Pastiche Charity Lenses

This SquidoWHO charity lens is a profile of Alan Wilbar, a performance artist who suffered a traumatic brain injury (TBI) and serious physical injuries when he fell through a circus tent in 1988. You'll learn about Alan's artistic career, his art, and about the accident that changed his life forever.

You'll discover how Alan's career, family and life were affected by traumatic brain injury and how his remarkable recovery is on ongoing process more than 20 years later. You'll also learn facts about TBI, Brain Injury Association and find opportunities for donating to charities that help TBI survivors.

This unique profile will introduce you to a talented artist who learned to live life in the present day and keep focused on who he is and what he does well - to share the lessons learned about life, recovery and dealing with the physical and emotional pain, including PTSD - through his writing and performance art - with TBI victims, their families, caregivers and the world.

Visit this lens: Alan Wilbar, Poet

On April 1, 2011, Squidoo Angels were tocouraged to fly outside their usual territories and find lenses worthy of a blessing. My neighborhoods are Clip Art and Coloring, so I chose to visit the Relationships & Family neighborhood that day. I spent several hours visiting and blessing lenses I discovered there, and I managed to review and bless 27 lenses on April Fools Day 2011.

This lens chronicles my day of "angeling" outside the 'hood, flitting about and blessing newly discovered (to me) lenses in my guest neighborhood. There's no ranking or special order to the way I documented my April Fools Day blessings other than the way I organized them into groupings based on my personal experience and impressions of each lens.

Visit this lens: April Fool Angel Blessings

A few months after we lost our beloved black cat, Ebony, my husband and I adopted a tabby cat from my sister-in-law. We missed having 3 cats in the house, and our two remaining felines (Ebony's offspring who were full grown cats by then) were definitely lost without the queen of the house.

The young female cat we took in was about 2 years old and had a terrible reputation for getting into trouble and misbehaving. We love cats and decided she needed a new home where there were no dogs and people who loved cats rather than go to the shelter. This lens as told by Terra Catta Nosa (formerly named Spike) tells her life story up to her adoption and is dedicated to TLC Animal Shelter.

Visit this Lens: Bad Cat - Good Kitty

My mother has COPD. The specific cause(s) are unknown, but she must use oxygen 24 hours a day and she must stay indoors when air quality isn't good. These limitations keep her alive and in relatively good health and spirits, but they do cramp her style somewhat. She's an active 80-year-old who lives independently and volunteers for Meals on Wheels and other organizations every month.

The fight for clean air and research to combat lung diseases gets a part of its funding through seasonal sales of Christmas Seals. The US program was developed as a critical fundraising effort in 1907, modeled after a successful 1904 campaign in Denmark.

From its origins to raise funds for a Delaware tuberculosis sanitarium to today's nationwide programs that include fighting for clean air in our homes, schools, workplaces and outdoors plus anti-smoking education, childhood asthma research and work on other breathing-related issues, the focus of the Christmas Seals campaign is on helping us all breathe easier.

Visit this lens: Christmas Seals®

Dean Kamen is a selfless and inspiring mentor to America's young people. Keep your eye on the kids who've participated in his sponsored USFIRST programs. They're the bright minds who will be bringing "the next big thing" to the next several generations. Dean Kamen is a brilliant, personable guy from New Hampshire - a baby-boomer inventor, physicist and upbeat entrepreneur. He campaigns for a better world through education and inspiration of kids to choose math and science careers.

Dean Kamen holds more than 100 U.S. patents Among those inventions are life-altering designs including the world's first portable insulin pump and a portable kidney dialysis machine. His first patents were granted before he he was in his twenties. He's New Hampshire's (and perhaps America's favorite) /Science Geek Rock Star and my personal favorite inventor-mentor.

Visit this Lens: Dean Kamen, Inventor-Philanthropist

This is a very special charity lens I created for the Squidoo Sunshine Charity Awards in 2010. Thanks to plenty of votes, the lens won an award which meant that Squidoo donated $99.00 to the charity of my choice. I also pledged and donated a matching personal contribution and made an additional donation to a local charity related to the cause.

What's it all about? In late July, 2010, the popular television show Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, rolled into Berks county, Pennsylvania to kick off a week-long volunteer effort to build a home for a local family who had suffered tremendous personal tragedy only a year before.

This story was special to me because it took place less than 20 miles from my home and involved thousands of people from the community, many of them friends, neighbors and former co-workers. Nearly every community group and organization got involved in the fundraising and labor: Amish farmers and builders, college students, construction workers, local sports teams and businesses, county legislators and hundreds of members of the regional home builders association.

All these folks turned out to raise funds and build a new home for Trisha Urban, a young widow and her baby daughter Cora. Trisha's husband died of a massive heart attack on the day their daughter, Cora, was born in February 2009. Trisha, pregnant and worried, found her husband Andy collapsed near the pasture on their rundown farm. Although she lost her husband, that same day she went into labor and delivered their daughter. In the months that follower that bittersweet winter day, Trisha struggled to keep the farm going, raise Cora and maintain the ramshackle farmhouse. By the time she learned they had been chosen by Extreme Makeover, Trisha and Cora were living in one room of the big house. Despite her tight financial situation, Trisha was working to help local charities.

This story touched my heart as soon as I learned about it, and I was compelled to create this lens. It was a whirlwind project because I updated the lens in real time for the weeks before, during and after the construction and reveal. I'm still adding news to this lens because Trisha is working to help others in the region just as she was assisted - she's giving back in so many ways, setting a fine example for rar daughter and the community.

Visit this lens: Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, Berks County Pennsylvania

I earned my masters of Squidoo in June 2009 - my Squidoo MBA. I was already a Giant club member and I was working toward qualification for Giant 100. This lens tells the story of how I got my Squidoo MBA, and features a snapshot of the lenses I created to fulfill my Giant Squid 2009 Summer School assignments.

I originally signed up for Giants Summer Session to get a creative boost and have some fun making lenses. I got much more out of the 8 week session besides the lenses you'll find in this snapshot lensography of my homework projects. At the end of June 2009 I became a member of the Giant 100 Club. That was nearly 2 years after I first joined Squidoo. By May 2011 I had created 195 lenses and set a target of June 30 2011 to reach 200 published lenses.

Visit this lens: My Giant Squid MBA

Judy's on Cherry is one of my favorite restaurants in Berks County Pennsylvania. I've eaten at Judy's many times and eaco time I discover a new favorite dish. The menu changes with the seasons and features local produce as much as possible.

The hubs and I became Judy's fans when my daughter from New Hampshire sent me a Judy's dinner club membership for my birthday a few years ago. The squash soup is a must try - or go on Thursday and try out the 5 under 5 dishes, tapas style. And if you like great martini, local brewery beer or fine wine, Judy's has a full bar.

On our first visit we discovered why Judy's on Cherry is a foodie's delight and is actually quite famous beyond the bounds of Reading, Pennsylvania. It's even been rated at Zagat. Check out this lens, and then visit Judy's on Cherry. It's an hour from Bethlehem (home of Sands Casino at the former Bethlehem Steel Works site) or Philadelphia (if you need an escape from the city).

Visit This Lens: Judy's on Cherry, Restaurant Review

My experience living with dogs and cats makes me believe they want us to know what they're thinking, just like humans do. They communicate by acting out physically and through facial expressions,not unlike children (and some adults). If you've ever had a close relationship with an animal you probably learned to recognize signs of how they're feeling, good or bad.

You can almost imagine cartoon thought bubbles with captions over an animal's head in some of the photos in this lens. Just one look at this snapshot of my grey tom cat Spark - he's got his eyes closed in bliss and his nose raised to catch a whiff of something in the breeze -tells me he's relaxed and happy and thinking about his favorite activity: eating. This old guy has a voracious appetite. He goes wild for chicken and he was probably thinking he might smell a nice tasty boneless breast cooking on the grill when I captured his portrait in this photo.

Enjoy the funny animal photos in this lens and vote for the caption that you think fits each picture best. You can add your own suggested captions to the lists below each humorous animal photo. This lens was built as a test run when the Photo Captions module was first added to the lensmaster workshop tools. It was created as one of my homework assignments when I earned my Squidoo MBA.

Visit this lens: Silly Animal Photos - Caption This!

The Squidoo shared-revenue model provides a seamless method for lensmasters to generate direct charitable contributions to one or more charities on any lens they create. When I signed up for a free Squidoo account and started creating lenses I decided to try to donate a portion of any earnings to charity as a way to Pay It Forward in a manner I had previously not been able to afford.

In the past I'd given plenty to charity by way of gifts in kind ad small monetary donations, but this was a way for me to hand over cash as part of a group donation made in my behalf via Squidoo every month. I never dreamed that my lenses would generate thousands of dollars in charitable contributions but they have. I'm really proud of the fact that up to April 20, 2011 my total royalties donated to charity equaled $3,696.36.

The more successful I am as a Squidoo lensmaster, the more I earn for charity. I've also become active as a Kiva micro-lender and am a member of the SquidKiva lending team. Early on in my Squidoo career I moved a month's royalties to Kiva to use as a micro-loans funding base. I've made more than 25 loans to various groups and individuals through the Kiva program since I joined SquidKiva.

I build many coloring page lenses at Squidoo. I write about coloring pages for adults, coloring sheets for children, coloring crafts and coloring pages as designer resources. This coloring lens was created especially for charity, and it was inspired by my only grandson, Sawyer. He's been in love with anything that has wheels since he was a toddler. Now that he's close to Kindergarten age his enthusiasm for race cars and coloring have merged so finding coloring pages with cars and other vehicles is part of my routine whenever we're together.

This collection of free car racing coloring pages offers plenty of arts and crafts fun for all ages; the printable cars coloring sheets range in complexity from simple race car pictures for preschoolers up to detailed top speed race cars line drawings. You can use the race car coloring sheets in this lens to create a template, tattoo, personal artwork or create your own arts and crafts. As with most of my coloring lenses, I've included a range of printable pictures - some will appeal to preschoolers or crafts designers while others will thrill adult coloring fans with their details and complex images.

Visit this lens: Race Cars Coloring Pages

After more than a decade working in high tech publishing, both as a designer/developer and management team member, I decided to leave the corporate world and return to college to finish a long-delayed bachelor degree. A few months before graduation I had the opportunity to house sit for a freelance marketing client who was married to a former coworker. In exchange for taking care of her home and pets,

Nancy Hoft spent one whole day giving me a crash course in the essentials of web design: information architecture, HTML, and usability. Then she took off for two weeks and then left me to play on her powerful computer system. I learned to write code from scratch through trial and error, with the help of her book and the copious notes I'd taken during our 8-hour hands-on teaching marathon. It was a brilliant experience and one that launched me into a whole new direction upon graduation a few months later.

This tribute lens is my way of expressing gratitude appreciation for Nancy Hoft, a talented, intelligent and wise mentor whose guidance and sharing are seemingly without bounds. We had no idea so many years ago that our collaboration would help set the course for my new career direction - a path that ultimately led me to success with my own web sites and on Squidoo

Visit this lens: Nancy Hoft, My Web Mentor

I use Photoshop nearly every day. I edit photos, I create logos and graphics, I retouch images and I resize clip art and coloring pages on the fly. I depend on Photoshop to create interesting graphics and pictures for my Squidoo lenses. I've collected and shared my favorite Photoshop graphics tips on this Squidoo lens. The links will take you to web sites, blogs and Squidoo lenses that will help you find the best the Adobe Photoshop how-to tips, Photoshop articles and video lessons, plugins and helpful hints for working with Photoshop or it's cousin Photoshop Elements.

You'll find links and features show you you step by step how to work graphics magic with images and how you can create cool Photoshop effects with your photographs. It's not a highly technical lens but it's very practical for beginners and intermediate Photoshop users. There's also a section devoted to other graphics programs that offer many of the most practical features without the high software cost. Some online and downloadable graphics editors are excellent alternatives to Photoshop, and this lens will help you find the best programs.

For what it's worth, I created the graphic that illustrates this lens ... using Photoshop, of course.

Visit this lens: Photoshop Graphics Tips and Tricks

The tooth fairy was one of my favorite magical beings when I was a little girl. I had a special fondness for the tooth fairy because I got my first special gift from her before I was 3 years old. I was a very active child and managed to accidentally lose not one but two of my front teeth before I was a preschooler. By the time I started first grade and my friends began to lose their baby teeth, I already had a toothless gap smile to display for the school photographer.

This lens has information about caring for children's dental care as well as nifty ideas for making special tooth fairy gifts, pillows to leave a tooth in for the fairy to find, and special rewards the tooth fairy can leave when she whisks away a lost tooth in the night. There's a section on tooth fairy crafts and also a selection of delightfully illustrated tooth fairy books for children that parents will also enjoy.

Visit this lens: The Tooth Fairy Legend

My Squidoo extended profile lives in this SquidWHO lens. I'm a marketing communications consultant, graphic artist, former publishing techie/management consultant and dual-state grandmother.

Just as I did when I was a program manager for large technical publishing installations, I take my work on the road. When I worked for someone else I traveled all over the world; today I divide my time between two homes: one in New England and another in Pennsylvania.

Eventually my husband and I will retire to our Vermont home to garden, paint and enjoy green living and a relaxed lifestyle. For now, have laptop will travel and when I'm not in one place, I'm Skyping to the other. If they gave out frequent driver miles I'd have quite a few free trips racked up.

If you're curious about my Squidoo life and my life beyond the Squidoo community, drop by this lens and say hello.

Visit this lens: Who is Lee Hansen?