Dear Friends and Family,

I have incredibly exciting news for everyone. First of all, we have recently crossed the $4000 mark for donations, for a grand total of $4067 in donations!

But wait! There's more! I hope everybody is sitting down, because this is truly amazing. About a week ago, I received a phone call very early in the morning from a gentleman named Jason. Jason told me that he works with a web site called Iwon.com.

Iwon.com is a portal site. It received a lot of publicity a few years ago when it was launched because it had a unique element to it. Every time an individual logs on to Iwon.com, they are given entries to a drawing. The maximum amount of entries an individual can earn in a day is 100.

When this web site launched, I signed up and made it my homepage. Since then, it has become a part of my morning ritual. Each morning when I wake up, I first take my painkillers. While I'm waiting for them to work, I surf the Internet.

I start by surfing online charities. I'm sure you all know this sort. Things like the hunger site, where money is donated simply because I took the time to click a button on their web site. There are several of these types of sites and I try to click all of them as I'm waiting for my pain relief. I estimated one morning that I do about 160 clicks each morning for charity. Thank God I have cable Internet service!

After my charity work is done, I go to my homepage at Iwon.com. I will admit that at first I was surfing that site simply to earn points and hopefully win a prize. After a while though, I forgot about the prizes and spent time each morning reading the news, looking at pictures, and learning about vehicles. This site was an amazing source of information to me while I was trying to decide which vehicle to purchase. It also has a lot of information about good driving techniques and vehicle maintenance. Each day, I easily earned my maximum 100 points.

But, I digress. As I said, last week the man named Jason called me. He said that he worked with the Iwon.com prize division. He told me that I won $10,000!

To be honest, at first I thought it might be a hoax and I was very cautious. After I realized that it might not be a hoax, instead of being overjoyed, I was concerned. $10,000 seemed like such a blessing, but I was unsure how it would affect my monthly benefits. So, I made a few discreet inquiries and it turns out that the $10,000 will only affect my benefits if I spend it on someone other than myself.

So, to make a long story not very short, I just won $10,000! If you don't believe me, you can see for yourself. It was announced today on Iwon's web site. Don't worry if you don't receive this e-mail today. My name and story will be on site for a few days. Here are some links.

Today's Iwon.com winners!

$10,000 Iwon.com winners!

Needless to say, I feel like this is one amazing gift from God! I'll be using the money to build the carport to protect the vehicle and the rest will be used to pay down my debt. It's amazing to me how one phone call brought us all so much closer to the goal of the vehicle fund.

Now, on to other news. There was a mix-up at the IRS. They never sent (or it got lost in the mail) the papers to establish the vehicle fund as a not-for-profit charity. These papers are being resent as of last Thursday. I will need to form a corporation along with a board in order to complete the paperwork. As soon as we are accepted as a not-for-profit charity, all donations will be tax-deductible. This could take months, so please encourage everyone you know to continue spreading the word about the vehicle fund.

I will update you again next month. Thank you again for all your support. Until then, take care and have a great day!

Laura