Yesterday was the 111th Boston Marathon!  Despite the nasty weather, it all seemed to go pretty well.  (I watched from the warm comfort of my living room; I got totally wrapped up in it and ended up watching people run for more than four hours!)   We extend a hearty round of applause to all the runners, Firstgiving users or not: 26.2 miles is an accomplishment!

I started thinking, though, about how we talk so much about the marathon and nearly forget all the other -a-thons that are out there, and that’s really a shame!  Looking through some of our current pages I found more than a dozen other kinds of -a-thons that people are using as catalysts for raising money. 

Aside from the standard marathons, triathalons, and walkathons, there are a few other classics: the dance-a-thon and the bowl-a-thon among them.  We have quite a lot of bowlers, actually, though only a few dancers.  Still, I imagine you don’t need to have these two explained to you.  (Who hasn’t heard of a dance marathon?)

Firstgiving users are also getting involved in a lot of other, less traditional -a-thons, and those are what I’d like to focus on in this Academy lesson.  The take-home message, just to get it out of the way, is that anything can become an -a-thon. 

One -a-thon that should be easy to understand is the Pet Walkathon.  (Christine Slak’s page is a good example.)  This is exactly what it sounds like: go for a walk….and bring your pets!  Sometimes these are specifically oriented toward dogs, sometimes they’re broader, like the Humane Animal Welfare Society walk that Christine is participating in.  This is the kind of event that could be easy to organize and that would attract tons of people.  That is, if you’re the event-organizing kind of person.  Who’s to say you’re not?  Maybe you just haven’t tried yet….

It’s also easy to turn other kinds of athletics into -a-thons: ski-a-thons, hoop-a-thons (see Praveen’s page).  This is the category where we’d file bowl-a-thons and dance-a-thons, but you can start getting creative.  Damona Resnick is participating in a yogathon!  Almost any sport can become an -a-thon if you just do it for a long time.  You could do rollerblade-a-thon, a jump-rope-a-thon, or even a swing-a-thon at your local playground!  Or a hula-hoop-a-thon!  (Now I wish it weren’t raining, so I could go play outside!)

Sports not your thing?  No problem!  Maybe you’re handy with a hammer and would like a build-a-thon, like Jennifer Shafer is doing for Habitat for Humanity.  Or perhaps a touch-a-thon is more your style?  Simply stand and touch a car for as long as you can, as Jeff Hooper explains on his Firstgiving page for the National Kidney Foundation.  That sounds easy, right?  (That’s not a trick question, it really sounds easy!)

Even kids can get in on the act with events like the Children’s Trike-a-thon on Christine Mueller’s page.

Are you starting to get the idea?  This fundraising business isn’t limited to the Boston Marathon and the Avon Breast Cancer Walk.  Make up your own -a-thon!  Make an athon-a-thon, where you have people sponsor you to throw as many -a-thon events as you can!  The possibilities are endless, they really are.  So get creative, have fun, and just DO something.  Anything.  Today we celebrate the anything-a-thon.

In fact, we also celebrate the nothing-a-thon!  On our British sister site, www.justgiving.com, you can find an excellent example in Daniel Waite’s page where he vows to do – that’s right – nothing! 

Okay, so maybe doing absolutely nothing isn’t all that appealing to you, but you’re not the athletic type?  That’s okay, there are -a-thons for you, too!  Check out the Watchathon that Brian Paik participated in to benefit the Brattle Film Festival.  If you can read a blog you can certainly sit and watch movies, right?  So you can see that anyone can really turn anything into an -a-thon, and raise some good money for a good cause.

Your fundraising event doesn’t have to be an -a-thon, but these are so easy to put together, so accessible to anyone, and so much fun that they seem like an obvious choice.  Don’t wait for the next 26.2 miles run to come around, go make your own -a-thon!

And as always, comment or email (blog@firstgiving.com) with any questions, comments, or suggestions.