Did you hear about our little extracurricular gift-giving project in December? The one that Consumerist blogged so nicely about? Let me explain.

No, there is too much. Let me sum up.

See, in mid-December we heard about a certain young Browncoat couple named Wash (oh yes, that kind of Wash) and Tashi. Just a few months after they were married, Wash was diagnosed with Glioblastoma Multiforme--terminal brain cancer--and he underwent two brain surgeries to remove an apple-sized tumor when he was only 25 years old. Most patients are given months to live, but that was two years ago.

From Tashi's blog posts, we learned that Wash was having a difficult winter, and we decided to send them some geeky holiday cheer. It's the least we could do for fellow Browncoats, and it's not that unusual for us to send goodies just 'cause. (We're soft-hearted like that.)

But it's really, really unusual for the recipients to alert the presses before we'd even received their thank you email! Just as their note hit our inboxes, we got appreciative tweets and kind words from those who had already read the story on Consumerist, and as we worked to keep up with the responses we thought we should keep the warm fuzzies going somehow.

So we asked Wash and Tashi if there was any particular charity near and dear to their hearts that would welcome a $1,000 donation from ThinkGeek. It didn't take long for them to reply with someone doing very special work.

Thus we'd like to announce our first $1,000 monthly donation in 2012, given in honor of Wash: GrayMatters Foundation, founded by Lanette Veres.

Lanette is a brain cancer survivor and her turtle logo says it all: Brain tumors stink! She works to bring brain cancer patients cheer and comfort with gifts, cards, and hospital visits because she's been there, too. In 1998, she was diagnosed with Anaplastic Oligodendroglioma, and by 2007 she'd had five surgeries, and she's been reaching out to patients ever since. That's how Wash and Tashi got to know Lanette.

Our donation is going towards goodies delivered to GrayMatters' Brain Buddies, and we hope it brings a smile! Brains are very important to us--and not just because we're zombies--and it's heartening to know that Lanette is out there doing good work.

Thanks, Lanette and the GrayMatters crew for your work, and thanks, Wash and Tashi, for bringing it to our attention!

As for our February donation, you can probably guess what it'll be if you've been following our donations for the last two years. If not, we'll just leave this link here.