Help a charity & win a signed ARC of Ballads!

My cousin Greg Lowe formed an organization called Tipping Points in Philadelphia. It's an organization that provides high-quality, low-cost tutoring and test preparation services to at-risk, underprivileged youth to help them access college and higher education opportunities. Compared to for-profit models like Kaplan, Greg’s approach will only charge $50 per student for a 12-week tutoring course, but still attract high-quality tutors by paying them at the same rate as Tipping Points’ for-profit competitors. By helping erase part of the resource gap between low-income youth and their more affluent peers, Tipping Points hopes to play a role in closing the achievement gap.

Good education is very close to my heart and since many of you are avid readers, I imagine it is close to yours as well. I hate seeing the inequality in education. I lived in St. Louis until I was 8 years old and went to an inner city school. Then I moved to Oak Park, Illinois, a relatively well-to-do suburb of Chicago and even as a kid I was astounded by the differences. I still to this day think about my very intelligent peers that I left behind in St. Louis and wonder how their lives turned out and if their lives would have been different if they had the opportunities I did. Race, class, and where you are from should not determine the quality of your education. Programs like Tipping Points are essential to giving EVERYONE a shot at achieving their dreams.

Tipping Points is competing for a grant from Match Rugby and Teach for America. To help them get this grant all you have to do is vote for them at this website (be sure to actually check the box and vote, not just leave a comment).

Since this matter so much to me, if you vote for Tipping Points and leave a comment here saying that you did so, you will be entered to win a signed ARC of my new book BALLADS OF SUBURBIA. (Be honest. It's not hard to vote and it's for charity after all.) If you post a blog entry about Tipping Points including the link of where to vote and leave a link to your blog in my comments, you will get 2 extra contest entries. And lastly, don't forget to include in your blog that I am running this contest and that people should come here and comment that they voted and that they heard about Tipping Points from you, because, you guessed it, each person that comments saying that they heard from you gets you an extra contest entry. 

You are looking and an unlimited amount of contest entries here, guys! That means a very strong chance of winning an ARC of BALLADS. I don't have the ARCs in my grubby paws just yet, but as soon as I do I will ship one off to the winner. Of course the winner also has the option to ask for a signed copy of I WANNA BE YOUR JOEY RAMONE instead and I can ship that pretty immediately. So yeah, START ENTERING!!!! Deadline is 3/31 which is when the voting closes.