This coming week is my 37th birthday (July 3rd to be exact), and I want a birthday present from you! That’s right – I’m launching a July Squidoo challenge and as my birthday present, I’d like as many people to participate as possible because it’s going to be a special one.

This time, we’re all going to build a lens for the Polly Klaas foundation about a missing child. If you look at my current lens (ranked #1 in Non-Profits & Volunteering), you’ll see what I have done to showcase little Madeleine McCaan and another child who was lost through the cracks.

Here’s the link: http://www.squidoo.com/pollyklaas/missingchild

Why will this be a gift to me? Well when I was five years old, my best friend in the world was a little boy named Tony. We did everything together and vowed we’d be married one day.

One morning, I woke up and my mom told me he’d been kidnapped out of his bed in the middle of the night. I was petrified. I learned years later that he had been kidnapped by the father he had never met, a stranger to him. I finally got reunited with him when we were 16, but he was a lost soul and horribly confused.

No, it wasn’t a child predator abduction, but the results and devastation were the same to those of us “left behind.” When I read stories about kids like Shawn Hornbeck, who was abducted and sat waiting in the clutches of a pedophile for FOUR years for someone to rescue him, I feel like I have to use any means necessary of contributing help.

As a marketer, you have ‘net savvy others don’t possess. You have the talent to spread the word virally. What if I’d had a lens on Shawn and someone in the same apartment complex had surfed the ‘net and found it on Squidoo and called police four years earlier? (Well, Squidoo wasn’t live yet then, but you know what I mean.)

Here’s what I want you to do: Go to Squidoo at http://www.squidoo.com and set up a free account if you don’t have one already. Takes a minute or less. Then, on July 3rd, create a lens on a specific missing child we need to help find.

After creating your lens that day (not before!!) come here and give me your lens URL. I want us all to use this challenge to test our Squidoo skills, but also to cross-promote each other’s lenses and help them get lots of exposure to the world.

Not sure who to build the lens about? Go to http://www.pollyklaas.org/ and click on the missing children link on the left sidebar. You can choose by the state or year missing, and don’t just choose recent abductions – keep Shawn in mind when choosing a child to showcase.

During the competition, do some research on the case and see if you can help this child get found. With the world full of so many pedophiles, there’s a good chance they haven’t been killed, but are actually being kept hostage for years and years.

The winner of the challenge will be whoever has the highest overall LensRank on the last day of July. I’ll give them three things: A copy of my Social Networking on Squidoo eBook, a copy of my Building an eBook Empire eBook (both with all bonuses), and $100 cash sent via PayPal to you from me.

Leave me a comment and let me know if you are going to participate!
And thanks for the birthday present, if you are
Tiff

11 Responses to “Help Missing Kids on Squidoo for My Birthday!”

Leave a Reply