Celebrate Mom for Mother's Day!
Designed to celebrate moms for Mother’s Day, Mitch Albom, the acclaimed author of “For One More Day,” along with Borders and the CBS Early Show announce the “Times Mom Stood Up For Me” writing competition on Gather.com.
To participate, entrants submit an original story that relays a childhood memory of a particular moment in which their mother stood up for them.
According to Mitch, “the way my own mother stood up for me was a driving force behind the writing of ‘For One More Day’ In my book, the son never gets to express his gratitude. My hope is that this competition will encourage the entrants to express those feelings, and to honor all the mothers who have so lovingly devoted themselves to their children.”
The Grand Prize:
The grand prize winner will be selected by Mitch himself from the list of finalists, and the winner will be announced on a subsequent CBS Early Show segment, Thursday, May 10th. In addition to appearing with Albom on the show, the winner will receive a seven-night cruise vacation for two from Royal Caribbean International.
Contest Calendar:
- Contest start: 6:00 AM ET, Wednesday, April 11, 2007
- Entry deadline: 11:59 PM ET, Wednesday, April 25, 2007
- Voting Ends: 11:59 PM ET, Sunday, April 29, 2007
- Winner Announced: Thursday, May 10, 2007
How To Enter:
1) Join the "Times Mom Stood Up For Me" contest group at Borders.gather.com. Click here to join the group.
2) After you've completed the group registration, publish your "Times My Mom Stood Up" story by following these steps (only one entry is allowed per person):
- Click on the "Publish" tab at the top of any Gather page
- Select "Publish an Article"
- Draft your article. Submissions should be no longer than 300 words and can include one or more JPEG images. Images are NOT required but are encouraged. Please include the word count at the bottom of your entry.
- In the Add Tags field, you must include the word "mom". Click "Continue" at the bottom of the page
- In the Who can view my article field, click "Everyone," and also select the "Borders" group
- Click "Save"
For the Official Rules click here.
Here is a story by Mitch Albom of a time his mother stood up for him.
Enter the “Times Mom Stood Up For Me” contest today!
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Comments: 71
Mom's are the hardest working people in the world. They never retire.
UNSUNG HEROIN-
by Raquel B.
Mother's silhouette
unsung hero in the dark
sang away my fears.
Lyrical Passion - Lyrical Passion Entertainment/ Lyrical Hitmakers, LLC. -(2007)
I happened to see Mitch Albom on the CBS Early Show this very morning. He made a good appearance and told a few stories from his book; "For One More Day." I don't recall him mentioning Gather, though. I guess I should have paid more attention.
Looking forward to the contest. I'll have to see what will rattle out of my brain.
and although Gather claims to be international-- it in fact does nothing to provide compensation to those outside of the US and nary a contest is open to those who provide material, be it photographic, games or writing, to this site and so Gather benefits doubly in that nonUS contributors not only make the page space for additional advertising but have no compensation given by the "pont system".
And Mitch Albom, for a man who supposedly espouses ethics in the Detroit Free Press (Freep) paper--you have really taken a very bad fall here in credibility.
Go back and be an honorable sports writer and get out of this kind of bs contests because probably like every other Gather contest, it has nothing to do with quality, but only who can control the popularity and survive the drive-by trolls.
There was a time when I seriously admired you, but it was years ago when I wrote a column myself. But if this is the way you chose to promote your book-- it doesn't much reflect on your ethical beliefs.
Thanks for a great contest idea...
I was the only child my mother tried to kill, and despite her coldness and selfishness, they refuse to believe me and choose to believe her because she is a mother.
http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474976955749
Those who want to honor their MOMs...go for it... those who choose not to, you go for it too. Either way, it's good to be creative.
Thanks for the invite, Mitch.
And if this is the only thing I can get in print -- Thank you, Mom!
http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474976960317
JR
since i took a long time to write mine - i would love more people to read mine.
http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474976960317
best of luck!!!!
http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474976957790
Perhaps they will be kind enough to make them public after the contest is over
Doesn't really matter -- I wrote my story (I love the 300 words constraint, since it gives my editing skills a good work out LOL) and already know that it's to non-PC to win. Mom died four years after the story took place, so it's merely presented as a tribute to how far she would go for her kids.
As for those complaining about bad mothers, well it's for Mother's Day, so there are 364 other days that you can publish your stories. As for mothers, who should never have conceived children, what a creepy concept! How many wonderful people would never have been born, simply because their parents should have been put in prison! We can't choose our families, but, no matter what, our treatment by them affects us for life. Sometimes that's good and sometimes it isn't. It all depends on how we choose to play the hand dealt to us.
http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474976950281
here's my times mom stood up for me article...
http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474976968457
I'm looking forward to reading everyone's articles. Hope you will enjoy mine as well. Happy mother's day to everyone.
http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474976968470
I'm new here, so I am still learning how to work this.
I joined the borders group after i entered my article. will it still show up on the group? does it still count?
by
Howard Johnson, 1915
M - is for the Million things she gave me,
O - means only that she's growing Old,
T - is for the Tears she shed to save me,
H - is for her Heart of purest gold,
E - is for her Eyes, with love-light shining,
R - means Right, and right she'll always be,
Put them all together, they spell "MOTHER"
A word that means the world to me.
This is a song/poem my mother used to whistle and sing to us when we were children. My mother could whistle any song like a beautiful bird. As I sat in the church during her funeral in 1995, I would sometimes close my eyes and I could hear my mother whistling this tune to me.
I have empathy for those of you who had horrible experiences with your mothers because I work with abused children. But as someone said on this site, "Many wonderful people would not have been born." My mother was far from perfect, as we all are. I loved her because she did the best she knew how to do. I love my father too, even though, "He was at war with himself, at war with his own mother - the funnel of his abuse" - as I stated in my story.
There is a sad footnote to my mother's life, one I am not willing to reveal at this time. But I love both my parents and even my paternal grandmother - who made my father an abuser!
http://www.gather.com/viewArticles.jsp?memberId=320331
I am really upset because I don't want to lose my entry because of this. Can you accept this article again?
My Mom Gave Me My Life, Twice
Nothing was changed (in the article content). I only added new groups to cross post this article to.
My mother died when I was seven months pregnant with my daughter. I tell my daughter all the time that the reason she understands me so well is that she and my mom had two months together in heaven and that my mom told her all about me!
It was easy writing something praising my mother. I love her and still miss her every day of my life - with all my heart.
No matter, I enjoyed your essay and I hope no one intentionally would try to eliminate someone. I'm not pleased with how this contest worked. I was surprised yesterday to find some excellent contests in what I expected to be in the top ten and yours was one of them.
Best of luck.
(Note to self: Only join contests that have realistic time frames.)
Jamie, in answer to your question, obviously, we are supposed to take the time to search through all 69 pages of entries (plus stuff not entered, but used the word "mom" in it), and search for our entry. Of course, it seems chances are good it did get into the contest, but was never read. "Fortunately," mine was "only" on page 9.
:::::::shrug:::::::::