Today we launched the Official Squidoo Thanksgiving Cookoff (for Charity) to help us give away $1000 to charity every day through Thanksgiving, with a $5000 grand prize vote-off at the end of the month.

To enter and raise money (for free) for your favorite charity on our list, just make a foody lens. Great apple pie recipes, best locally grown squashes, tried and true baking secrets, best coffeemaker recommendations, your family's Thanksgiving menu -- anything and everything food or kitchen, it all goes. Make it really great, and set your earnings to donate 100% of the lens proceeds to one of our partner charities.

That's exactly what lensmaster HorseandPony did with her lens, the very first winner in our Cookoff and perfect for a chilly Monday morning in November: Pumpkin Spice Coffee for Your Thanksgiving Holiday. Or as she calls it, "The liquid version of pumpkin pie." In a cup.

The lens organizes her favorite hard-to-find pumpkin coffees and shows you right where to order them online, in plenty of time before your holiday houseguests show up.

Thanks to her, we're donating $1000 for Operation Gratitude, the nonprofit she's chosen to support with this lens.

It's that simple. Real people raising money for charity, just by making free lenses about the stuff they love most.

I wonder who tomorrow's winner will be. We'll be watching for your lens!

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.