Kids win in the Blogger Challenge

During the month of October, more than a hundred bloggers around the U.S. engaged in a friendly competition to see who could raise the most money from their readers for Donors Choose, the non-profit organization where you can support a classroom project in need of funding that's been submitted by a public school teacher. The results are in, and they are impressive: The bloggers raised $420,000 for 75,000 students from low-income communities.

Sarah Bunting, author of the blog Tomato Nation, deserves a HUGE congratulations for raising $101,280 and impacting the most kids - 15,953 - during the competition. Besides having a loyal readership that wholeheartedly supported her cause, her pledge to traipse through Rockefeller Center dressed as a tomato if she won may have helped garner the donations that sent her to the head of the pack. This despite threats from TechCrunch and Kara Swisher that THEY would prevail in the race.

Six Apart is the proud sponsor of the award to bloggers who impact the most kids. We’re pleased to note that some of the leaders in their categories are a Six Apart employee and several customers. Anil Dash is employee number one and Chief Evangelist at Six Apart, and won first place in the Technology category with donations that impact 3,016 kids. Fred Wilson, the second place winner in this category, is a prominent New York City-based venture capital blogger who uses TypePad to comment on the state of the venture world. The three winners in the science category are members of the largest online community dedicated to science, Science Blogs, which uses Movable Type as its publishing platform.

The bloggers who created challenges and raised funds for the schools played a big role in the success of the program, but those who donated also deserve recognition. Our LiveJournal community was particularly active in identifying and participating in many of the requests from teachers. It was heartwarming to see the projects that members of the LJ community supported.

Six Apart will award each first place winner with a donation of $200 to projects they’ve designated in their Blogger Challenges. And we’ll send each first, second, and third place winner Six Apart greatest hits blogger paraphenalia.

Congratulations and thanks to all who participated.

------------------------

Overall Winner: TomatoNation

Reached 15,953 students

-----------------------

Technology Blogs, 1st place: Anil Dash

Reached 3,016 students

Technology Blogs, 2nd place: aVC, Fred Wilson

Reached 2,549 students

Technology Blogs, 3rd place: AllThingsD, Kara Swisher

Reached 1,940 students

-----------------------

General Blogs, 1st Place: TomatoNation

Reached 15,953 students

General Blogs, 2nd place: Wide Lawns

Reached 1,053 students

General Blogs, 3rd place: Rice Daddies

Reached 657 students

------------------------

Topical/Local Blogs, 1st Place: Atomic Tiki, Steve Bryant

Reached 2,510 students

Topical/Local Blogs, 2nd Place: Apartment Therapy

Reached 1,546 students

Topical/Local Blogs, 3rd Place: Young Manhattanite

Reached 1,347 students

-----------------------

ScienceBlogs, 1st Place: Pharyngula

Reached 3,264 students

ScienceBlogs, 2nd Place: Adventures in Ethics and Science

Reached 1,558 students

ScienceBlogs, 3rd Place: Terra Sigillata

Reached 901 students

-------------------------

LitLiberation, 1st Place: Internet Lifestyle

Reached 1,728 students

LitLiberation, 2nd Place: 4-Hour Workweek Readers

Reached 1,572 readers

LitLiberation, 3rd Place: Piranha Marketing

Reached 1,565 students