cleolinda | (no subject)

Y'all still fired up about making a difference? Well, here's something everyone can help out with, regardless of where you live:

sapphireisle posted about her frustration with fundraising earlier this week--politicians won't help, feel-good TV shows won't help, and the family doesn't have enough money to deal with her mother's illness but still has too much to qualify for most government programs:

I posted to my LJ about real emergencies like my Mum has a very rare cancer, her medical bills have bankrupted us and are still mounting (over $200,000) and to top it off my Dad may be out of work in a week or two due to outsourcing for the second time in four years. Then my Mum will have no insurance and no medical care to be sure she survives this cancer.

This is a legitimate cause and you can get proof on her fundraising site set up by friends who have checked out the validity of her needs.

She loves to write but is stranded in bed due to chronic pain. She wanted a laptop for Christmas last year, but because her medical care is so high, after 5 surgeries in one year (insurance premiums, co-pays, deductibles, things insurance doesn't cover like 8 trips to Mayo Clinic this past year, hotels, gas, etc) we can't afford one. Not this year either! [...] I'm happy that people are kind and caring enough to help others but what about people like my Mum?

A popular writer in the Harry Potter fandom suffered a break-in earlier this week, and enough money was raised to cover the value of the stolen items within hours. I'm not saying there's any way we can raise everything this family needs, but the need here is pretty dire, and we can make a difference. I'm basically putting out a call for everyone who wants to help out to chip in a dollar. I mean, clearly you can give more, but before you scroll on down to the next entry on your friends list, ask yourself--a dollar's easy, right? I don't know how much I can pony up, since I won't get paid again until I turn the book in, but I'm personally going to put together as much as I can. If someone can help out with a laptop--a good deal, a good refurbished one, an unneeded spare, I don't know--we might want to see about that, too, but I know how much illness can drain your finances from the months my grandfather spent in the hospital before he passed on, so a general collection to put out some of their financial fires is fine, too.

If you'd like to make

sapphireisle's own Christmas a little merrier, she also has a small wishlist up at holiday_wishes. I think someone's gotten her the Lemony Snicket book, but, like I was, she's looking for an authentically blue-and-bronze Ravenclaw scarf. Since it's too late to put in custom orders and get them in by Christmas, is there any way we can help out with a ready-made one from somewhere? (ETA: We now seem to have this covered.)

If you give to 4christina.org (and thank you for that), PLEASE log how much (or what) you gave here. No one will see this but me, and it doesn't matter how much you give; we just want to tally how much we've raised due to people linking to this recently on LJ (or FW). Once we get an updated tally, we'll be able to set a fundraising goal (a new "Movies in Fifteen Minutes" may be involved).