Thanks to friends and family and the many generous folks at Intuit, I am just over a third of the way to my goal of raising $3000 for the New England Center for Children. The combined total of all donations to date (which isn’t reflected on the official donation site) is $1185. I’ll work on adding one of those fancy thermometer things to this site so everyone can see the progress we’re making. Thanks again for helping out a worthy cause.

To bring attention to the cause, we decided to grow beards. No one is particularly thrilled with the results, especially my wife and kids. Most folks describe the look as “mountain man” or “scruffy.” I’ve never been much of a facial hair guy. Still, I’m keeping it. At least until I reach my fund raising goal. It remains to be seen if Mike’s will actually grow in by April. In any case, please help put an end to this ridiculousness and donate to The New England Center for Children.

NECC set up a site where folks can use their credit card to donate. Just click on the red “Donate” link in the right-hand column and it will take you to the form. Any amount toward our goal of $6000 is greatly appreciated. All donations go to NECC’s general fund. Read more about how the money is used here. And thank you to all who have donated so far, either through Facebook or this donation link.

For all you Facebookers, I created a Cause application that makes it easy to donate. Check it out…

My brother Mike and I are running the 2008 Boston Marathon to raise awareness of autism and funds for his son John’s school - The New England Center for Children. Our goal is to raise $3000 each for the school’s general fund.