Update: We managed to get awareness, money for the cause and introduce the people of this charity a small example of the power of the Internet: all good things. This charity had their first official fundraiser on Sept. 28th, the same day of this post, and raised a total of over $15, 000!!!! Mama Mercy will be so proud… please read on.

Best part about BarCamp Vancouver III was a little session in the morning run by Jordan Behan and Joe Solomon: "Marketers For A Cause". There was a great turn out with fine people, some of whom work their butts off for social change and changing the world one click, one link, one group, one site, one cause at a time. How to leverage this room of great minds? It was the perfect venue to generate some focus toward a cause that is close to my sister Hilary, in memory of her friend who passed away one year ago, that is designed to directly help young orphaned girls in Kenya: Hands Up For Africa – read more about the inspiring story here. They’ve just launched their first site and they’re not quite official charity status (that takes a year, but they are an official society).

Our small group in the session chatted about best ways to get their cause, story and site out to the masses. Time being precious in the quick BarCamp sessions, there were some excellent ideas introduced, all of which I have passed onto the charity’s organizers and all of which I will help them with implementing, but to start things off, the brilliant Christian Nally quickly set up this "chipin" and we’ve set a goal to reach by the end of this week! To all of you in the group, in the session, at BarCamp, and beyond, please help make a small difference in this small way – because we can.

Take a few moments to CHIP IN! Click the link above or go directly to this ChipIn web page. If you’re geeky, click on the ‘<>copy’ link in the widget above and paste in your own spaces. We’ve got to this Friday to raise a small goal amount of $350 to directly support Hands Up For Africa.

Thanks JB for initiating this session – this type of immediate action was a fine way to hold a BarCamp session. Cheers.