TWITCHANGE HELPING HAITI

Did you hear about the celebrity auction called Twitchange?

Yes, all you with BieberFever, it's official. You can get him to notice you! ...If you win him through bidding. Eva Longoria is running the first ever Twitter celebrity charity auction to raise money for an orphanage in Haiti.

Shaun King, an Atlanta minister and activist, has a charity called A Home in Haiti, and his current project is to rebuild The Miriam Center using the money raised by Twitchange. The Miriam Center houses and educates Haitian children with cerebral palsy, severe autism, and other major life challenges. It's the only facility of its kind in Haiti. Since the earthquake, the Miriam Center is extremely overcrowded, but A Home In Haiti has provided over $1.5 million in tents to homeless Haitians. Twitchange is phase 2 of the project, aiming to rebuild The Miriam Center. If you go to their website, you can look at picture galleries of the construction in action, the tents that have been sent so far, some of the children that live in the Miriam center and follow the journey of a purchased tent.

...And I thought it was cool that Chegg.com tells you where you planted a tree.

So, what are you bidding for? A DATE with Justin? Not exactly. Since this is an auction based on Twitter, you are bidding to win a celebrity to follow you or mention you. You can bid on either a mention, a follow a retweet, or the package, which includes all three.

Celebs are also throwing in their own prize packages to motivate auctioneers. For example, Shaquille O'Neal (@the_real_shaq) is throwing in Celtics home opener tickets and 4 jerseys for his winner. The woman of the hour (@EvaLongoria), WILL CALL YOU, and is throwing in a signed Desperate Housewives totebag, a signed script from all the ladies of Desperate Housewives, a personalized signed picture, a Desperate Housewives canteen, an extra tweet AND will personally match the winner of her auction. Star Trek's @LevarBurton will come to your house if you win his mega auction.

For all of you up with Twitter lingo, Twitchange was no longer allowed to be on the trending topic list because it would have been a trending topic for TWO WEEKS. Eva Longoria has been marketing this like crazy and basically every celebrity that I follow on twitter has been updating about this nonstop. It's a great cause, and an awesome (& more realistic than dreaming) chance to meet your celeb hero!!

Bidding began on September 15, 2010 (this past Wednesday) and ends on September 25, 2010 (one week from today!)

So far, 735 people have donated $85,020 directly to A Home in Haiti...ontop of the auction. Within the first two days of bidding, Twichange raised over $139,145. A few of what the celebs are going for as of right now (only 4 days in):

• Demi Lovato (Mega package) 114 bids, $1,725.00
• Ryan Seacrest (Mega package) 23 bids, $1,525.00
• Kim Kardashian (FOLLOW) 32 bids, $1,525.00
• Dana White (Mega package) 83 bids, $15,000.000 <--?!?!?!?!
• Jessica Alba (mega package) 53 bids, $3,075.00

There are also way cheaper ones, ie: Austin Nichols (Julian, One Tree Hill) can ReTweet you for only $4.25. But the mega packages and follow options are literally where the money is at. That's where the celebs are throwing in their extra deals.

Feel free to go to the official Twitchange website and check out other bids for yourself. The website also has a list of all the celebrities you can bid on. Right now, there are 337 different people/levels of prizes you can bid on.

Happy bidding!

Now ya heard, spread the word.