The Purple Dress Project

If you haven't noticed Ashley Hasty already, then let me be the first to tell you about this local blogger and her month long fund raising effort.

I met Ashley through Twitter and when she won a Hoot Design print on the blog, I suggested we have lunch. During lunch I learned about her year long struggle with Crohn's disease. As someone who suffers from an auto-immune disease, I really related to her helplessness and admired her fortitude. Not only did she continue through her PhD program while in and out of the hospital, she decided to take on the disease when she recovered.

Instead of just making a donation or joining a walk (though she is doing both of those things), she decided to combine her love of fashion with her cause and conceived the Purple Dress Project. Every day in April she is wearing the same purple dress to show that living with Crohn's is not something to be ashamed of. She's put a glamorous spin on a very unglamorous disease.

You can learn more about the project on Ashely's blog. And you can donate to The Purple Dress Project here. Please comment if you do because I will be donating a $1 for every comment up to 50.