I'm not kidding. Charlotte's Arts & Science Council does some wonderful things for our community — and enables other organizations to do the same — that touch most of our lives and, in general, help make our community a more vibrant and livable place.

With that, I'm challenging all of you to meet or beat my $52 donation — that's $1 a week with the promise of a great return.

Here's more on the fundraising drive from The Charlotte Observer:

As anybody involved with a social-service group or arts organization can tell you, these are hard times for raising money. When the Arts & Science Council kicks off its annual drive Wednesday, it will tackle the challenge in a way you might never expect: by running a second campaign on top of its main one.

As always, the ASC will raise money it will distribute to cultural groups across Mecklenburg County. The likely goal is $7.3 million - roughly what each of the past two campaigns brought in.

Along with that, the ASC will try to raise $1 million for a single purpose: helping bring back arts-oriented field trips and other cultural programs lost to budget-cutting at Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools.

There's a goal to this beyond putting music, theater, dance and art in front of students. It's part of the ASC's attempt to redefine itself for post-recession Charlotte.

The ASC needs that. The downturn hit it harder than any other arts fund in the United States. Its 2009 campaign, held when the recession was at its scariest, took in $7.3 million - a drop of more than 30 percent from the previous year. In 2010, the ASC needed extra time just to equal the 2009 total.

Read the rest of this article, by Steven Brown, here.

The ASC has a YouTube channel, if you're interested. Here's one of their videos, which just so happens to address the topic at hand:

Rhiannon "Rhi" Bowman is an independent journalist who contributes snarky commentary on Creative Loafing's CLog blog four days a week in addition to writing for several other local media organizations. To learn more, click the links or follow Rhi on Twitter.