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Social Media for a Cause - Frozen Peas, Anyone?

Dec 21, 2007  By Webmistress

A couple of weeks ago, a woman named Susan Reynolds was diagnosed with breast cancer. She used a bag of frozen peas to ease her pain and swelling from her biopsy. After posting a photo of herself with peas on her chest, the subsequent outpouring of support was and still is remarkable.

Susan Reynolds has friends. Lots of friends. She has friends that blog, friends that twitter, and these friends are pretty good at getting the word out. Over the last couple of weeks, those of you who use twitter may have noticed a fair number of users' photos turning pea green in support of Susan. Mine is now green as well.

Thanks to another active blogger and social media advocate, Connie Reece, and others, today is the first "Frozen Pea Friday." You can read more at frozenpeafund.com about their fundraising efforts. There is also a flickr group dedicated to images of those who have, for lack of a better term, "pea'd themselves." More photos are being added by the minute.

Susan is blogging about her diagnosis and treatment quite candidly at her blog appropriately called "Boobs on Ice."

I wish Susan well in her upcoming battle, and I congratulate her friends on using web technology to spread their message quickly. However you feel about "social media" or "social networks," and I know many are tired of these terms, this really is the "age of information" at its best.

______________________

Katherine Druckman is webmistress at LinuxJournal.com. You might find her on Twitter or at the Southwest Drupal Summit

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Very cool

Shawn Powers's picture
Submitted by Shawn Powers on Fri, 12/21/2007 - 13:30.

Very cool indeed. It's refreshing to see social Internetty stuff be used for good and not for evil. I all too often see, "the dark side" here at work (a K12 school).

Thanks for posting the info.

Shawn Powers is an Associate Editor for Linux Journal. You might find him chatting on the IRC channel, or Twitter

This is David Neff over at

David's picture
Submitted by David (not verified) on Thu, 02/07/2008 - 14:13.

This is David Neff over at the American Cancer Society. Thanks for helping us the spread the word about something that effects thousands of women every year. Breast Cancer is treatable when caught early.

Thanks,
David

P.S. If your coming to SXSW hear us talk Frozen Peas at our Interactive Panel.

I am and I will :)

Webmistress's picture
Submitted by Webmistress on Wed, 02/13/2008 - 00:58.

Thanks, David!

I will be there with our publisher, and will definitely come hear the Frozen Pea Talk. My husband will probably have lots of the buttons he made with him, so anyone who wants to spread awareness, come track us down. We'll probably be where people are talking open source :)

Katherine Druckman is webmistress at LinuxJournal.com. You might find her on Twitter or at the Southwest Drupal Summit

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