It’s always fun at this time of year to hear and read about everyone’s New Year’s resolutions. Whether they be focused on healthier living (anyone else see an increase in people at your gym this week?), wiser spending or more whimsical in nature, they have the ability to inspire us to try and do better and be better.

In addition to some loftier resolutions I have for 2012, making more efficient use of my time and meeting the ambitious goals we set forth here at ALSF in terms of raising funds and distributing them (more on that later)…I’m also attempting to watch the top 100 movies (according to IMDb) and listen to the top 100 albums of all time (per Rolling Stone). Let me tell you, it’s not as easy as you think. I consider myself up on this kind of stuff, but I have a busy year ahead of me in the world of movies and music. Join me! We can do a wrap-up blog at the end of the year to give our two cents on the lists.

So, back to our resolutions and goals at ALSF – feel free to start using this acronym by the way if you don’t already. We’ve set some pretty high fundraising aspirations for this year to help us on our quest of finding a cure for childhood cancer. In 2011, we broke prior records and raised more than $10.5 million – an amazing figure, especially when you consider our roots and that we’re still in the infancy stage of the Foundation. Our goal this year is to surpass 2011 and although it’s a bit ambitious, we know we can do it with the help of all of you out there. We recognize that the current economic climate is not the most conducive to giving and the fact that you continue to support my daughter’s vision despite these trying times, is more than a dad could hope for.

In this spirit, I wanted to remind you of a few simple ways to give to ALSF in 2012…

• MissionFish on eBay – Buying or selling things on eBay? MissionFish is the charitable partner of eBay and allows sellers to donate a portion of the sales from their listed items to a charity. We’ve received a steady and surprising stream of generous donations through MissionFish – check out the ALSF page to view or add items to the list that if purchased, benefit the fight against childhood cancer.
   
• Don’t throw away those used ink cartridges! Collect these gems (along with cell phones, laptops, etc…) at home or your office and send them to Funding Factory for recycling. They’ll provide you with a pre-paid shipping label and either send you cash that you can donate, or deposit points directly into our account that we can redeem for items to support the Foundation. From printing pixels to providing hope!
   
• Donate your car. This will be in place shortly, but we often receive requests from people looking to donate their car to benefit ALSF. Stay tuned for how you can go about doing this, but in the meantime, hang on to that clunker for a bit longer!
   
• Text a donation. Take a break from tweeting, status updating, IM’ing (I’m showing my age) and text the word LEMONADE to 85944. There – you just contributed $10 to Alex’s dream of a world where kids don’t get cancer, it doesn’t get much easier.

For more ideas, check out our website and happy 2012!

-Jay Scott, Alex’s Dad