It's November! We know what that means. Raking leaves, football in the backyard, and the smell of fresh apple pie. That's right. Thanksgiving is near.

To celebrate the season and help give thanks to deserving charities, we're hosting a contest. It's the Official Squidoo Thanksgiving Cookoff for Charity.

The rules are simple. Go here to start a food-related lens. Make it really great, and set your earnings to donate 100% of the lens proceeds to a charity of your choice. Every day through Thanksgiving, we'll pick one great lens, and donate $1000 to the charity that lens supports. We'll even make it LOTD. There's no limit on how many awesome food related lenses you can make. On Thanksgiving, we'll pick five great lenses and donate $1000 to each of those charities. It's the easiest way we know to put $1000 back into our communities.

If you're a Squidoo Partner Charity, you're already eligible to win. Just go out and have your volunteers create lots of great lenses on your behalf. If you're not already a charity with us, learn how to join. (For the purposes of this contest, we'll even waive the lens requirement for one month. Just send us your Official Name, PayPal address, logo, very short blurb, and we'll get you hooked up. More info here.)

Over the years we've given away well over $100,000, and now we're giving away $30,000 more. Ahhh. Giving never smelled so delicious.

http://www.squidoo.com/squidoo-thanksgiving-cookoff

Every day (or nearly that) Squidoo's Community & Charity Organizer, Kimberly Dawn Wells, highlights a lens that stands out from the crowd, a lens that is unique in topic, approach, personality, tools or timing. Or, you know, just a lens that made her day.

If you find a lens you'd like to submit for LotD consideration, send it to us here.

Looking for some help and advice on your own lenses? Swing by SquidU, where tons of smart lensmasters hang out.