Stand Up to Cancer

(NOTE: UPDATED 10/27 -see below)
Almost everyone has had Cancer touch his or her life. I’ve had a mother-in-law, grandmother, and 1st cousin fight and beat cancer, and I’ve seen the damage that it creates in their lives, and the lives of those around them. I lost a stepmother to cancer as well.

I’m writing today about a pro-bono effort I’ve been asked to take part in*, along with my friends at Weber Shandwick, to raise awareness of the Stand Up to Cancer campaign going on. SU2C is the short name and the tag for this effort.
SU2C is a multi-party effort started out of a group of Media Executives who are trying to raise money to fund ‘game changing’ research and “dream team” research teams who can make a huge impact in our fight against cancer.
You may have heard of the effort, as all 3 Network News Anchors appeared on all 3 Network Morning Shows recently to discuss it. On September 5th, NBC, CBS and ABC are doing a “Roadblock” of the kind you normally see during a presidential address. They will run the same show for an hour during prime time on that night. The show, hosted by Katie Couric, Brian Williams, Charles Gibson, and others, will attempt to raise awareness of the SU2C efforts and raise money.
Between now and then, I’m involved in the efforts to raise awareness on the web.

To do so, I’m making a call to action for all my social media connected friends: please be a part of this effort, raise visibility and help find the cure.

How can you help?

• There is media (banners, blog badges, email sigs, etc)  on the Virtual Standup site.  If you can, add a badge to your site, email, or other location, please do.
• I’d like you to show love to SU2C on Twitter by following it, and sending it tweets of support.
• Friend SU2C on Facebook. They also have an Application called the the Stand on that page.
• There are some videos on YouTube you can embed. Also there are really funny videos on FunnyOrDie.com that support SU2C by Henry Winkler, Sarah Silverman and Larry David. Embed them on your site.
• Let your followers know about this effort.

Lastly, I ask that you suggest other things we can do as a community to increase awareness. I think this is a “case study” for how SMC can help bring about change via social media.

Finally, I acknowledge the other work done in the Social Media community that I know about - from the Frozen Peas Fund and everyone that supports it, to Doug Haslam’s ride in the Pan Mass challenge to I’m sure hundreds of other efforts.

Stand Up 2 Cancer shouldn’t take away from these efforts. It should raise the awareness for Cancer in general. We’ve put men on the moon, controled robots on Mars, and beat back thousands of diseases that used to kill people  every day. Cancer is next. Please help make it happen. Stand up.

UPDATE: SocialVibe is a very interesting social media company that leverages the traffic from your pages to generate money for social causes. SMC isn’t related to SocialVibe in any way, but this is worth noting, via MaxGladwell.com:

For bloggers, however, SocialVibe is inviting all of us to raise straight cash by directing readers to this specific link: SocialVibe.com/SU2C. Which is a unique portal for signing up and becoming a SocialVibe member. For each successful sign-up through this page (that means you), SocialVibe donates $1 to SU2C.When all is said and done, SocialVibe will list the bloggers and their donation tally on its blog, The Vibe, together with a press release that will feature the top bloggers. As a blogger, you don’t have to actually sign up in order to direct readers to sign up. You’ll still generate $1 for every person who does, though the tracking may not be that accurate. Alternatively or in addition to this, bloggers can contact SocialVibe (su2c [at] socialvibe.com) to have a custom, co-branded badge designed for their blog, which guarantees tracking.

Max Gladwell linked over here to my post, and also have connected with WeberShandwick as well to get everyone on board. I think this is a solid way to raise money for this cause, and I’m personally putting this on my own blog now. Thanks to the Max Gladwell team and Social Vibe for reaching out to me.
* (Disclosure: While I have done paid work for Weber, this is totally pro-bono and voluntary on my part).

Update: Look how many people participated:  From ET online:

Members of Hollywood’s A-list are joining forces for a good cause. According to People Meryl Streep, Jennifer Aniston and Charlize Theron are among the celebs who’ve agreed to participate in the Stand Up to Cancer telethon, airing September 5 simultaneously on ABC, CBS and NBC.

Scarlett Johansson, Christina Applegate, Sally Field and “American Idol” champ David Cook are also expected to appear on the show, which will raise money for cancer research and treatment.

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