Hello friends,

My birthday (May 10) is coming up. It's the only day of the year when it's OK to hog all the attention and ask people for gifts and love. In years past that came in the form of Pokemon cards or free booze. I want to try something different now.

I stole this idea from a friend of mine, Jonny Auping, who for a recent birthday of his chose to raise money for Charity: Water and brought in more than $1,000. (Similarly, my sister Lisa raised more than $750 for Girls on the Run around her birthday late in 2016, which is terrific.)

Charity: Water donates 100% of the proceeds to projects around the world with the goal of bringing clean and safe drinking water to developing countries. They provide donors detailed information so we can track exactly where, how, and who we've helped. This campaign's $600 goal would provide clean drinking water to 20 people somewhere on this massive planet of ours. You could change the life of someone you'll never meet. That's a pretty cool thing.

I wish I could provide some sort of Kickstarter-like incentive to donate, like if you give X dollars you'll get Y in return, but I can't promise you anything other than a sincere thank-you and the guarantee that your money is directly helping someone who needs it most. (I would say I'm very good at trivia, escape rooms, and watching/talking about sports, so in return for a donation perhaps I could try to help you out in one of those arenas. Otherwise, I got nothin'.)

Please consider donating, even if you only have the means to give $1. (It's my day, after all... You have no excuses not to!) Hopefully this even inspires one, or many, of you to do the same thing for your next birthday. We have the power to create positive change in the world. That's all I could ever hope to receive for my birthday.