If you live in the Boston area, chances are good that you have heard of the Jimmy Fund Scooper Bowl. If you haven’t, the event is the largest all you can eat ice cream fundraising event, with all funds going to Dana Farber Cancer Institute’s Jimmy Fund.

This year’s Scooper Bowl will be held June 7 – 9 in City Hall Plaza in Boston. I want to invite you to attend with me on Tuesday, June 7th from 1-3pm. This will be a casual get together for those of you in the area. If you are able to attend, let me know in the comment section or via email so we can arrange a meeting point.

Let me know if you are interested in attending (via email or using the comment section). The cost to attend is $10, but I can share a discount code to save $2.00. At the checkout screen, enter the code DFLC and you will save $2. I feel a bit guilty about offering a coupon code to a charity event, but they encouraged it and you can always make a separate donation to Dana-Farber if you wish!

Even if you can’t make it to the Scooper Bowl when I am there, you should make it a point to get to the event some other time. It’s a fun way to support the Jimmy Fund!

I am riding in the 2016 Pan-Mass Challenge  (PMC) to raise money for Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, Massachusetts. Dana-Farber is one of the leading cancer research and treatment organizations in the world. Last year’s Pan-Mass Challenge raised $45 million for Dana-Farber, and the graphic below illustrates how the money helps Dana-Farber and its Jimmy Fund.

This year, I am riding the 2-day 163 mile route from Wellesley, Massachusetts to Provincetown, Massachusetts. My fundraising goal is $10,000. With your help last year, we raised over $8,300! It won’t be easy to raise $10,000, but I know I can do it with your support.

I want to say THANK YOU in advance to those of you who are able to help me achieve my fundraising goal. You can donate to my fundraising page by visiting PMC.org.

Listed below, are this year’s generous donors so far. I would love to add you to this list, regardless of how much you are able to contribute. I will keep a running tally of domain industry donors as a way to say thank you!

2016 PMC donors (in order of donation date):

• Michael Berkens
• Gregg McNair
• Peter Askew
• Michael Cyger
• Joe Alagna
• Doron Vermaat
• Tim Switzer
• Giuseppe Graziano
• Bill Sweetman
• Alan Dunn
• Paul Kapschock
• Scott Rosenbaum
• Garth
• Rightside
• Donuts
• Jeffrey Reynolds
• Nat Cohen
• Francois Carrillo
• Aaron Wilken
• Bruce Breger
• Luke Webster
• Matt Overman
• GoDaddy
• Laurie Krick
• Hobi Michalec
• Brandon Abbey
• BuyDomains
• NamesCon
• .Club Registry
• Jothan Frakes
• Ron Jackson
• Morgan Linton
• Ali Zandi
• Joe Uddeme
• Mark Thorpe
• Zak Muscovitch
• Howard and Barbara Neu
• Chad Folkening
• Dietmar Stefitz
• Ray Hackney
• Ed De Jong
• Brian Benko
• Kamila Sekiewicz
• Tom Mchugh
• Monte Cahn
• Paul Goldstone
• Digimedia
• Trellian
• Ammar Kubba
• Daniel Negari
• Mike Sallese
• Paul Buonopane
• Jason Schaeffer
• George Verdugo
• Andrew Rosener
• Sedo
• Jeff & Andrew Reberry
• Carolyn Rodon

Last year, I rode in the Pan-Mass Challenge fundraising bike ride to raise money for Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and its Jimmy Fund. With help from friends and colleagues, we raised over $8,000!

This year, my fundraising goal is higher, and I am riding a 2-day 163 mile route (last year I did a 1-day 50 mile route).

Early last week, I signed up for the August ride, and I am excited about challenging myself physically and challenging myself to help raise $10,000. I will be doing some fun fundraising activities via my blog and other channels, but I will likely wait until the early Spring to get into full fundraising mode.

The reason for this article is twofold.

I want to take a moment to wish a Merry Christmas to those of you celebrating the holiday. I hope you are celebrating with family and/or good friends.

One of the cool things about the business of domain name investing is that you can work anywhere and anytime you want. Holidays like these are a good time to get away from the business for a little while.

Life is precious and it is short. Even if you aren’t celebrating Christmas, take some time to spend with your loved ones.

Merry Christmas to all and have a special day.

Alan Dunn and his family are very involved in generating awareness of autism and fundraising for Autism Speaks. Earlier this year, Alan launched AutismAwareness.com, a website dedicated to helping people learn about autism. In addition, Alan’s family annually raises money for Autism Speaks via Team Alek, named after his son, Alek.

Yesterday evening, I received an email from Alan announcing their annual Autism Speaks fundraising drive. Here’s what Alan had to say about the campaign:

When I was in high school or college, I bought a piece of US Olympic memorabilia on a whim. My parents were going through my closet at my childhood home, and they reminded me about this 1976 Olympic blazer from the US Olympic team that I bought. I am curious if you know anything about it and whether it’s worth something.

I don’t have any provenance or know anything about the history of the blazer. I saw a video of the opening ceremony from the 1976 Montreal Olympics, and if you watch at 2:50, you can see the US Olympic team entering with the men wearing what looks to be this blazer. At 2:53, if you look at the man in the middle, you can see the patch on the right arm, which matches the location of the patch.

I have no idea if there are other ways to verify authenticity, although I can’t imagine that this would be something that is counterfeited. My only other thought if it’s not “authentic” is that it could potentially have been sold at Montgomery Ward because of one of the inner pocket patches. There are some photos below.

Do you have any idea how to tell if it is authentic and worth something? It looks pretty cool.