I hardly ever write anymore, and I just published a rather scathing note about the new format and, by extension, the, uh, lovely folks who perpetrated it. And now I’m going to ask for something….
I’m a volunteer firefighter in a negligible town in the interior west. The wife of one of our Division Chief’s (a hugely responsible but rather poorly paid position) just had her first baby. The baby was quite large (as are his parents — they look like Pitt and Jolie under 5X magnification), the birth was difficult and complicated, with a certain amount of medical screw-up and potentially permanent damage. She’s already undergone some reconstructive surgery and presumably will require more to be more or less “whole”. The bills are, for a couple of poorly compensated youngsters with crummy insurance, pretty staggering, and the wife really shouldn’t be considering a return to work yet, but has to, unless something “comes along”.
For the record, they’re not the MOST progressive folks in the world, but for this deep-red area, they’re WAY left.
I’m pitching at least a grand at them, but I, while independent (and long retired), am not wealthy. Others will step up, as well, but making a lot of noise in such a small community, where a whole lot of people are hurting to one degree or another, isn’t real desirable.
What I’m looking for is guidance: I’m pretty sure I have a PayPal account somewhere, but never used it, and I don’t have a clue about crowd-sourcing. I’m not all that old, but sort of a Luddite and was tickled to death when I could leave tech stuff behind (I used to build cellular systems and startups). There isn’t really time for self-re-education, so I’d appreciate a primer on what’s out there and all.
I guess the way to go is kosmail, if someone would be so kind.