Alzheimer's fundraiser

I've spend a lot of the last couple of days stragegizing on how I could pull off a really big fundraiser to raise money for Alzheimer's research.  I've got a long way to go, but it's starting to take shape in my mind.

I've already started doing some research on organizations that are doing the best work right now in terms of Alzheimer's research.  I've got a way to go here and have a few leads I want to follow.  It would be awesome if one of the local medical research facilities were doing great work, but I just don't know that that's true.

I'm picturing first doing some major advertising to let people know what's coming.  Of course, I know local people best and will rely on them to buy into the idea and get things going, but I hope, with the Internet as a tool, I can get people from all over the place to buy into it.

I hope to, from a website--perhaps this blog ? :) --explain the concept and state the guidelines/rules. 

Basically, I hope to run a contest a month.  I've got 10 ideas that I think would be great, but don't know if doing that many will become too hard to manage. 

For each contest, participants will create something following some basic rules/patterns.  The idea is for the projects to have some uniformity to make them "judgeable" but to allow for tons of creativity too. 

My conflict/challenge right now is to come up with a way to promote the idea so that the products created are truly artsy and desirable to a broad range of personality types and not just crafty country items.  I would love for there to be lots of variety, but definitely want some items to have the feel that Anthropologie, Urban Outfitters, Ballard Designs, Pottery Barn, and similar places have. 

I saw that allpeoplequilt.com, under their "APQ Quarterly Challenge", did some things last year along the line of what I have in mind--they're mostly quilts which I'm not particularly focused on--but I like the layout/platform.  I don't think they awarded a winner.  I'd like to have as many people participate as possible and then, by a deadline, have them post a couple of pictures of their finished product.  Judges would then pick a winner who would receive a gift card.  The big hope is that most of the participants would then be willing to donate their creations to be auctioned off at a big auction in 6-12 months.

Hopefully that auction could attract a lot of people interested in spending some money and picking up some great customized decorative items.

For now, I'm thinking about the challenges being to create the following:

1. a messenger bag following a provided pattern
2. a framed silhouette
3. a pillow made following a provided pattern
4. a sexy apron following a provided pattern
5. a scarf following some provided guidelines
6. a necklace
7. a tablecloth using a certain technique
8. a framed black and white photograph
9. a beach bag following a provided pattern
10. a covered journal following provided guidelines