A Call for Donations
Tonight I’m doing something that I never thought I would do on this web site: asking my readers for money. This isn’t the usual blogger thing of seeking donations to pay for hosting or asking you to put money in the tip jar if you like my writing. There’s nothing wrong with either of those things, but I write here simply because I enjoy it and my hosting is free for life because I invested $200 in the startup of TextDrive. Instead, I’m raising funds to help my mother, who is sick and needs medical care out of state.
Since I’m a little embarrassed to be holding my hat out like this, I feel compelled to tell you the story of how this became necessary. If you want to skip the backstory — or if you’re one of my friends who knows it already — feel free to jump to the part where I talk about the fundraising goals and how you can help.
A Little History
My mother, Angela, is disabled. She suffers from a mitochondrial disease — a metabolic disorder that prevents her body from turning food into energy properly. The effects of mitochondrial diseases range in severity from exercise intolerance all the way to death within days of being born. For my mother it means crippling fatigue, fibromyalgia pain, neuropathic pain (pain caused by damage or malfunction of the nerves themselves), severe allergic sensitivities, and assorted gastric problems. I inherited some of the same health problems, but am far less ill than her in part because I received treatment at an earlier age.
A couple of years ago, Angela got married to a professor named Bill from the same college where I work. She and I had been living together to conserve money, our financial resources having been exhausted by medical expenses. The expensive treatment, sometimes involving travel to out-of-state specialists, had produced good results: she was in better health than she had been in years, and I had gone from working part-time to holding a full-time job with energy often left over for my non-work life. Unfortunately, we were in credit card debt way over our heads.
We formulated a plan to get out of debt and on with our lives. We would find a house that Angela, Bill, and I could comfortably occupy together, one of fairly recent construction that was free of her worst allergy: mold. Having found such a house and gotten settled, my mother and I would each declare bankruptcy to escape our crushing medical debts. She and Bill carefully kept their finances separate so that she could do this without damaging his credit rating. Once we escaped our debt, she and Bill could set about building a life together, and I could start saving money to begin a life on my own.
We got as far as declaring bankruptcy and eliminating our debt. After that the plan fell apart.
Mold
After moving into the house in the fall, my mother’s health began to slowly deteriorate. She had held up fantastically during the move, and we were baffled at what might be wrong. The answer arrived during the spring rains, in the form of a serious leak in the kitchen ceiling. At first we thought the leak must be new, since a contractor’s inspection prior to the sale hadn’t turned up any previous damage. We’d get it fixed ASAP, and that would be that. But when Bill removed the border around the top of the kitchen walls for some redecorating, we discovered just how screwed we really were.
Behind the border, the wall near the leak was discolored and cracked — signs of long-term leakage. For the border itself to have no water damage, it must have been put up shortly before the house went on the market and then carefully kept dry. The rains continued, and within a month a stain had spread across the kitchen ceiling, peeking out beyond an area near the wall that had obviously been sealed and re-painted before. We’d asked the sellers outright if the house was dry and mold-free; they had said it was. Clearly, we’d been had. This house has a long-term water problem, and that means mold.
We contacted a series of lawyers about bringing a fraud suit against the sellers to pay for the repairs. Even the one that specializes in environmental illness cases and house mold told us that it would cost less to pay for it ourselves than to pursue a lawsuit with an uncertain outcome. Angela’s health was continuing to degrade, so we gritted our collective teeth and hired a contractor.
Within a day of starting work, the contractor discovered the full extent of the damage. Not only was there mold growth under the subfloor in the upstairs loft and in the ceiling of the kitchen below, but the lumber was also rotted and waterlogged to the point of being brittle. He actually broke apart a 2 x 4 with his bare hand right in front of me. The contractor was so surprised that he called the city inspector to come look at the problem. The house, they both agreed, had probably been leaking since it was built six years earlier.
The Increasingly Expensive Repairs, Wherein We Get Screwed (Again)
Update, 9/14/2005: The repairs to our house have since been completed by Matt (see below). These repairs were paid for by the donations of readers like you. Thanks so much for your help! 
It was quickly discovered that almost half of the house’s back wall was compromised and would have to be extensively rebuilt. The initial estimate was revised, and the contracting company agreed to take payment in installments. Now you’re supposed to get a bond of completion, pay a third up front, and only pay the rest when the job is done… but we didn’t know that then.
The contracting company we hired was run by two men, both of whom knew their craft well. As we would come to find out later, however, one of them had no clue how to run a business or how to treat customers ethically and responsibly. For the purposes of this story, we’ll call him “Bozo” (not his real name). The other man, who I’ll call “Matt” (also not his real name), was kind and responsible but had never been in business for himself before. Bozo claimed to have run a successful contracting business in California, so despite the fact that he and Matt were supposedly equal partners Bozo ended up calling most of the shots.
Bozo had moved into town just a few months earlier, and started his business with Matt as first hire and partner. This is a small town, and word spread quickly that there was a new contractor in town that did good work for reasonable prices. Word spread so quickly, in fact, that the company was soon inundated with prospective clients. This flood kicked off about the time that work was halfway done on our house.
Apparently taken by surprise, Bozo handled the company’s rapid growth by hiring a handful of unskilled laborers and spreading them thin across several projects, with little supervision. Matt, meanwhile, was left to run all over town trying to oversee the new hires and keep customers happy despite the increasing delays on their projects and the shoddy work done by the new employees. Though the first half of the work on our house was done by — or with oversight from — Matt and Bozo themselves, the second half ended up being mostly done by the new employees and with inadequate supervision.
It was about the time the new people started taking over the work on our house when the event that would ultimately make this trip necessary occurred. It’s standard practice in mold reclamation to seal off the area around the damage with floor-to-ceiling plastic and establish negative air pressure within this “bubble” before beginning work. My mother had repeatedly stressed how important doing this would be for her health. Nevertheless, one day she went upstairs to find the floor and walls wide open with no plastic barrier in place, power tools in use, and moldy sawdust flying all over the place. Angela was never the same after that. Her asthma worsened dramatically, and a rattling wet wheeze and uncontrollable cough became daily symptoms.
Doctor’s Orders
Her breathing became so labored that she was referred to an allergist / immunologist in Wichita. The doctor was actually recommended by the specialist lawyer I referred to earlier, and it’s only through his intervention that Angela was able to be seen within days instead of months. He ran several tests, which basically revealed that my mother is allergic to nearly everything, her immune response is erratic, and her peak flow (the maximum amount of air her lungs can move) was dangerously low. He prescribed treatment with an asthma nebulizer (imagine an electric hookah for albuterol) and regular monitoring of changes in her peak flow.
Soon after she began using the nebulizer every four hours, Angela began coughing up large amounts of what looked like yellow-green mucous with brown flecks and chunks in it. This has continued to the present, though not at the alarming rate of those first few weeks on the nebulizer. On a follow-up visit, the Wichita allergist suggested that the best thing for her health would be to get away from the things to which she’s allergic for about a month. This, he said, would give her lungs enough time to heal without too much permanent scarring. He suggested Arizona, where other patients of his had moved with good results.
Tucson seemed ideal, since it’s the home of the University of Arizona Medical Center and has better air quality than Phoenix. Some research of my own turned up a physician affiliated with the university who is an allergist and immunologist, but who also specializes in a cross-disciplinary approach to medicine. For someone with my mother’s and multi-layered problems, this seemed ideal. Angela’s allergist in Wichita agreed, and recommended that she also see a toxicologist and a neurologist while she’s there. We’ve been in the planning stages for the trip since then, cutting corners and saving money wherever possible.
Though she insists (in between coughing up more lung snot) that she’s healthy enough to travel on her own, I’ve planned to go along with Angela on this trip since we first started talking about it. Whether she thinks so or not, she’s going to need the help. The college was nice enough to agree to this, and has temporarily issued me a school laptop so I can work from the road.
Where Things Stand
After all this, the house has never truly been repaired. Bozo the Evil Contractor merely declared it “done” once he got tired of dealing with us. Incredulous, I decided to test his claim by hosing down the back wall of the house. It leaks even worse now than it did before. All the nice new lumber that was put in during the early part of the repairs has now re-molded, and the upstairs loft is encircled in floor-to-ceiling heavy-duty plastic that Bill and I stapled up ourselves. We don’t go in there anymore.
Bozo is threatening legal action to get the last $600 that we haven’t paid him for the job he never finished. The contracting company itself appears to be history — I don’t see their trucks around town anymore, and their logo is gone from the building they bought on main street.
Matt, meanwhile, feels terrible about what happened to us. He’s agreed to finish the job properly on his own time. He didn’t want to charge us anything for it, but we insisted on paying him the remaining $600 for the rest of the work. He’s finished with the outside, and will be doing repairs on the interior while Angela and I are gone.
We’ve done everything we can to save money on the trip itself, since there’s not much we can do to lower the health care costs incurred there. I cashed in my frequent flier miles for my ticket, found a good price for my mother’s airfare, and was still able to get us both on the same planes coming and going. We’ve found a place to stay that was recommended by the University hospital for people with environmental sensitivities like Angela’s. It’s perfect in many ways, but even at $35 a night will add up to more than we can afford over the 28 days of our stay.
The problem isn’t the three thousand dollars or more (not counting medical expenses) that this trip will ultimately cost, so much as it is the almost nine thousand dollars in debt we’ve already accumulated for home repairs and health care. When you add the cost for medical services on this trip — even with insurance covering the expected 80% — we’re in a financial wringer the likes of which we haven’t seen since Angela and I had to declare bankruptcy.
How You Can Help
Tonight I’m starting a fundraising drive with the goal of gathering enough donations to keep us from going under as a result of all the crap that’s befallen us in the last year and a half. I’ve split the targets for this fundraising campaign into three cumulative levels (all amounts in US Dollars):
Level 1: $600Achieved August 4th! Thank you to all those who’ve given so far. Let’s keep spreading the word and push on to Level 2!
- This is the least that I hope to raise. It will cover the cost to finish fixing our home while my mother and I are away in Tucson.
- Level 2: $5,000
- Includes the Level 1 goal and will also pay for the trip to Tucson and at least some of the medical expenses incurred there.
- Level 3: $15,000
- This is the Big Goal, the one I’ll go all Roberto-Benigni-at-the-Oscars if I actually meet. It covers all of Level 1 and Level 2, plus paying off the debt we’ve accumulated from unethical contractors and Angela’s worsening health.
Click this button to donate money now via PayPal:
We’re still trying to find ways to save money or gather some money so that this trip can happen without breaking us financially, so…
My Promise to You: I promise that the goals above are absolute, and that any money raised from our other efforts will be counted toward the goals laid out above. I further promise that any substantial savings we manage to uncover (e.g. cheaper car rental) will cause these goal amounts to drop since less money will be needed. Finally, I promise that once our fundraising goals are met I will stop taking donations for this trip.
When I get some time, I’ll make up one of those snazzy thermometer-esque graphics that show how far we’ve gotten toward our fundraising goals. Meanwhile, here’s the low-tech version (updated daily):
Money Raised to Date: $1,464.25
My mother’s told me more than once that I inherited a certain stubborn pride from my grandfather. There must be something to that, since asking for this kind of help is one of the harder things I’ve ever had to do. I’ve run the numbers and racked racked my brain, but I just don’t see any alternatives.
There is no such thing as a donation that’s too small. I’ve checked my visitor logs, and if even one third of the people who stop by this site each day gave $5 each, we’d be half way to our Level 2 goal. You donation will make a difference. Any help you can provide will be deeply appreciated.
If you can’t afford to give money, donate information instead! Travel tips, money-saving deals or advice, and things to do in Tucson (preferably for free) are all welcome. I’m particularly interested in advice on how to keep your medication from being confiscated by overzealous TSA baggage screeners (yes, this actually happened to me once).
Please remember that I’m not a registered non-profit organization, so you shouldn’t try to claim any monetary donations you might make on your tax return. You can, however, claim my sincere gratitude and slightly better karma than you had just a few minutes earlier.
Thank you, in advance, for your support.
Updates
- 8/2/2005 @ 10:52 PM — Not only has Mickey Ræder given money, she’s also become the first person to save me some dough with a good discount travel tip! Thanks to Mickey’s help, I just saved $121 on car rental. Thanks! Keep the travel advice coming, folks!
- 8/3/2005 @ 8:48 AM — New rule: For every $500 we save on this trip thanks to reader-submitted advice, the fundraising goals for Level 2 and Level 3 will be dropped by $500. This is in keeping with my promise, and seems like a fair increment given the big unknown of medical expenses during the trip. Thanks again for all the tips!
- 8/4/2005 @ 7:48 PM — Anyone who isn’t comfortable with PayPal can send a check or money order to
Adam Messinger
PO Box 265
Winfield, KS 67156First class mail sent to that address will be forwarded to me in Tucson during our stay.
- 8/10/2005 @ 12:40 AM — In an effort to continue spreading the word about this fundraiser and push us further toward the Big Goal, Learn the three rules of the linkathon, and join in today!
Technorati Tags for This Post
health, mold, construction, mitochondrial disease, fibromyalgia, travel, Tucson, Arizona, fundraising
Hi Adam,
I’m emailing back and forth with Lars as to the donation size right now. Is it ok if I send this link to my folks?
As far as finding cheaper lodging goes, try Global Freeloaders (just google for it). It’s a reciprocal travel network, but you don’t have to be able to offer a place to crash just at the moment in order to sign up.
For cheaper car, hotel, airfare, whatnot, try priceline.com.
For saving on food while you’re there, see if you can get a room with a mini-fridge. Barring that, bring plates and cutlery that you can wash in the bathroom, and then buy things like small portions of meat/cheese, ready-made salads, and so forth from grocery stores. They cost more than normal grocery buying, but usually are quite a savings compared to eating in restaurants.
For inspirational ideas on all things frugal, have the library find you a copy of “The Complete Tightwad Gazette”.
Comment by Mickey — August 2, 2005 @ 10:18 am
Oh, one more thing: ask the hotel if they’ll give a discount in light of the fact that you’ll be doing an extended stay. Many places will, especially if you speak to the owner or the head manager, and it probably wouldn’t hurt to explain about your circumstances.
Comment by Mickey — August 2, 2005 @ 10:27 am
And one more thing again — I’d recommend asking your doctor and/or pharmacist for advice on not getting your meds yanked. Extra documentation from them might help.
Comment by Mickey — August 2, 2005 @ 10:33 am
When are you coming again?
I just checked and I do have two guest passes to the Sonoran Desert Museum. It’s the best attraction in Tucson, and I’ll get you in for free.
If you can’t afford the hotel the entire time and are here before the baby comes, you could always crash at my place for a while. I don’t know how allergen free it is, but we should be doing a deep-cleaning for the baby anyway, and we have both a spare bed and a futon.
And of course I can give you the low-down on all the places you can eat for cheap in town. Where is your hotel?
Finally, Andrew works at UMC, so if there is anything you ever need while you are there, you can just call him on a hospital phone and he’ll do his best to help.
Comment by Jen — August 2, 2005 @ 11:20 am
@Mickey: Thanks for the tips and advice. I’ll be looking for a copy of the Tightwad Gazette for sure!
I’ve always been a little leery of the Priceline “name your own price” thing, but desperate times, etc. I checked it out, and if a company took me up on my desired price I could certainly save a bundle. I’ll check Angela’s comfort level with the Priceline process over lunch and see if she’s game. We can cancel our current reservations up to 72 hours in advance, so this is one area where changes are not only possible but desirable (current rental car price: $705!).
A few relevant tidbits regarding the hotel and airfare situation:
Non-refundable airplane tickets have already been purchased. Something like Priceline wasn’t an option for this part of the trip, since we needed to be on the same planes because of her health problems (I’m there to keep an eye on her, after all).
I was able to book my flight using frequent flier miles (had to buy 5,000 more to get enough) on the airline’s web site and my mother’s at Expedia, but still get us seats next to one another both ways. Final price: $610.29, which is about $230 less than booking both tickets through Expedia. We could’ve saved more by flying out of Tulsa or KC, but the long drive would’ve been a bit much for her right now.
Global Freeloaders sounds like a cool site, but for this trip we’re going to play it safe and stick with the hotel the University hospital has recommended. One of the major goals for this trip is to get my mother into a clean environment, so I’ll take the advice of the experts on this one.
You make a good point about the extended-stay discounts, which are indeed available at most hotels. The hotel where we’re staying, however, is already steeply discounted and isn’t your typical place.
Hotel Schmotel (yes, that’s really the name), to quote their web site, is “a local nonprofit house where adults and their caregiver(s) can stay while receiving outpatient medical care.” It’s a B&B-style converted home, and we’ll have access to the kitchen to prepare our own meals and store our own food in the fridge. I’m right there with you on that front: nothing eats up money when traveling like eating out.
Angela has been in frequent contact with the owner, a
nice old ladywoman (Correction: Ann is actually 43 years old. Don’t know how the “old lady” idea got into my head.) who inherited a ton of money and bought a big house to start this business. To give you an idea of how accommodating these folks are: they didn’t have high-speed Internet service, which I need to work from Tucson. I talked to their business manager about my needs, and he called the next day to tell me he’d worked out a deal with Cox for cable broadband. I’ll be expressing my gratitude by giving their rather bland web site some pro bono attention. I can’t believe I’m actually bartering for additional amenities! How cool is that?Anyway, thanks again for the good advice and tips. Keep ‘em coming! And by all means, feel free to tell your parents about this page. Tell as many people as you like; we need all the help we can get.
Comment by Adam Messinger — August 2, 2005 @ 12:03 pm
Given the location of your hotel, are you sure that you need a rental car? Grant is one of the major roads in town, there should be good bus coverage where you are. If you want to check routes and times, google SunTran. Last time I was taking the bus, there was a route that went down Grant straight to UMC. Plus there are several grocery stores on Grant that should be on the same line. If you want to go anywhere else, I could probably give you a ride. I’m only working about half-time these days.
Comment by Jen — August 2, 2005 @ 12:10 pm
@Jen: We arrive August 12th at about 7pm. We’ll be leaving again on September 9th.
Thanks for your generous offer of a place to crash. If, God forbid, we run out of money before this trip is over we may well take you up on it!
For the location of the hotel, follow the link in my last comment.
Tell Andrew it’s good to know we’ve got a “man on the inside.”
Comment by Adam Messinger — August 2, 2005 @ 12:11 pm
@Jen: When I googled around for Tucson transit information, I was left with the impression that there wasn’t much public transportation to speak of in your town. Could be I was wrong.
My main concern other than coverage would be heat. My past experiences with public transit buses don’t involve much in the way of air conditioning, and that would be a deal-breaker for Angela as sick as she is right now. Phoenix might be an exception, however, given the climate.
Let’s pick up the transit conversation in e-mail later today. I may have some additional questions for you once I’ve had time to check out the web site you mentioned.
Comment by Adam Messinger — August 2, 2005 @ 12:18 pm
Holy shit! We’re already half way to Level 1!
Colleen, Jen, Mickey: My thanks to all of you for jumping right in to help. I’m touched and grateful to have such outstanding friends.
It’s not a contest, of course, but “Quick Draw” Colleen Marlow will be pleased to know that she can claim First Donor status. That kind of thing seems to make her happy, as does the occasional cute nickname, so there you go.
THANK YOU ALL! (trying to save some gratitude for the promised Benigni-like finale, but it’s so hard!)
Comment by Adam Messinger — August 2, 2005 @ 12:29 pm
Re: Jen and @Jen:
Is Angela going to be getting out of the house every day? Because if not, and if bussing around is an option for you while she’s chillin’ at Hotel Schmotel (awesome name! Give the owners a big thumbs up from me!), then you could save a bundle by just getting a taxi when she’s gotta go somewhere (though call local places for rates before you lock yourself in). I’d say only go with the car rental if it’s an absolute necessity. Many public transit firms have repeat-ride cards that are a substantial savings over individual tickets.
Here’s some links a cursory google search turned up:
http://www.consensus.net/tucsonbusriders.html
Their link page has links to the various local transit networks.
http://www.magicyellow.com/category/Taxicabs/Tucson_AZ.html
There’s links and #s for various taxis there. You might also ask the hospital if they have a shuttle service; many major medical centers do.
Also, if you’re going to have to be making a lot of long-distance calls to prep for the trip, and while you’re there, cheap phone cards are definitely the way to go. Check the local Asian grocery (Does Kora’s still exist? I went to high school with their daughter.), or a Mexican grocery if there is one, barring that check Walmart.
Comment by Mickey — August 2, 2005 @ 2:27 pm
Oh, an idea for free fun: see if you can get a library card while you’re there, or see if you can get Jen to take you to the library and check books out in her name for you. Learning about something entirely new is always fun in my book, and reading major works of literature is a lot more fun when it’s not required reading and when you’re old enough to appreciate it.
Comment by Mickey — August 2, 2005 @ 2:39 pm
I was checking up on my pal Adam who lives in Winfield via his blog, and he has the following posted: http://www.adammessinger.com/2005/08/02/call-for-donations His mom has been having the mentioned health problems for quite some time, and though Adam doesn’t mention it in the blog, her situation was quite grim a couple of months back. If any of you know of any organizations or church groups which may be able
Pingback by Deliberations by Diceros — August 2, 2005 @ 8:06 pm
My friend Adam is in need of some help. Please check out his blog
Pingback by Lynlee's Life — August 3, 2005 @ 7:15 am
Sorry for the lack of updates; I’ve been super-busy the last couple of days.
I talked over the possibility of public transportation with Angela, and she reminded me of an incident that happened on another medical-related trip (to L.A.) some years back. She had a serious negative reaction to a new medication she’d been given, and since we had no transportation I had to call 911 to get her to the hospital.
While Medicare (her only insurance then) covered most of the hospital bills, it didn’t touch the “emergency services” and “transportation” costs for the 911 call. We ended up paying a huge bill off in installments for a little over a year.
Since new medications are probably going to be tried as a part of this trip, we’re taking a “better safe than sorry” attitude and making sure we have transportation. Nothing may end up happening, but if there’s an emergency the rental could end up saving us money in the long run.
In other rental news, Mickey’s tip about Priceline paid off nicely, saving us just over $120 on the car rental. Thanks, Mickey! I’ve decided that for every $500 saved through reader suggestions or other means, I’ll drip the top two fundraising goals by $500. This way I can keep my promise about the goals, and still make allowance for the big unknown of medical expenses on the trip.
Thanks again, everyone, for donating, advising, and spreading the word!
Comment by Adam Messinger — August 4, 2005 @ 11:48 am
I can’t believe it, but I got a sizable donation this morning from my hosting company, TextDrive! This just goes to show you what wonderful people run that business.
This latest donation puts us within arm’s reach of the Level 1 goal, with $500.81 cents raised so far!
Comment by Adam Messinger — August 4, 2005 @ 11:51 am
Here about this from here. I am a fellow VC200. You are right. Textdrivers are good people.
Good luck,
ngungo
Comment by ngungo — August 4, 2005 @ 1:47 pm
Adam, I wish I was in a position to donate some money, but at this point all I can give is information. We just moved away from Tucson (to Flagstaff), and I’d love to help figure out whatever logistics I can. SunTran is the bus service: “suntran.com”:http://www.suntran.com/, and I’m pretty sure all their buses are air-conditioned in the summer. Please feel free to drop me an email if I can fill in any more information.
A couple of recommendations for places in/near your neighborhood:
* Bookmans is right down the street, at Campbell and Grant, and is a great used bookstore for browsing and free wifi.
* The Campbell corridor between Ft. Lowell and Speedway offer a lot: Groceries, coffee shops (more wifi), several good and inexpensive restaraunts
* More groceries and such in the plaza at Grant and Country Club.
Comment by alan — August 4, 2005 @ 1:49 pm
Thanks for the great advice, Alan. The grocery stores in particular will definitely come in handy, and the bus system might be useful if I need to go somewhere by myself and want to leave the car with Angela.
And don’t feel bad about giving info instead of money. While monetary donations will be necessary to reach the higher goals, we’ve already saved about $120 thanks to reader tips. That ain’t exactly small change.
Comment by Adam Messinger — August 4, 2005 @ 3:45 pm
Level 1 Fundraising Goal Surpassed!
Thanks to donations from friends and from fellow TextDrive members, we’ve surpassed the Level 1 goal in my efforts to raise money for my mom’s health care….
Trackback by 8 Ways to Sunday — August 5, 2005 @ 7:40 am
I’ve been really busy the last couple of days, but I finally got around to updating the donations “ticker” that shows how much has been raised so far. We’re up to $847.93!
Comment by Adam Messinger — August 8, 2005 @ 12:36 pm
[…] Write a post for your blog or journal that tells the general purpose of the fundraiser and the linkathon. If you don’t already know what this is about, you can read the story here. […]
Pingback by The Fundraising Linkathon Starts Now! (8 Ways to Sunday) — August 10, 2005 @ 12:37 am
Fundraiser and Linkathon for My Mom's Health Care Expenses
My mother, Angela, is very ill and needs medical care that we can't afford on our own. About a week ago I started a fundraiser on my weblog. Thanks to the several generous donors who've contributed so far, we've accumulated almost $860 t…
Trackback by Stupid Evil Bastard — August 10, 2005 @ 1:18 am
something like this before, but sometimes events conspire to screw people who simply don’t deserve it. Please, take a few minutes and read over Adam’s post and consider giving up a few lattes or your next twelve-pack of Corona and kicking in a few bucks. Updated: Adam has made a
Pingback by Fulton Chain — August 11, 2005 @ 8:54 pm
i’m sorry to hear about this. i stumbled across the “fulton chain” website a few days ago just by chance with firefox, and have been reading on it ever since. i found a link to this page on that site (whether you know anything about that site or not), and am currently trying to think of a way i could benefit you. i’m going to send the link to both of my parents, who are better paid than i am and who have paypal accounts.
so hopefully something good can come of all this. i wish you well in all your endeavors.
Comment by gordon — August 18, 2005 @ 11:43 pm
Thanks for the kind words, Gordon, and thanks for the link on your journal. Anything you can do to help spread the word about this fundraiser is definitely appreciated.
The Fulton Chain link was actually one of the first to come from an outside site to this donation drive. Like me, he’s a member of the TextDrive web hosting service. Word of the fundraiser had gotten out on the company forums, and a lot of TextDrivers sent donations or contributed links to the cause. Al (the author of Fulton Chain) seems like a very decent guy, and it’s nice to hear that you found your way to my site through his.
Take care, and thanks again for stopping by.
Comment by Adam Messinger — August 19, 2005 @ 5:19 pm
Hotel Schmotel
My mother and I are staying here while she visits doctors in Tucson. It’s called Hotel Schmotel, and it’s a non-profit house especially seriously ill people receiving treatment in Tucson and their caregivers. This shot is a low-light panorama, stitch…
Trackback by Low Pass Filter — August 19, 2005 @ 10:38 pm
for your alma mater, but instead of phones and TVs we’ll be using weblogs and journals. The goal: turn this fundraising campaign into a meme that’s posted on as many blogs as possible. http://www.adammessinger.com/donate/ (the short version) http://www.adammessinger.com/2005/08/02/call-for-donations (the whole story) memes, meme, fundraising, health, travel, Tucson ( Aug 12, 1:02am ) ( Post Comments )
Pingback by SpiritCompany - A Blog by Berlin Brown — August 20, 2005 @ 12:55 pm
Do you think you’d raise the money quicker if you got yourself a real job or second job instead of begging on the Internet?
There are millions of people in the world with millions of problems just like yours and, dare I say it, even worse than your problem!
Just because you have a blog means you’re special and ergo people should donate money to you instead of the millions who lie homeless on the streets with nothing to eat? How about single mothers with 3 kids who can barely feed their children? They’ll suffer for years all because they aren’t lucky enough to have a fancy blog like you to beg for money on.
Pathetic, dude, really pathetic. You should be ashamed.
Comment by Mike — August 23, 2005 @ 11:29 am
I have a real job, Mike. I work in the fundraising office of the local private college, where I find rich people who should be asked for money and wrangle the database. Bill works as a professor at the same college, and my mother receives Social Security disability payments. Of course, you’d know that I have a real job and that Bill and I both work at a college if you’d bothered to read this whole post. You didn’t, choosing instead to skip straight to the comments and mouth off.
Whether you choose to believe it or not, after house payments, utilities, insurance, food and other living expenses, health care, and regular medications (my mother and I were already chronically ill, and Bill is diabetic) the money my household makes annually just isn’t enough to keep up with the kind of events that have occurred in the last year and a half. We’ve paid out of pocket what we could, and charged what we couldn’t afford to pay for up front. It’s those charges, and the expense of this trip to Arizona, that have pushed me to start this fundraiser.
Bill, a college professor, spent all summer working on three books in an effort to bing in some additional money. Two will soon be self-published through Lulu.com, and the third has the interest of a small press publishing house. I did the book and cover design for the two self-published books, and have been honing my skills in web design, programming, and graphic design over the last year. I plan to start doing some side work building web sites this fall or winter.
Homeless people do have terrible problems, and my heart goes out to them. Frankly, however, I can’t spend much time wringing my hands about the plight of the homeless when I have the more immediate problem that my mother may die without (1) proper medical care and (2) getting out of the moldy home environment and into a safer, drier one. I’m not exaggerating; the woman’s lungs are full of stuff that looks like snot, and she has to use powerful asthma medications every four hours to keep breathing. This is serious shit, you moron. But of course you’d know that if you’d read the whole post instead of skipping to the comment form to mouth off.
And don’t even get all self-righteous with me about single mothers struggling to make it through. I was raised by a single mother who ate three peanut butter and jelly sandwiches a day in grad school so that she could afford to feed me meat and vegetables. My mother worked 12-14 hour days when we lived in San Diego so that I could go to private school, the public school system there being an overcrowded and under-disciplined mess. So don’t talk to me about struggling single mothers, you punk. I had one, and now I’m trying to pay her back for all the hard work she did on my behalf as a kid.
Now since I’ve dealt with your questions, I’m going to ask you some questions of my own. Did you or did you not even bother to read this whole post? Have you ever had to deal with the expenses from a serious life-threatening illness or a major home reconstruction? Do you have any idea what you’re talking about, or are you just trying to start shit with me? If you’d like to have a real discussion instead of calling names, feel free to come back and answer my questions.
Comment by Adam Messinger — August 23, 2005 @ 2:08 pm
[…] Though I was supposed to return to Kansas last Friday, I’m still in Tucson. I’m long overdue for an update on the whole reason we came here — my mother’s health — so let me start from the top. If you’re just now joining this saga-in-progress, you can read this post first for all the back-story. […]
Pingback by Update on My Mom’s Health, or Why I’m Still in Tucson (8 Ways to Sunday) — September 15, 2005 @ 2:18 am
[…] CLICK THIS!!!it’s a person in a very bad situation, and if you don’t care to help, you could at least laugh at their dismay.but give it a shot anyway. i’m not one to care about people i don’t know, but this situation is so severe and the person seems like a nice guy… so it really sucks that he’s in all that shit.whatever… click it. […]
Pingback by Who will catch you on your way down? — September 17, 2005 @ 11:03 pm
[…] On a side note, I know I’m behind on the promised Tucson trip update. I promise I’ll get something up here about our medical travel adventures by the end of the week! […]
Pingback by Hail, Freedonia! Coming Soon, with Book Design by Me (8 Ways to Sunday) — October 16, 2005 @ 1:11 am
[…] Quite a story and a worthy cause. Let’s all chip in. Text* Offline […]
Pingback by TextDrive Community Forum / VC200 needs help — December 13, 2005 @ 7:54 am
[…] My friend Adam is in need of some help. Please check out his blog and if you can help, it would be most sincerely appreciated. […]
Pingback by Lynlee’s Life » Fundraiser — February 18, 2006 @ 10:34 am
[…] This is where my mother and I are staying while she visits doctors in Tucson: The front entrance as seen from the courtyard at dusk. Click for slightly larger version. […]
Pingback by Tucson Hospitality Inn (8 Ways to Sunday) — March 1, 2006 @ 2:34 pm
[…] Please go to THIS SITE, read about the history of what has transpired and see if you can help out in any way. You can also help by participating in the link-a-thon and posting the link and the story in your live journal! […]
Pingback by Toxic Emissions - Help me help a friend and feel good about it! — March 6, 2006 @ 4:41 pm
I hope everything goes fine and Angela recovers very soon .
I thank everybody and pray to god to support you in all your future needs.
I am in india and i have seen people coming up with good hearts to help you.
May god be there with you to support till end.
Comment by arun dorbala — March 16, 2006 @ 12:17 pm
Thank you for your kind words, Arun. My mother is actually doing better now, and there are some updates on our situation that I keep meaning to post when I find the time.
The fundraiser is still on, though donations have dried up since the Katrina hurricane disaster captured everyone’s attention. The people affected by Katrina have it worse than us, however, so I’m not about to complain.
I’ll be closing the fundraiser sometime in the next month or so. I’ve just kicked off my web design company, and I plan to put a “hire me” link here on my blog. Since that doesn’t really look good sitting next to a request for donations, I’ve made the decision to shut the fundraiser down.
I’ll be doing one final push for donations with a couple more posts on this topic. If you (or anyone else subscribed to these comments) knows of someone who might be able to pitch in, I’d appreciate it if you could help spread the word.
Thanks again, and God bless.
Comment by Adam Messinger — March 16, 2006 @ 3:12 pm