Donating to the Poly House, the Easy Way

[Lancer]

"I am far more impressed with the small donations from people who can barely afford it than with my own. They're really scraping the bottom of their wallets to come with the money. werefox did the same thing to build Poly House I. Bless 'em all. "

This was a PM reply from Zkrib...tell them the story of werefox and the first Poly House Zkrib.

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[Zkribbler]

Originally posted by Lancer
...tell them the story of werefox and the first Poly House Zkrib.

Once upon a time, before Lancer & I were friends, he began collecting money for the first Apolyton House. It was for Karen Mills, her son and her mother. They were living with a relative, but he was abusive. Karen's mom owned a piece of property, but they couldn't afford to build on it. So, Lancer started taking up a collection to build a house for them.

I saw Lancer's thread, but I basically ignored it. And before long donations started drying up. Lancer had nowhere near the money that he needed.

Then werefox donated $25. werefox is a teacher; I don't recall whether she teaches pre-school or kindergarten, but whatever it is, I knew it doesn't pay much. And I have a weakness for teachers. That $25 must have impacted her dearly.

So after doing some soul searching, and being embarrassed by this school teacher's generousity, I realized I should donate. I've seen a lot of these donation drives & I saw these challenge grants, i.e. someone offers to match funds. I never much saw the point, but it's often used, so I figured it must work. I offered to match funds and KABOOM people started donating in droves. We got not only enough to reach Lancer's original goal, but to give Karen and her family indoor plumbing as well.

A while later, I visited the Philippines with Lancer, Dolores and Theben. We went out to visit the house. It's not much, just a dark, concrete block structure, but they were thrilled with it. It was a big step up.

So, as I said in my PM to Lancer, I'm morally overshadowed by those people who are struggled to get by but still give a few dollars. The $500 in matching funds I've put up may seem like a lot, but I've finally gotten to the point in life, where I won't be impacted by giving this much. I'm happy to do this for Lancer and his friends. But still, it's nothing compared to what I've seen other people giving on this thread.

[snoopy369]

My money is clearing paypal around 1/16... I should've just sent it directly, forgot I could do that Anyway, wednesday...

[Lancer]

Cool Snoopy It will make it with time to spare.

So that is my friend Zkribbler, I'm proud to say, and werefox the school teacher, and all the others that built that house for those poor women as surely as if they carried and set the block. It's about them all, and not just the poor people we build a house for. It defines us, as does our current effort. It's about Adrian and Zkribbler and werefox, Aeson and Sloww and on and on.

Whatever else we do in life, we've done this.

[SlowwHand]

Originally posted by snoopy369
My money is clearing paypal around 1/16... I should've just sent it directly, forgot I could do that Anyway, wednesday...

You might be surprised. 1/16, as far as I can tell, is looking good.

[Theben]

I'm surprised anyone even recalls werefox around here. So how much more do you still need, Lance? I'm planning on coughing up another $50, someday.

/me dances on his own head

[Lancer]

Thousand minus what we accomplised today...$700ish remaining.

Zkrib is doubling donations you know Theben, up to $500. So, if you get that $50 to me before Feb 14 it's matched...$100.

That's powerful.

/Helps Theben dance on his head

[Zkribbler]

Originally posted by Lancer
.../Helps Theben dance on his head

Hey! Let's everybody dance on Theben's head!


...Let's see....$1,000 less $300 received today, means $700 to go...less $350 in potential matching funds, less SlowwHand's yet-to-be-received $100 means we need only $250 in new money.

Heck, the Polytubbies can do that!

[Lancer]

Without the $250 in donations for you to match, they're $500 short on the house, period. That's massive here in the third world. If we can't get a few more contributors to step up, we'll fall far short. With opportunity provided by you in the form of matching funds, we are so close to getting it done... but only if there are the funds to match. We could still fail in this, still fall far short of our goal.

Cold hard facts.

[SlowwHand]

Damn it. I'll do $200 more, but this time by Paypal. I can't take it. It's killing me. I'll have to wait a few days. I work for a living, but I can do it.

[Lancer]

Sloww, are you sure? That's alot, don't cut yourself so deep you hurt. That's not what this is all about. Sharing the load, no hernias...

You impress the heck out of me though.

[SlowwHand]

It will hurt, but that will make it sweeter. Giving what you can do is no big deal. Put me down for $200 more. I'll make it. We're going to get this done.
On my worst day, I have it better than them.
Bank it.

[Lancer]

That's SlowwHand.

[Lancer]

After this Sloww, save your pennies. We hope to be coming back in January.

Same goes for all our contributors, big and small. We have 5 bedrooms...

[Lancer]

Well we've got a few birds in the bush and a few in hand. There are some I'm sure of and all I'll be happy to see come in. Early on we had a dozen votes in the poll of people saying they would kick in, that's hardly dependable but it might mean some extra checks are in the mail. If we get to our goal that's wonderful. We only currently have $50 to go according to our funky math to complete Zkrib's $500, if everything goes at it appears it will. That makes us $100 short with Zkrib's contribution included. That's very doable. If we get a surprise check or two sent early on by those that voted, we could be over, pleasant thought. I'd give Rigo and Marivic the option of using it on some of the stuff they could use besides a roof. They need to get hooked up to electric and water. A flush toilet instead of an outhouse, a bedroom for Irish, all stuff they'll need. I'd have to look back and see how basic a house I figured, but it's pretty basic. We have an old living room couch and chair that's a bit rough around the edges but workable, and some older pots and pans. I don't think they have much in that shack now...

Anyway, enough would be enough, a little extra wouldn't go to waste, so we'll see where we are.