Last week, everyone was very generous indeed in stepping up to help Wings and Aji build the modest adobe house that will replace their repossessed modular home, and more importantly, the dilapidated 30-year-old RV they’ve been living in year-round for the past six years, since their house was taken from them. (More history in that diary.) As a result, the exterior phase of that project is almost halfway to its goal.
But this is a long-term effort. Despite the relatively low cost of this particular house, raising enough to complete it is a heavy lift. Wings’ business took a big hit when the economy tanked in 2008, and customers still aren’t back in the kind of numbers that would give Wings and Aji enough extra to move this project along by themselves. They really need help to get into a safe dwelling that’s secure from the elements.
And they really don’t want their relative handful of supporters to go broke trying to put them into that dwelling. That means that a lot of people who might be sympathetic but don’t know about Wings and Aji yet need to find out. That’s where sharing comes in.
If you are on Facebook, please go to the YouCaring page and click the Facebook button. If you are on Twitter, please go to that page and click the Twitter button. If you have nothing but email, they have an email-sharing button. If you post elsewhere on the internet, you can grab the code for their widget, seen below, at the bottom of their page. Sharing from their page is much more effective than sending links to, say, this diary — it removes a middle layer of interaction where some people inevitably drop out, as well as showing a current total at all times.
We know this is a big ask for many of us. Unless we’re bigtime extroverts, it’s hard for us to put ourselves out there. But it’s possible to present the resource for helping, with a short message that indicates support, without being pushy. I know these good people and am trying to spread the word that they need help. Even if you can’t donate, it’ll help if you pass this along. The YouCaring page will tell any part of the story you don’t feel like telling yourself. If You are, in fact, Caring, and we know you are, your friends will get your message.
Most important, do this more than once. Do it once a week, or once a month. A lot of us have heard the advertising axiom that people need to see a message seven times before acting on it. The number may be debatable, but not the idea that we cannot expect to even get people’s attention the first time we float our little message in the sea of information we’re all swimming in. Don’t be afraid to repeat it!
Here’s the widget. If you click on the red DONATE button, you’ll go straight to a donation page, but if you click on the picture or title, you’ll go to the main page for their YouCaring project and see the associated story. IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO USE THIS WIDGET IN POSTS ON DAILY KOS, you need to ask at the Help Desk to be “whitelisted” to allow it to embed. (If you need help, kosmail me or the group.)
Below the widget, we’ve got a Big Box o’ Ways To Help! Thanks for being a friend to Wings and Aji!
HOW TO HELP
- The YouCaring fundraiser allows you to donate specifically to this cause. You can also share the fundraiser via social networks by using the “Grab Our Widget” button (and other social media buttons) on that page.
- Their Amazon wishlist mostly supports the health needs of their rescue animals and themselves, if that’s more your style.
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Purchases from Wings Silverworks will help them make a living the way they’d prefer, by selling Wings’ work as an exceptionally talented NDN silversmith and photographer.
- If you prefer, donate via PayPal at Aji’s blog, or at her Tumblr blog where she posts her own writing and photography.
- Kosmail belinda ridgewood if you absolutely need to donate by mailing a paper check.
- And Tweet, share on FaceBook, tip/rec/republish on Daily Kos, randomly email your friends about it, drop it into casual conversations. This seems minor, but it is not! When you share, please link to this YouCaring page, or embed the widget!
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