Thanks to The One Fund, We Prove We Are One!
Shortly after the Boston Marathon bombings took place the City of Boston, lead by Mayor Thomas Menino, and the State of Massachusetts, coordinated by Governor Deval Patrick’s administration, came together to form The One Fund in the hopes of raising support for those victims that would be encountering a long, difficult road ahead of themselves towards recovery.
The One Fund, which to date has raised more than $28m in just three weeks, proved to the country and the world that Boston was going to support their neighbors however they could. Many more dollars are sure to come into The One Fund in the coming weeks and months as communities in and around Boston tally up their totals from benefit walks, runs dinners and fundraisers…everyone is eager to help in their own small way!
Tickets-for-Charity.com, which will be selling hundreds of concert and sports tickets for the spring and summer season, added The One Fund to their charity platform immediately following the events on April 15. This way as we continue to live our lives and enjoy our favorite performing artists and bands on tour and attend baseball games, tennis and golf tournaments, broadway shows -- we have an automatic way to give back to the injured of the Boston bombings. Every purchase at Tickets-for-Charity.com has a portion which benefits charities (chosen by both the entertainer/team and fans at check-out) and now The One Fund is included. After the first two-weeks, Tickets-for-Charity raised an additional $8,400 and we will continue to raise more.
The One Fund has shown us all that people will rally to help one another when that help is needed. The City of Boston, its citizens and businesses will continue to support those victims of these senseless acts of violence and will be there with open hearts and wallets to help!
Please consider donating at: www.onefundboston.org
Spring News from Ysmay
Town Lake in Austin by James Granberry
Spring has come to MetroSeeker, and you may notice we have been pretty quiet lately with fewer blog posts, updates, and interviews. Some of you may take this to mean things are winding down here, but that couldn't be farther from the truth! Things are just getting started! We have been more-or-less radio silent because we have fallen back into research and development mode.
I started MetroSeeker with the intention of being the most comprehensive city guide for anybody who wants to move to a new city. After all, I have moved a half-dozen times, and every time it takes me - a rather extroverted person - far too long to nest and feel comfortable in my new city.
But since I started MetroSeeker almost three years ago, it has become evident people no longer want weighty tomes and volumes of information - which is what we had done. We took a ton of information about 9 cities and threw it at people forgetting that people are too busy to read all that information. Yes, reading MetroSeeker is still easier than sifting through Google, but it still somehow missed the target.
Enter Eric Reddy.
Eric Reddy from Boston's Tickets-For-Charity.com has been writing a column here on MetroSeeker about Boston Sports and Events. I knew it would be a hit, but I didn't realize exactly how popular it was going to be. People spend far more time reading Eric's column than anything else on the website.
And that's when I figured it out. People want personality. They want life. Our Featured Local interviews set the stage by showing the city's personality, but it has become evident to me that our interviews aren't enough anymore. Our readers don't just want to read one interview; our readers want an ongoing dialogue. They want to feel connected to the Featured Locals; they want to be connected to the city in a way that goes beyond news sites.
MetroSeeker's new direction is going to give the readers what they want; personality and life. We are going to be featuring regular updates from major institutions like Boston's Franklin Zoo, and the Miami Seaquarium. We are going to be featuring columns about what's new with our Featured Locals and what matters to them in their city. And above all else, we're going to be creating a dialogue between our readers and the cities.
You can be a part of it. Do you have an idea for a column or a regular blog? Is there someone you think we should connect with? Is there someone you want us to interview? Let us know!
I am very excited about our new direction, and I hope you're all going to be part of it.