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For-Giving Technology
Shannon Henry
February 11, 1999

A Washington technology executive is using everything he's learned about computers and networks in a personal project that couldn't be more important: saving his son's life.

Allen Goldberg of VarsityBooks.com launched an online charity auction yesterday to raise money that will go toward researching Fanconi anemia, a rare disease that his 3-year-old son, Henry, has had since birth.

Hosted on Yahoo and running through Feb. 24, the auction is a philanthropic version of the now ubiquitous commercial online auctions. Yahoo entered the auctioneering business in September and has so far held 20 online charity events. It holds the auctions for free for those with a nonprofit status, says Karen Opp, Yahoo Auctions Producer.

Those who log on to Yahoo.com and click on its auctions section can bid on 100 or so items that Goldberg now has in his basement, including a jacket formerly owned by singer Mary Chapin Carpenter and a tennis racket signed by Gabriela Sabatini.

Goldberg hopes the auction will raise $ 7,000 to $ 10,000, all of it to go to the Fanconi Anemia Research Fund in Eugene, Ore. "It lets us reach as many people as possible," says Goldberg.

When Henry was born and diagnosed with the disease, Goldberg, then Webmaster at the National Association of Broadcasters, used the Internet to research what is still a little-known condition. Only 1,000 or so people, mostly children, have the disease. Soon after Henry's birth, Goldberg and his wife, Laurie Strongin, created a Web page, www.hsg.org, to keep friends and family updated on his health and encourage donations to the Oregon group. About $ 150,000 has so far been raised through the site.

Children with Fanconi anemia are usually born with myriad birth defects. The genetic condition can cause bone-marrow failure; the life expectancy for a child with Henry's type of the disease is four years.

"The clock is ticking," says Goldberg.