Yup, this is my patch vest.
UPDATE: Saturday, Mar 9, 2024 · 3:21:05 AM +00:00
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Witgren
Wow!!! You guys are AMAZING!!!
At this point we’ve passed my goal of $2,000. That will definitely help with any extra expenses that might pop up, and I’ll most likely find an underfunded school library that needs a helping hand (for some school libraries, their only funding comes from book fairs, for example).
I’m humbled by the support you’ve all shown. Kossacks are good people. :)
I posted a diary about this awhile back but it was during a busy time on the site for new postings and unfortunately it got quickly pushed down the recent list and disappeared. So, I thought I take one more run at it.
After three years battling it (literally, this week is the third anniversary of my diagnosis), my cancer finally has the upper hand and has become resistant to I.V. chemotherapy. The remaining options (oral drugs) might, at best, buy me a few extra months in all probability. At this point the doctors aren’t committing to any estimates as to how much time I’ve got.
As some of you know, I’m a teacher librarian (or, at least, I was, until I applied for disability in December). I would very much like to be able to purchase a new book for each student at our elementary school (it’s a pre-K — 4th grade elementary). I’ve been in contact with Scholastic Books, explained my situation and my wish, and they have provided me a very good quote — about half of what I’d expected.
I have started a GoFundme to raise the funds to do this, but so far it has not taken off. Initially, before I’d gotten the quote from Scholastic, I’d set the amount at $5,000 but have reduced it to $2,000 now that the quote came in so much lower than I’d expected.
I’m hoping some Kossacks might be willing to kick in some funds to help me get to my goal.
On a related note, for the past eight or nine months when I travel up to Mayo Clinic for appointments, I take a satchel full of “Like New” or “Very Good” condition picture books and early chapter books purchased from Thriftbooks. When I run into a young’un, I approach the parents and ask if I can give my little friend a book. So far, no one has ever turned me down. I’ve also taken it into restaurants and stopped by tables with kids. One time when I did that, my wife and I were leaving and saw the grandpa in the group sitting on a bench out front with his granddaughter on his lap, reading the book to her while they waited for the rest of the family to get the car. That right there makes it worth it.
