October 23, 2009

Happy Fall & Happy Halloween!

We are almost at the end of our second month as a functioning Street
Team and we commnend each and every one of you for working your mad promotional skills on behalf of the Wishlist Foundation, the charities we support and Pearl Jam. Everyone is doing an amazing job – you guys rock!

October has proven to be just as kick butt as September! We just reached 202 members (69% guys and 31% girls); have 1,003 completed orders and 20,991 web banner displays. This is awesome!

Speaking of October/Fall/Halloween… don’t forget to wish your friends & family a Happy Halloween with our e-card and share your Pearl Jam inspired Halloween costume!

If you’re going to any/all of the Philadelphia shows, make sure to RSVP
to the events as well as sign on to the Philly attendance orders

In this newsletter:

• October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month
• Special Ops Order Reminder
• CCFA: IBD Research Awareness Act
• Special Ops: new banners available
• Just for fun: Secret Santa 2009
• New Order Notification Poll
• Gift Credit Redemption – what do you want?
• New Wishlist Website

Now on to the news…

October
is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month (NBCAM). It is sponsored
by an organization comprised of several national public service organizations,
professional medical associations, and government agencies working
in partnership to build breast cancer awareness, share information,
and provide access to screening services. The organization and its
website – http://www.nbcam.com
- are year-round resources for patients, survivors, caregivers and
the general public.

Since
its beginning more than 20 years ago, NBCAM has been dedicated to
increasing awareness of breast cancer issues, especially the importance
of early detection. Even though great strides have been made in breast
cancer awareness and treatment even more still needs to be done. Check
their website for information about the disease, patient services,
and to find fund raising events in your area that you can participate
in especially during the month of October.

For
more information, visit the following sites:

* Young Survival Coalition

* Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation

* National
Cancer Institute

* National Breast Cancer
Foundation

Check
out the Team mission
to help advocate breast cancer awareness.

Reminder:
Please photo document your Backspacer physical promo work so we can
monitor how many posters were hung, what type of locations are being
covered, in what towns, in what cities you are doing them in.

We’ve
expanded the due date to 12/31/09 to give everyone a chance to get
theirs uploaded. Document
your efforts now…

CCFA:
IBD Research Awareness Act

in honor of fellow fan & friend Brent Hinson

Over
the past several years many of you have come out to support Mike McCready
as he raises awareness about Crohn’s
Disease & Ulcerative Colitis.

You’ve
attended “Flight To Mars” shows, donated at a Wishlist Foundation
fundraiser or bought a “Got Guts” bracelet.

Now,
I ask for your help to increase awareness on a national level.

“The
IBD Research and Awareness Act” (S.981 / H.R.2275) is a bipartisan
bill that would:

“Express
the Sense of Congress that the National Institute of Diabetes and
Digestive and Kidney Disease at NIH should expand support for research
and public awareness on inflammatory bowel disease.”

This
important legislation holds great promise for IBD patients and their
families.

If
we are able to generate 218 co-sponsors (half of the House) for the
House and 51 co-sponsors (half of the Senate) for the Senate, we will
be well positioned to pass the bill in the fall of 2010.

Right
now, we have 8 sponsors in the Senate and 57 sponsors in the House.

As
an IBD patient and fan of Pearl Jam, I am asking for your help to
write, email and call your Senators and Congressmen/women and ask
them to co-sponsor this bill.

It’s
extremely important to educate our legislators about these terrible
conditions and let them know how they affect their constituents.

I’m
asking for your help on behalf of other IBD patients, a family member,
a friend…or a guitar player we all know and love.

If
you would like more information, visit my blog,
follow me on Twitter
or send me a PM (PissBottleMan on the Pearl Jam Forums).

Thank
you to all who have helped spread the word over the past several years.
We have made the words “Crohn’s” and “Colitis”
recognizable within the Pearl Jam community. Now, let’s take it one
step further.

Thank
You.

Cheers,

Brent
Hinson

CCFA IBD Advocacy Chairperson – Tennessee Chapter

Here’s
a great link
and resource to find which of your legislators have already co-sponsored
the bill and a place to email senators and congressmen/women in your
area that haven’t co-sponsored yet.

We need
a lot of Senators and Congressmen/women to co-sponsor the bills in
order facilitate hearings on them next June.? Ultimately, we want
to pass the bill out of the House and Senate by late summer 2010 and
get it signed into law by President Obama by fall 2010.

Please
offer your assistance if you believe this bill should be sponsored
and write to your local representatives. Accept the Team
order to earn points for this important mission!

Backspacer
debuted to much critical acclaim and a number 1 spot on Billboard’s
Top 200. Now at #16, our goal is to help keep Backspacer in the top
twenty and push it back up to the top ten!

Continue
to help promote the album – view the mission here
- with all new Tom Tomorrow banners!

Ho!
Ho! Ho!

Sign up for Secret Santa!

by team member noelmichael

The
holidays are just about upon us, so spread the Wishlist love by joining
us on our first ever Secret Santa!

This
is your chance to give and receive some nifty Pearl Jam and/or Wishlist
gifts. The first thing you have to do is come up with a “wishlist”
of your very own. What are some PJ things you’ve got on your mind?
Make your list, but keep it reasonable. We are only looking to spend
somewhere in the vicinity of $25-$35 total on the gift, so bear that
in mind when making your wishlist.

TODAY,
Friday, October 23 is the cut off
to sign up for Secret Santa… so head on over to the forums and read
more about it!

Last
newsletter we asked for your opinion on receiving new order noficiations,
so we created a poll for you to take.

Sixteen
answered the poll so far with 56.3% wanting an email for every new
order and 25% of you wanted a weekly summary. We don’t think enough
people have answered to make any kind of conclusive decision, so right
now we’re keeping the newsletter updates to twice a month. Emails
will be sent out on random non-repeatable orders on occasion.

Would
you rather receive an email about a new order or just find it when
you visit the Street Team website? We don’t want to annoy you with
new order notifications and bunches of email, but we also want to
remind you when new orders come out so you know it’s even there.

Tell
us what you think, take
the poll now!

So
you’ve been working your butt off to promote Wishlist, the beneficiaries
and Pearl Jam. Right about now you may think to yourself, “What’s
the dealio with the Store Credits I’m earning?”

For almost
every approved Challenge/Order/Mission that you have successfully
completed you earn both Activity Points and Store Credits. Your Street
Team rank and title are mainly determined by the number of Activity
Points you have earned, while Store Credits are your redemption points
to “cash in” at the Gift Store.

Since
the Street Team is a new promotional tool/idea for all of us, we want
to find out what you think about the Gift redemption system.

Make
sure you ACCEPT the Gift
Store Credit Redemption order and tell us what you think!

Check
out our new Wishlist website makeover at http://wishlistfoundation.org!

The old
website was a beast and a pain in the butt to update, so we’ve moved
over to a much more user-friendly blog software to run the site. That
means that we will be updating the site a lot more frequently
than we had been and you’ll be able to get the latest Wishlist info!

Want
to help with the newsletter? Submit your essays, opinions on the Team,
charities, causes, the band, a bio of yourself or whatever and we’ll
include one each member’s submission for each newsletter. Send it
here!