Shake Up: For Your Loved Ones

Shakeups aren’t always about thrills. Getting involved in your community or working for causes that are meaningful to you can be just as energizing as bungee jumping or racecar driving. In The List, two women shook things up by helping with Hurricane Katrina relief efforts. Another started a charitable foundation. Yet another organized an anti-gun rally that ended up with 750,000 participants.

I just found out about a cause that two “Listers” have been involved with in the last year. Liz Becker, who you’ve met, and Kim Merkin (#73 Throw an All-Girls Party and #65 Skinny Dip) both contributed essays to a new book called Knowing Pains: Women on Love, Sex and Work in Our 40s. Most of the writers in the book are not professional writers — they’re teachers, artists, businesspeople, moms, etc. — but they have one thing in common: Someone in their lives has had breast cancer. The proceeds from Knowing Pains will go to Breast Cancer Action for research and access to care. So when these women shook it up, it was for a cause near and dear to them.