Carolyn K. started Hoagies' Gifted Education Page in 1997. Originally, it was simply a single page link site, set up to use as an example web page, for a class she had been asked to teach on web page design. Carolyn was not the first person to write a website for gifted issues, but she realized that a single place for parents and teachers of gifted kids to find links to all the gifted sites on the Internet would be useful. Remember, this was before there were many search engines, and well before search engine "spiders" accomplished automatic listing updates. Finding websites on particular subjects was not yet easy or standardized. Carolyn's new link page was first central location on the Internet for Gifted Education Information.

Some years ago, Carolyn told me that once she started keeping Hoagies' Page updated, she had in mind to keep it as comprehensive as possible. None of us imagined how vast the Internet was going to become! To the best of her ability, she has continued to do this, even through family, health, and financial difficulties. As of my writing this, Hoagies has over 19,000 links on over 1,100 pages, as well as calendars, articles, and archives. Keeping it all updated, and continuing to find more to organize and post for over a decade, is truly Carolyn's labor of love and commitment to those of us who parent or work with the gifted.

Considering her talents and commitment, I am sure Carolyn could earn a more impressive income to help support her family, if she were not writing Hoagies' Gifted. As a professional in the gifted field myself, who has often sent clients to her phenomenal website, I shudder to imagine how many people like you and me would fare, having to scour the entire Internet to find all the information about giftedness culled together here! Not only has Carolyn made searching for information regarding all things gifted, an easier, streamlined affair by personally reviewing every piece of information on this site, she has also taken upon herself to become the unofficial "archiver" of gifted articles that would vanish entirely from the Internet, if Carolyn didn't include them here.

Our gifted children benefit, and we benefit, by the work Carolyn K. does in keeping Hoagies' the useful website that it is. Making sure there is enough income generated by this site to keep Carolyn and Hoagies' Gifted out of debt, is our responsibility: mine and yours. We are her readers, we are the beneficiaries of Carolyn's hard work. But you can support the continued functioning of this website painlessly. Clicking through the various "affiliate program" icons that are found on every page on the site when you buy something on the Internet (like clicking the "Amazon.com" link, when buying something through Amazon.com, or through the "Rosetta Stone" link when buying their language learning software, etc.) means that those companies consider Hoagies' Gifted website an "affiliate sales" site, and the site earns a small (very small) commission with each purchase. This costs you no money, but you can consider it a long-term memory test to come back to Hoagies' when you are planning on buying some book or gift or something, online, and click through to the site from Hoagies first. Don't worry, the companies are not spying on you somehow, just because you got to their website by following their advertising link on this website. But there is code in the link that automatically makes sure your purchase is tracked as a benefit to Hoagies' Page.

If you have more money than memory (hmm...I think that is me) and coming back to click through just isn't going to happen every time, then you will appreciate the option of just donating $5 or $10 a year, through the PayPal donations option. You don't have to remember anything. You can just do it now, and happily peruse the site for the next year, knowing you have done your part to support Hoagies' Gifted Education Page, and Carolyn. Of course, my father, who was a consummate fund raiser, would tell me that I have erred in suggesting only five to ten dollars. So in his honor, I will add, that if you have the means, you are certainly welcome to add as many zeros to those numbers as you wish.

Oh, yes, and do help spread the word by purchasing Hoagies' Gifted logo mugs, caps, t-shirts and other great looking stuff.

I did intend to keep this request short, and I see I have not succeeded. Therefore, I will stop here.

Thank you for your commitment to keeping Hoagies' Page on the 'Net,

Shulamit Widawsky  www.shulamit.info

To read more about the history of Hoagies' Gifted Education Page and Carolyn K. herself, please see  Who Am I? and Speaking Appearances.