Celebrate Someone You Love

by Marnie L. Pehrson

Have you ever wished you could let someone know how much you love them and how important they are to you? Have you ever had a loved one pass away - a grandparent or parent and wished there were some way to preserve all the memories about that person in one place? Or perhaps your child has an outstanding teacher or coach at school that everyone loves, and you'd like to let him or her know how valued they are. Do you have a minister or mentor who has helped you in times of need and you'd like to let them know what they mean to you?

For these occasions and many others, CelebrateSomebody.com has a fun, effective and easy solution Egift books that include thoughts, well-wishes, and memories from invited family and friends about anyone you'd like to celebrate or remember. It's easy to use. You just go to the site and start a book, use the site to send email invitations to others. You can also invite people for whom you don't have email addresses by giving them the Web address and book id number. Those invited fill in a quick form with their comments or memories. If they need ideas to get started, the site will show them other people's comments and prompt them with ways to get started. Each person can even add photos to the book. You, as the administrator, have complete control and can add/edit and remove comments and photos. You can even set the system to send reminders to people who haven't commented yet. In the end you have a beautifully arranged book suitable for printing on your printer or if you'd prefer, CelebrateSomebody will even print and bind the book for you.

Our family recently used the site to make a birthday book for my mother's birthday. I set up the book, gave the site the email addresses for my brother, sisters, aunts and uncles. They all came and wrote a funny story they remembered about her or told why they admired her or sent her a birthday wish. All the grandchildren contributed too. As the administrator, I was able to log in and edit comments, add extra photos and choose the design style of the book.

To include comments of people who didn't have Internet access, I just called them on the phone and got their comments. For example, I called my mother's brother and he shared his memories of her growing up. I typed about 5 pages of his memories and added them to the book. This was one of my mother's favorite parts. Everyone who contributes can upload pictures and we ended up with a priceless 32-page book all about my mom. You can have the system print the book with different designs for stationary. Or you can print it without the designs on plain paper or use pre-printed decorative paper. This has to be one of the most practical and easy-to-use sites for collaborative projects that I've ever encountered.

My mother was incredibly impressed. It was definitely one of her all-time favorite gifts, and we had a blast doing it for her. Another valuable feature about the site is that you can keep editing and printing the book as many times as you'd like. It's very versatile.

Next on the agenda, our family is planning to do a memory book of my Grandmother who passed away a couple years ago. We'll have all her children and grandchildren who remember her use this site to contribute their photos and memories. Then we'll make copies for everyone - including her great grandchildren who never got a chance to know this wonderful woman.

Some other ideas for using this site include:

* Sweet 16 Memory Books
* Graduation Books
* Mothers' and Father's Day Books
* Retirement Books
* Family Histories
* Family Reunion Books
* Milestone Birthday Books

Click here to visit CelebrateSomebody.com to start your book.

Written by: Marnie L. Pehrson,
marniep@mindspring.com
http://www.believersatwork.com

Click here to view more articles by Marnie L. Pehrson.

Marnie Pehrson is an author, creator of www.IdeaMarketers.com, www.LocateACoach.com, www.SheLovesGod.com, and more. She is the author of inspirational books like Lord, Are You Sure? and historical fiction such as The Patriot Wore Petticoats. She also helps people earn money from home using the phone and the Internet. For more information on her projects, visit http://www.pwgroup.com or www.MarniePehrson.com