PAST UPDATES

April 17, 2003 (21:59 AEDT): The auction commences today! My apologies for the delay. We had some technical problems with renewing the domain name that needed to be resolved before we could proceed. But at long last, here we are. For details, see the auction page. Plus, to celebrate, we have some great new goodies - a video clip of Annabeth and Robert, and screen grabs from Race To Space.

February 26, 2003 (00:47 AEDT): Whoo-hoo! The auction merchandise has finally arrived. We have some admin details to work out, but we're aiming for the auction to take place in March or April. I haven't yet updated the auction pages, but we have signed scripts and photos, thanks to the X Files Official Fan Club, TV Guides thanks to Khristine, and Hollywood Reporters thanks to The Hollywood Reporter. Thanks also to Meghan Prophet, and of course, to Annabeth.

October 12, 2002 (23:15 AEST): I'm sorry it's taken so long to get back on top of things. There was no real point in proceeding with the auction while the Gillian and Nicholas Lea auctions were going. Since then, I've had a bereavement, hospitalisation, and the conclusion of a messy legal matter. I dropped the ball as a consequence. I can only say that real life got in the way, but I realise my lack of communication has been unfair on the people involved, and I apologise.

We've made donations of $75 to Carrie Tingley Hospital and $350 to the Children's Hospital of New Mexico. In addition, Honeywell matched the Carrie Tingley donation with another $75. We intend to make another interim donation of $250 to CHNM in the coming weeks. We're holding some money in reserve for ancillary costs related to the auction.

I have written to Annabeth's representatives to find out a timeframe for the shipping of the merchandise for the auction. Once that happens, we will be in a position to proceed. At a minimum, the auction will be advertised here, at eXegesis, and at the SA and P2K boards.

In the meantime, I've updated the donor list and equity program pages, and added a couple of new extras below. The transcript of the live chat is also available.

May 19 (00:29 AEST): Well, the live chat wound up being a chat-by-proxy, but it still went off well considering the technical problems we had to work with. Get more information and the transcript here. Now, we did have one person wondering how they could be sure Annabeth was really on the phone talking for the chat. That's a fair question. Probably the best way to authenticate the chat if you feel a need to do so is to email Ten Thirteen Productions at askthexfiles@fox.com and ask them to check with Annabeth's agent and verify.

Race To Space have pledged some memorabilia for the auction. There's also a small update to the Equity Program.

May 17 (10:32 AEST): Live chat today (well, it's strictly at 7.45pm EST on May 16 in the US, which is about one-and-a-half hours away). To find out the time in California now, go here. To join in using IRC (preferred), get info here or here. To join in using your browser, get info here or here. Please also read the chat information if you haven't already done so.

May 15 (09:54 AEST): Heaps of great news today! The X Files Official Fan Club has pledged official merchandise for the charity auction! There are more pledges too - take a look. Also, we have a great new wallpaper below based on the Hollywood Reporter ads. Even better, we're pleased to reveal our plans for a live chat with Annabeth on Thursday, May 16 at approximately 7.45pm. Have a great day!

May 11 (21:18 AEST): A few people have asked about a guestbook, and thanks to Gertie, I have finally found an adaptable CGI script. You can now leave your own message for Annabeth in our guestbook here.

May 11 (04:58 AEST): Well, the ad is out today in the fabulous position of the inside back cover. That means glossier, heavier stock. I haven't put up scans since we've all seen the ad on the site, but the other ads are either available for viewing in all the usual Phile news places, or soon will be. Chris Carter took out an ad thanking fans, as well - see that here (thanks Go Bruins).

I have been in contact with the Children's Hospital of New Mexico. Denise Codding writes, "I just wanted to send this email to thank you all and Annabeth for the great thing you are doing here for CHNM. We were so excited to see the website and hear that Annabeth is doing this for us. It's just terrific." I've also spoken to Annabeth's publicist, who sends her thanks and best wishes. As for Annabeth herself - she has a very special thank you treat planned. Come back on Tuesday for all the details - we promise it will be worth the wait.

The charity auction is coming together very well, and we have received more donations of goods and services. We expect the auction to begin on May 19 and to continue rolling out over the subsequent month.

Finally, I would like to offer an apology. As I'm sure you've noticed, I haven't been keeping the site updated the last couple of weeks. The reason is that myself and two other Thank You campaign co-ordinators launched a bailout of the original Thank You Chris Carter campaign, which suffered management problems. The new Thank You Chris Carter can be found here. At Chris' request, this is a charity-only campaign to benefit the Carter Foundation. My apologies for my divided attention during this difficult time.

April 25 (13:03 AEST): Official total now stands at $3346.74, which after current and expected expenses translates to $100 for Carrie Tingley Hospital and $846.74 for the Children's Hospital of New Mexico. The donor list is up-to-date as far as we know. The final copy of the ad appears on the ad page - it is substantially the same as before, but the names have been added in place of the anagrams and the font has been changed from Cheltenham, which has mysteriously disappeared off my computer, to Kis BT, which is almost identical. The ad was delivered by hand to The Hollywood Reporter's Asia-Pacific office yesterday and will go by courier to LA today. I have also FINALLY updated the site extras!

April 24 (11.29 AEST): Official total now stands at $3326.74. Donor list updated. Taking ad to the repographer now. Will update properly later.

April 23 (10:57 AEST): Sorry for the time lapse - I've been unwell. Our official total now stands at $3106.48 (including a $75 pledge). We've paid and signed for the ad; all that's left on the ad front is to submit the artwork. If your name is to appear on the print ad, please check the list here to confirm that everything is as it should be. All corrections must be received by 5pm LA time on April 23 (not 24 as previously advised, due to a public holiday in Australia). I will be finishing the artwork, burning to CD and taking it to the reprographers literally at that time, so there will be no opportunities to fix any errors after that time. I will add new site extras later today.

April 19 (05:24 AEST): We have done a full audit and reconciliation of funds received to date. We have also updated our donor lists. These are accurate and up-to-date to the best of our knowledge, so PLEASE CHECK YOUR ENTRY. If your name should be there and it isn't, please let us know right away.

April 18 (15:31 AEST): Great news! TMG, producers of Annabeth's film Pursuit Of Happiness, have pledged some movie memorabilia (probably photographs) for the charity auction! Be sure to head over to the Official Site to see images and a trailer.

April 17 (03:24 AEST): WE DID IT! Our official total is now $2783.87 - more than enough for the ad. We transfer the money to THR tomorrow, and that leaves us with over $400 in the kitty to kick-start the charity phase! Congratulations, Philes - we rock!

We now enter the second phase of our project, the raising of funds for Annabeth's chosen charity, the Children's Hospital of New Mexico. To celebrate, we have a great new look, a bumper collection of new additions to the extras archive, and a new home - www.thankyouannabeth.com. Don't forget to change your bookmarks and links, and we have new banners marking the Phase 2 look here. If you want one last look at the old layout, you can see it here.

Today we unveil the first of a series of fundraising plans. Thanks to The Hollywood Reporter Asia-Pacific and Annabeth Gish, we will be auctioning approximately fifteen autographed copies of the magazine! Find out more here. We also have an equity program for non-US fans unable to take part in the project due to fiscal inequity. We also have information about getting copies of the magazine here. We've now been advised to pre-order by May 1 to be sure of receiving a copy.

April 13 (16:03 AEST): Even more publicity! SciFiWire picked up the story of the thank you projects, essentially echoing Zap2It. See that here. Plus, there is a Lone Gunmen thank you campaign running here. Today we also welcome Azar to the support team. She joins us late due to some other commitments but is a valued member of the team.

Langleigh is back tomorrow, so assuming the pledges are all in the PO Box as promised, I should be able to announce that we've met our ad target. If so, I will be unveilling some of our charity fundraising plans. We've got some great ideas in store!

April 12 (23:54 AEST): More publicity today! Keeger tells us that the various thank you projects were mentioned on the showbiz segment of a radio program in the US called Kevin And Bean. I also read on atxf today that they were mentioned on the teletext accompanying UK's Channel 4 and the USA TV/Sci Files (pages 117/118) - thanks Caroline! This is great news!

Langleigh is still away, so I can't give a precise total, but assuming all the pledges are in the PO Box we will have exceeded our ad target and can move onto the charity phase. Don't get excited yet - I still have to confirm this with LL. But things are looking good! I'll be making donor list corrections and updates tomorrow. And don't forget today's extra!

April 10 (22:38 AEST): We, along with the other Thank You projects, were mentioned at Zap2It.com! See the article here. This exposure is significant for us, not only in promotional terms but also in terms of how the industry views these advertisements. The Thank You projects were the lead television-related news story at a major industry site. This says a lot about the impact our work can have on the careers and profiles of the performers we are endeavouring to thank.

Langleigh is away today, so no donations update. I should have the latest figure this time tomorrow. Meanwhile, enjoy today's extras. If you've written to me this week about the project, I'll be replying tomorrow or Friday. Sorry for the delay - this has been a huge job.

April 9 (22:54 AEST): I am thrilled to be able to say we're a few dollars over $2000, with another $155 in pledges! And thank you to other people who haven't been able to help with money but have offered other kinds of help, too! The donor and credits lists have been updated again, as well. (Even better - now I actually uploaded them. Oops). Finally, we have added one more donation option, particularly for overseas donors: Western Union wire transfers.

Earlier updates were not archived, but these essentially tracked the donations. The site was launched on April 5, 2002. Within 24 hours we had $1100 in the bank, and by April 8 it was $1400. There were also multiple site extra updates in this time, including videos and artwork - these can all be found at the archive.

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