and again, how delighted/impressed/touched/amazed I am by the response from you, the internet community? At last report, I heard that since Nie Nie Day, over $117,000 has been donated to the Nie Recovery Fund. The vast majority of that from auctions, in smallish increments like $50 to $100, and the remaining from good people that didn't win an auction, but wanted to contribute anyway.

This has truly been a grass roots effort. There was no ad campaign, no email blast, no newsletter to get people to start auctions and fundraising. Just one simple post. And then you took that idea and ran with it. You spread the word on your own blogs, in your emails, and through your conversations with friends. You raised a lot of money in a very short period of time. You shared your enthusiasm and your generosity. $50 earrings going for $110. Gift certificates worth $150 going for $250. A blog post written by Stephanie's brother going for over $800. And 99% of you have never met Stephanie or Christian in real life.

In fact, nearly 1000 emails have come my way with questions and comments about Stephanie, her blog, Nie Nie Day and the auctions. And a large number of those emails mention they only heard of The Nie Nie Dialogues after word of the tragic accident had begun to spread. But they had since visited Stephanie's Blog and instantly fallen in love — as does seemingly everybody (how can they not?) — with Nie's beautiful posts and positive outlook.

In many emails, people were worried their auctions might not get enough attention — maybe their blog readership consisted solely of their mother and best friend. But we solved that by listing everything in a central location. So even the smallest of blogs, the smallest of auctions, could receive clicks and bids. Sometimes those bids came from people who knew nothing of The Nie Nie Dialogues. But that didn't matter. They visited their friend's blog, they saw the auction, and wanted to support that friend, so they put in a bid — knowing that it was going to a good cause.

And without any traditional PR methods, your goodness has completely caught the attention of traditional Media. First the NYTimes story. Then the Today Show segment. And at least a dozen newscasts and newspapers in Arizona and Utah (the two states where Nie Nie's story is playing out) have picked up the story as well. I won't be a bit surprised if Oprah or Martha wants to feature it — I know it's been pitched to both.

The media attention will no doubt bring in additional funds to help Christian and Stephanie (hooray!). I hope it will also continue to bring attention to this generous blogging community. And the real and positive results that come from the virtual friendships we've formed here and throughout our blogging world. I've never been more proud to call myself a blogger.

The auctions at Design Mom have all but winded down. But if you'd still like to get involved, it's not too late. The lovely ladies over at Nie Recovery are listing ongoing fund-raising activities. You can reach them at nierecovery@gmail.com. As always, you can find updates on Christian and Stephanie at CJane's Enjoy It.