About Me

"A year ago Mike Gibbons had never done any fund-raising. Now he hopes
to change the world" Regan White in "Message in a Button", Charlotte Weekly November 2006.

Upon reading that I was at first taken aback -- not exactly the kind of thing you want to lead with especially if your stated goal is to "change the face of fundraising". But as I thought about it IT IS PRECISELY what I want people to know and now I open all of my fundraising seminars with that line.

Fundraising is not easy nor is it as hard as you might think. I am proof of that and I am out to help ordinary people do extraordinary things -- the task is not easy but the answer is inside of each of us!

I kinda wish Regan had use this opening line instead.. 

"Here's to the crazy ones...because the people who are crazy enough to THINK they can change the world, are the ones who do."

Maybe the combination of the two sums it up -- I have been lucky enough to find a group of remarkable people, my cycling team MojoRiding and together we have become somewhat of a fund raising phenomenon (often in spite of ourselves I might add!) --we raised over $110,000 in 2007 for cancer and multiple sclerosis causes.

So how did we do it? We personalized our cause, we told a story, many stories! And then we took it a step further we made it tangible -- many of us made photo buttons of our loved ones to wear while fundraising -- can't fully explain it but there is just something powerful about these little buttons  --I have seen it make a difference and in some cases all the difference!

I hope you will take a look around (grab a cup of coffee) at what I am building here on Squidoo. I have tried to make unique, useful and updated lenses on active charity events. If you like the lenses then please visit my blog Behind the Button and of course my website Buttons of Hope -- where you too can go on make a custom photo button to wear in YOUR charity event 

The title of the full quote above is THINK DIFFERENT. Regan was right I am out to Change the World by helping people to not only think different but to be different -- it will change you and together we will be the change we wish to see...I hope one button at a time!

Charity Walks 2008 | Personalize Your Cause with a Custom Photo Button

Did you know that in the US this year 2008 over ten million people will participate in a walkathon, charity walk fundraiser? In fact over 2.5 million people walk and fundraise in one of 4500 Relay for Life walks, one million do a Heart Walk, & a coup...

aids WALK 2008 | Put a Face on Your Cause with a Custom Photo Button

FT. LAUDERDALE APRIL 27 NEW YORK MAY 18 SAN FRANCISCO JULY 20 LOS ANGELES OCTOBER 19

breast cancer 3 DAY WALK 2008 | Personalize Your Cause with a Custom Photo Button | benefit Susan G Komen

Welcome to my Susan Komen 3 Day Walk lens! I hope you will find this handcrafted lens a unique and useful resource for your 2008 Susan Komen 3 Day Walk|fundraising experience. I have two goals with this Squidoo lens, well three actually! First, Pro...

2008 WALK TO CURE | Personalize Your Cause Wear a Custom Photo Button | benefit JdRF

I hope you will find this handcrafted lens a unique and useful resource for your 2008 Walk to Cure Diabetes experience. Learn about what other walkers are doing and unique ways to energize your fundraising & inspire yourself! JDRF's Walk to Cure is...

March For Babies 2008 formerly Walk America | Personalize Your Cause Wear a Custom Photo Button

Welcome! Walk America is now March for Babies! I hope you will find this handcrafted lens a unique and useful resource for your 2008 March for Babies Walk and fundraising experience. Learn about what other walkers are doing and unique ways to energi...

Custom Photo Buttons @ Buttons of Hope | Personalize Your Cause Wear a Photo Button

I like to say "It's not just about the button"...it's about helping people personalize their cause & tell their story. Wearing a photo button in support of a friend, or to honor a loved one is simply powerful. Whether you are doing a charity walk li...

RELAY FOR LIFE 2008 | Personalize Your Cause Wear a Custom Photo Button | benefit American cancer Society

Welcome to my Relay for Life lens! I hope you will find this handcrafted lens a unique and useful resource for your 2008 Relay for Life | fundraising experience. I have two goals with this Squidoo lens. First, Provide YOU with unique, useful and upd...

Buttons of Mom for Mother's Day 2008|Help Raise $11,000 {or more} for Charity

What to do for Mother's Day...same old flowers, card, brunch? Why not honor your Mom in a special way this year by wearing a photo button with her smiling face! If you're blessed to have your Mom here to celebrate with -- she might get a kick out...

Race for the Cure 2008 Susan Komen | Personalize Your Cause Wear a Custom Photo Button

I hope you will find this handcrafted lens a unique and useful resource for your Susan Komen Race for the Cure experience. Learn about what other walkers are doing and unique ways to energize your fundraising, motivate, your team & inspire yourself!...

Ride of Silence 2008 | Honor a Cyclist Wear a Custom Photo Button

Welcome to my Ride of Silence lens! I hope you will find this handcrafted lens a unique and useful resource for your 2008 Ride of Silence experience. I have two goals with this Squidoo lens. First, Provide YOU with unique, useful and updated inform...

HEART WALK 2008 benefit American Heart Association | Personalize Your Cause Wear a Custom Photo Button

Welcome! I hope you will find this handcrafted lens a unique and useful resource for your 2008 American Heart Association Heart Walk experience. Learn about what other walkers are doing and unique ways to energize your fundraising, motivate your tea...

SUSAN G KOMEN FOR THE CURE

What can you say about the amazing story of the love and commitment one sister for another -- the legacy of Susan G Komen is now legend and in the hearts & minds of people the world over everyday! I hope you will find this handcrafted lens a unique...

How to Make Custom Photo Buttons @ Buttons of Hope | Personalize Your Cause Wear a Photo Button

We will help you make your own custom photo button just like the one here of Janine that inspired it all. Personal Note: I talk a lot about Janine Kelker and her picture seems to be everywhere. Who is Janine? There's a good reason for that -- I did...

MS CHALLENGE WALK 2008 benefit multiple sclerosis Society | Personalize Your Cause Wear a Custom Photo Button

Welcome to my ms Challenge Walk lens! I hope you will find this handcrafted lens a unique and useful resource for your 2008 ms Challenge Walk | fundraising experience. I have two goals with this Squidoo lens. First, Provide YOU with unique, useful...

GREAT STRIDES 2008 benefit cystic fibrosis Foundation | Personalize Your Cause Wear a Custom Photo Button

Great Strides to Cure Cystic Fibrosis is the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation's largest national fund-raising event. Tens of thousands of co-workers, friends and family come together each year as one community for one cause%u2026 The cystic fibrosis cause...

LIGHT THE NIGHT WALK | leukemia & lymphoma Society | Personalize Your Cause Wear a Custom Photo Button

I hope you will find this handcrafted lens a unique and useful resource for your Light the Night Walk to benefit the leukemia & lymphoma Society. Learn about what other walkers are doing and unique ways to energize your Light the Night fundraising, m...

Avon Walk for breast cancer |Personalize Your Cause Wear a Custom Photo Button | Avon Foundation

Welcome! I hope you will find this handcrafted lens a unique and useful resource for your Avon Walk experience. Learn about what other walkers are doing and unique ways to energize your fundraising, motivate your team & inspire yourself! For 2 days...

The Best Fundraising-idea Ever: Buttons of Hope

Buttons of Hope are custom photo buttons that help people personalize their cause and energize their fundraising. At Buttons of Hope there are no minimums so you can put a face on your fundraising one button at a time.

arthritis fundraising Walk 2008 benefit arthritis Foundation | Personalize Your Cause Wear a Custom Photo Button

Welcome to my arthritis Walk lens! I hope you will find this handcrafted lens a unique and useful resource for your 2008 arthritis Walk | fundraising experience. I have two goals with this Squidoo lens. First, Provide YOU with unique, useful and upd...

24 Hours of Booty : Official 24-Hour Cycling Event of the Lance Armstrong Foundation

Welcome to my 24 Hours of Booty lens! I hope you will find this handcrafted lens a unique and useful resource for your 2008 24 Hours of Booty cycling event| fundraising experience. I have two goals with this Squidoo lens. First, Provide YOU with uni...

Missing People: Billboards that Walk and Talk!

What if there was a way to get 100s even 1000s of photos of a missing child out into the community, overnight? What if those photos were on living, breathing...TALKING people instead of telephone poles? What if those photo buttons broke the ice...

WALK WITH US | Personalize Your Cause Wear a Custom Photo Button | benefit Alliance for lupus Research

Walk With Us to support the Alliance for lupus Research in their quest to find better treatments and ultimately prevent and cure systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE, or lupus), a debilitating autoimmune disease. I hope you will find this lens a unique a...

asthma Walk to benefit the American Lung Association:

Welcome! I hope you will find this handcrafted lens a unique and useful resource for your asthma Walk experience. Learn about what other walkers are doing and unique ways to energize your fundraising, motivate your team & inspire yourself! The Amer...

BIKE MS to benefit the multiple sclerosis Society

These fully supported rides not only connect you to more than 100,000 other riders but also to a growing movement to end multiple sclerosis. MS stops people from moving – together, we can make sure it doesn't. I hope you will find this lens a un...

OUT OF THE DARKNESS COMMUNITY WALK to benefit the American Foundation for suicide Prevention:

Welcome! I hope you will find this handcrafted lens a unique and useful resource for your 2008 Out of the Darkness Walk experience. Learn about what other walkers are doing and unique ways to energize your fundraising, motivate your team & inspire y...

TOUR de CURE 2008 to benefit the American diabetes Association:

Welcome! I hope you will find this handcrafted lens a unique and useful resource for your Tour de Cure experience. Learn about what other cyclists are doing and unique ways to energize your fundraising, motivate your team & inspire yourself! Tour d...

WALK NOW for autism!

I hope you will find this handcrafted lens a unique and useful resource for your Walk Now to Cure autism experience. Learn about what other walkers are doing and unique ways to energize your fundraising, motivate your team & inspire yourself! Autism...

My, You Tube

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BUDDY WALK 2008 to benefit the National down syndrome Society

Welcome! I hope you will find this handcrafted lens a unique and useful resource for your 2008 Buddy Walk experience. Learn about what other walkers are doing and unique ways to energize your fundraising, motivate your team & inspire yourself! Budd...

City of Hope WALK FOR HOPE to Cure breast cancer

City of Hope, an innovative biomedical research, treatment and educational institution, is dedicated to the prevention and cure of cancer and other life-threatening diseases, guided by a compassionate patient-centered philosophy, and supported by a n...

Lance Armstrong Foundation: LIVESTRONG

Welcome! I hope you will find this handcrafted lens about the Lance Armstrong Foundation a unique and useful resource. By participating in a LiveStrong Challenge, LiveStrong Army or through Grassroots advocacy you too will be a part of this mission....

aids Walk Houston 2008

"I always participate in the AIDS Walk because my daddy's first partner died of AIDS and I want to do what I can to eliminate that pain for someone else." ~ Buster Beloved Dog of Tom Fricke I hope you will find this handcrafted lens a unique and use...

WALK for pkd to benefit the polycystic kidney disease Foundation

Welcome! I hope you will find this handcrafted lens a unique and useful resource for your 2008 pkd Walk experience. Learn about what other walkers are doing and unique ways to energize your fundraising, motivate your team & inspire yourself! If you...

STEP OUT TO FIGHT dIABETES to benefit the American diabetes Association

WELCOME! Step Out to Fight Diabetes, formerly America's Walk for Diabetes, is about changing the face of diabetes in our country—by raising funds to help find a cure and by walking a few miles to bring a greater awareness to this devastating dis...

AIDS Lifecycle 2008 | Put a Face on the AIDS cause with a Custom Photo Button

Welcome to my AIDS LifeCycle lens! I hope you will find this handcrafted lens a unique and useful resource for your 2008 AIDS Lifecycle quest | fundraising experience. I have two goals with this Squidoo lens. First, provide YOU with unique, useful a...

MojoRiding Cycling Team

In the PINK (and green)! Middle age men and women (and a couple of hammerhead kids), doctors, lawyers, professionals, Moms and Dads in hot pink & lime green spandex, really! We ride a lot of miles, raise a lot of money and have a lot of FUN!! Base...

Making Strides Walk to benefit the American cancer Society:

Welcome! I hope you will find this handcrafted lens a unique and useful resource for your 2008 Making Strides Walk experience. Learn about what other walkers are doing and unique ways to energize your fundraising, motivate your team & inspire yourse...

skitch your squidoo

No Meatball Sundae here! SKITCH is the rainbow sprinkles for Squidoo's perfect neopolitan! The easiest, coolest. most fun screen capture, photo edit, line drawing, annotating tool EVER! And it's FREE ...really. Visit SKITCH for details.

MEMORY WALK to benefit the alzheimer's Association

Since 1989, Memory Walk has raised more than $225 million to help those battling alzheimer's disease. The alzheimer's Association, the leading voluntary health organization in alzheimer research, care and support, is dedicated to finding prevention m...

Kidney Walk to benefit the National Kidney Foundation

Welcome! I hope you will find this handcrafted lens a unique and useful resource for your Kidney Walk experience. Learn about what other walkers are doing and unique ways to energize your fundraising, motivate your team & inspire yourself! 26 Milli...

Susan Komen TV: A showcase of Race for the Cure and 3 Day Walk Videos

Susan Komen TV is a part of our Susan Komen Race for the Cure and 3 Day breast cancer information community here @ Squidoo. Enjoy the videos, vote for your favorite or add you own.

STRIDES FOR CHANGE WALK to benefit Mothers Against Drunk Driving

Strides for Change, MADD’s signature walk, is a fun, community-driven 5K walk that raises funds and saves lives. Every step taken and pledge made will help raise funds and awareness for MADD’s programs and services that will serve to make...

TEAM IN TRAINING to benefit the leukemia & lymphoma Society:

Welcome! I hope you will find this handcrafted lens a unique and useful resource for your Team in Training experience. Learn about what other walkers are doing and unique ways to energize your fundraising, motivate your team & inspire yourself! If...

Walk to D' Feet als 2008 to benefit the las Association

Welcome! I hope you will find this handcrafted lens a unique and useful resource for your Walk to D'FEET als experience. Learn about what other walkers are doing and unique ways to energize your fundraising, motivate your team & inspire yourself! T...

NASCAR TRACK WALKS to benefit the NASCAR Foundation

The NASCAR Foundation Track Walks give fans the unique opportunity to walk a lap around some of the most famous race tracks in NASCAR.  Not only do walkers experience the track from a different perspective and get to enjoy the sights and sounds...

2008 ms WALK to benefit the National multiple sclerosis Society

Welcome to my ms Walk lens! I hope you will find this handcrafted lens a unique and useful resource for your 2008 ms Walk | fundraising experience. I have two goals with this Squidoo lens. First, Provide YOU with unique, useful and updated informati...

buttons of hope & memory of.com

Buttons of Hope has teamed up with MemoryOf.com to offer custom photo buttons to remember loved ones!Michael Gibbons, Founder of Buttons of Hope says,"At first buttons seem pretty simple after all buttons have been around forever. But it's the way t...

BP MS 150 Houston Texas for multiple sclerosis

Texas does everything big -- not surprising the BP MS 150 is one of the most successful MS 150 bike tours in the country. In 2008 with over ten thousand fellow cyclists to support The Lone Star National multiple sclerosis Society Chapter serving more...

Hope

To me Hope is not a passive word. Hope is action -- talk to anyone who has been touched by a loved battling disease and you'll see what I mean! So take a look around and while you're here check out Buttons of Hope and consider making a custom photo...

WALK WITH ME to benefit Easter Seals

You've just taken the first step toward making a difference in the life of someone with a disability! An Easter Seals Walk With Me event is different... and so will you be at the end of it. I hope you will find this handcrafted lens a unique and usefu...

just cure it.

In 1969 Before computers and the internet...We put a man on the moon and returned him safely to earth. I will repeat that we PUT A MAN ON THE MOON AND RETURNED HIM SAFELY TO EARTH. If...sorry WHEN we commit to this fight we can cure cancer. The greate...

Help Find Madeleine McCann Custom Photo Buttons

I would like to make 100s maybe 1000s of photo buttons of Madeleine McCann the four year old British girl who was abducted in Portugal three weeks ago. If people wear photo buttons of Madeleine -- they would be like personal billboards -- spreading a...

Arthritis Foundation's Jingle Bell Walk and Run

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Vote for the best song lyric ever!

What is yours? Maybe it's from a one hit wonder - here are a few to get you started! Add your and vote for the best!   

GIRLS ON THE RUN IN 2008!

Welcome! I hope you will find this handcrafted lens a unique and useful resource about one of my favorite non profits Girls on the Run. Girls on the Run is a life-changing, experiential learning programs for girls age eight to thirteen years old. T...

Y-ME Mother's Day Run-Walk-Empower 2008

Welcome to my Y-ME Walk | Run | Empower site! I hope you will find this handcrafted lens a unique and useful resource for your 2008 Y-ME Mother's Day Walk|Run fundraising experience. I have two goals with this Squidoo lens, well three actually! Fir...

Charity

Welcome! I hope you will find this handcrafted lens a unique and useful resource for charitable organizations and causes. Learn about what other people are doing and unique ways to energize your fundraising, motivate your team & inspire yourself! S...

Pay It Forward

Pay It Forward is a book written by Catherine Ryan Hyde, but it's also an idea. It's an action plan within a work of fiction. But does it have to be fiction? We're hoping not. In fact, since the book was released in January of 2000, a real-life socia...

March For Babies 2008 formerly Walk America | Personalize Your Cause Wear a Custom Photo Button

Welcome! Walk America is now March for Babies! I hope you will find this handcrafted lens a unique and useful resource for your 2008 March for Babies Walk and fundraising experience. Learn about what other walkers are doing and unique ways to energi...

The Inspiration Channel: Down Syndrome Video Showcase

I have tried to find some of the best, informative, inspiring and beautiful video expressions of some amazing people.

Special Olympics

Special Olympics is an international nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering individuals with intellectual disabilities to become physically fit, productive and respected members of society through sports training and competition.

The National Cancer Flame

Before computers, before the internet, before 1970...WE put a man on the moon and returned him safely to earth... Now...We can CURE CANCER! IF we all were to come together -- across age and race and political boundaries -- we could JUST CURE IT! The Na...

Make a wish give a smile

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Homes built with hope!

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Cure apathy

Coming soon....as individuals we may not be able to cure cancer, alzheimer's or multiple sclerosis....but.... we can cure apathy. 

Livestrong, live yellow

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Pink

It is just a color or is it? boys are blue, girls are pink...what is it about pink that is so polarizing. Come with me let's explore the color...PINK!

applecomputer

Think Different? Then follow me through the kaleidescope that is Apple Computer. Can Apple change your life...changed mine!

Church World Service: Crop Walk

What is a CROP Hunger Walk? Neighbors walking together to take a stand against hunger in our world.  Together we raise awareness and funds for international relief and development, as well as local hunger-fighting.