Blog For Relief Day (UPDATE: Blog For Relief WEEKEND!)

Today has been designated Blog For Relief Day. Join me in supporting the relief effort, and if you have a blog -- especially one with high-volume traffic -- check out the Blog For Relief Day site.

When you donate, if you'd like to have your donation amount added to the grand total tally for Blog for Relief Day (or say that my blog sent you), record the information here. Get the update on how much money bloggers have raised so far.

My charity of choice is Feed The Children, where every dollar you send enables delivery of seven pounds of already-donated relief supplies (water, "MRE" meals ready to eat, diapers, infant formula, etc.) to families who have been displaced by Hurricane Katrina. Feed the Children has been given the highest rating by Charity Navigator, and has excellent accountability (read: you know your money is going where it should go).

Some other organizations -- many of which are listed here at Instapundit -- you may consider:

The Salvation Army: My dad always says they're the one organization that really provided for him and his fellow soldiers in Vietnam. This is a great organization with a long history of service.

Samaritan's Purse: An international Christian relief organization. They're already mobilizing in Mobile, Alabama to bring supplies and volunteers for physical and spiritual comfort. They're helping to rebuild homes in Mobile, and will move westward into Mississippi and Louisiana as soon as it's possible to do so.

Soldiers' Angels Katrina Relief Fund: Included in the ranks of Katrina's victims are the family members of our soldiers serving overseas, many of whom will be returning home in the next few weeks to find that their families have been displaced and their homes and businesses destroyed. This fund is helping the soldiers' families to obtain essential needs, as well as working to provide information to deployed soldiers concerning their loved ones' whereabouts.

The Search Dog Foundation: The mission of the Search Dog Foundation is to produce the most highly trained canine disaster search teams in the nation. The job of these teams is to find people buried alive in the wreckage of natural disasters and terrorist attacks.

Many lives have been lost, many people have been left without hope, and we who were not directly affected by the hurricane have a responsibility to reach out and provide what we can. Deny yourself a luxury this week in order to save lives and bring comfort.

(Almost forgot: Hat Tip to Timbo for bringing the coordinated blog relief effort to my attention.)