Season of Shadows Blog

Just wanted to give an update on the status of my Season of Shadows nonprofit Drinking Water project. As you may remember from my previous post, SoS H2O Giveaway, the plan was to start selling the bottles here at the site; charge a very fair price, but still make enough to recoup the cost of creating the bottles (to continue the bottle making process), plus have extra to donate to UNICEF’s Tap Project.

Unfortunately, even in the small experiment I set up, customizing, packaging and shipping the bottles ran into much more money than I anticipated. By the time I factored in all the supplies and shipping costs, the water just wasn’t going to be reasonably priced for visitors/customers — we’re talking some hefty prices for bottled water here!

But, if there’s three things you’ve probably learned about me by now: 1) I get really jazzed about certain projects. 2) I love coming up with creative and sometimes crazy ideas — to the point I should shut up about them until I figure out if they’re even gonna pan out. (Note to self: I probably should work on fixing that issue in therapy. ) And, 3) I never, ever, ever give up, no matter what! So, even though selling SoS Drinking Water isn’t going to work for right now, I’ve decided to host multiple Season of Shadows Water Bottle Giveaways over the next several weeks — at least until Halloween and maybe even beyond.

I’m hoping the giveaways themselves will continue to raise some additional awareness about the Tap Project. And each time I post a new water giveaway, I pledge to make a $5 donation myself to UNICEF’s Tap Project.

I even added a new H2O page to the site to help keep the awareness alive and hopefully generate actual action based support of the amazing Tap Project.

Speaking of the giveaways, if you haven’t entered the 12-pack of SoS Water and the Mio Strawberry/Watermelon Water Enhancer yet, it closes in six days. I’ll be launching a new 6-pack Giveaway in the next few days… gotta keep you guys hydrated during your Halloween preparations.

Update — 8/17/11: This giveaway has closed. I’d like to publicly congratulate the winner of this giveaway, but she wishes to remain anonymous. She lives in Pensacola, Florida.

While this definitely isn’t one of my fanciest or most expensive giveaways, it has to be the one I’m most proud of because it marks the upcoming launch of a very important nonprofit project here at SoS. In the next week or two I’ll start selling Season of Shadows Bottled Drinking Water, with all proceeds going to benefit UNICEF’s Tap Project. The Tap Project began in 2007, has raised almost $2.5 million in the U.S. and has helped provide clean, sustainable drinking water for millions of children globally.

Through numerous fundraising and volunteering activities, the UNICEF Tap Project celebrates the clean water we enjoy on a daily basis by encouraging celebrity, restaraunt, volunteer, corporate and government supporters to give this vital resource to children in developing countries. The concept is basic and compelling: “When You Take Water, Give Water.”

I’ve probably had a love affair with two things more than any other during my entire life: Halloween and water. And during my recent health challenge my ability to drink water was greatly impaired (Thank God I’m once again able to drink lots of precious H2O.). After living on very tiny amounts of water for months, I now feel I’ve had a small glimpse into what many children around the world are experiencing on a daily basis by not having access to potable water. No one should have to live like that and it’s become an important mission to help others in anyway I can. Once the bottled water page is up and I’m ready to start selling Season of Shadows Water, I’ll explain everything in greater detail in an upcoming entry, but for now, let’s celebrate by giving away some spooky H2O.

The bottled water in this giveaway is manufactured and sealed by a national distributor (so it’s safe and pure), I just added all the Season of Shadows branding and swag to spook it up a bit. One winner will be receiving a 12-pack of SoS water, along with a bottle of the brand new Kraft Mio Liquid Water Enhancer (used to flavor each bottle). Unfortunately, Kraft doesn’t make Mio in Halloween flavors, but you’ll be getting the strawberry, watermelon variety — at least it will look like fake blood.

Here’s a view of the label (click for a closeup):

For more info on UNICEF’s Tap Project, I highly recommend a visit to TapProject.org

Speaking of Giveaways, I’d like to congratulate Deena Chapman of Federal Way, Washington! Deena was one of the winners in the Halloween In America Giveaway. I’m still waiting for a response from the second winner. She has another five days to contact me, or else I’ll be drawing a new winner’s number.

Please, only one entry per household. Duplicate entries from the same IP will be deleted. These giveaways are really based on the honor system, but I do my best to make it as fair as possible for everyone. There’s no catch here, everything is free — including payment of shipping and handling for the 12-pack of Season of Shadows Drinking Water — I cover all costs. To be entered, leave a comment below showing your interest.

Depending upon the volume of entries, comments may only be displayed under this post for a short time. As entries grow, I may remove comments to make it easier for visitors to scroll to the comment box and enter. However, I guarantee all entries will be saved in the order they are received.

When leaving a comment, be sure to include your correct e-mail address and be certain to keep track of your spam or bulk folder after the drawing closes, just in case. Each winner will be contacted through the e-mail address that’s registered with their comment. I will never share addresses, provided by entrants, with any third parties and you’ll never receive unsolicited mail when entering.

This SoS H20 contest will end at 11:59 PM (Eastern Time) on July 22nd, 2011. All legitimate entries will then be assigned a number in the order they were received. One number will be randomly drawn to determine the winner.

The winner will then be notified, via the email address they provided, no later than July 23rd. If they don’t respond (with their shipping information) within two weeks, then one more number will be drawn to determine the new winner. Upon receiving their permission, the winner’s name will be featured at the top of this post.

If you would like to see your Halloween or paranormal website or business promoted through SOS and you have some appropriately themed items to give away, please contact me.