HARRY POTTER FAN ORGANIZES ROOM TO READ FUNDRAISER ON SQUIDOO.COM; Squidoo fangroup aims to raise $10,000 before “Deathly Hallows” release

Irvington, NY, March 15, 2007 – At Squidoo.com, volunteers are taking fundraising to new heights. Leading Squidoo member Damon Hedman (known to the Squidoo community as “boredofeducation”) is the brains behind the latest in a flood of volunteer-led online charity drives, this one inviting people to create free Squidoo pages as a way to raise $10,000 for Room to Read. His hope is to meet that goal by July 21, 2007 – the release date of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

“I love that the free pages I’ve made on Squidoo are raising money and awareness for nonprofits every day,” said Hedman. “But ever since reading the book "Leaving Microsoft to Change the World" by Room to Read’s founder John Wood, I’ve wanted to do more than just donate my own Squidoo royalties to his cause. I wanted to get THOUSANDS of other people to do the same.”

A math teacher, occasional blogger and Harry Potter devotee, Hedman first learned about Room to Read’s work – building schools and libraries in developing countries like India, Sri Lanka, and Laos – on Squidoo. Since then, he has built Squidoo web pages, or “lenses”, on all things Potter, from fan art to Harry Potter music and gifts.

Now he’s inviting people worldwide to each take 5 minutes to join the Harry Potter Room to Read FanGroup. How? Just make your own Squidoo lenses, on any topic, and earmark your royalties to Room to Read.

Hot lenses in the Group right now include…

• Harry Potter Music: http://www.squidoo.com/harry-potter-music
• Funky Chic and Cool Laptop Bags: http://www.squidoo.com/laptopbag/
• Rhyme Time: http://www.squidoo.com/rhyme-time/
• Severus Snape: The Good, the Bad and the Bizarre: http://www.squidoo.com/severus-snape/
• And tons more.

“This is what Squidoo and Org 2.0 is all about. Making a difference, lens by lens, person by person, cause by cause,” said Squidoo Editor in Chief Megan Casey. “Squidoo members have already helped Room to Read build a library in Cambodia and a computer room in India. Imagine what $10,000 more could do.”

Squidoo is the fast-growing website that makes it amazingly easy (and free!) for everyday people to make single pages (called lenses) about something they know and care a lot about. Squidoo splits its revenue with the community: first they send 5% directly to charity, then they share 50% with the lensmasters. More than half of Squidoo users are donating their royalties to Squidoo’s 75+ partner nonprofits, including Room to Read.

ALERT: Readers, wizards, kids, parents, teachers, bloggers, muggles! To create your OWN lens for the Harry Potter-Room to Read Fundraiser, make sure you visit http://www.squidoo.com/groups/room-to-read-harry-potter.

And for more information about the fundraiser or Squidoo’s partner nonprofits, please email jill [at] squidoo.com

About Squidoo.com

Squidoo LLC was founded by bestselling author, noted blogger, speaker and Original Squid, Seth Godin. The stated function of the site is to enable extraordinary people to painlessly engage in philanthropy by building web pages about any topic of their choosing. Nearly 50% of Squidoo’s users donate the royalties they earn from the site to charity. Nonprofit Squidoo partners include ASPCA, Save the Children, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, roomtoread.org, and 70 other well-known organizations.

Squidoo is ranked by Alexa as one of the top 1,000 websites in the world. The site has 100,000 handbuilt lenses, 75,000 members, and gets 2.5 million page views a month.