This is my friend Liane. She and her family need a hand right now.

Photo Copyright Liane Allen, 2014; all rights reserved.
Go here to help.

You know how bad things seem to come in threes? It's not just you.

I blame Shakespeare, for one: The Three Weyard Sisters have done much to reinforce the notion.

But it's much older than that, going back at least to ancient Greece and the Three Fates. Clotho and Lachesis are pains in their own right, but it's that witch Atropos who gets us all in the end.

Well, Liane and her family are feeling like the newest targets of the contents of the Weyard Sisters' cauldron, or of the Fates' sewing skills.

As with us (a LOT of us), the Bush economy was not kind to Liane and her family. That was Hit #1: She and her husband lost their jobs some years back, and since then, it's been a daily struggle just to claw their way back from the brink. They had 401ks to cash in, and credit cards to use for COBRA payments and emergencies, so they had a bit of a fragile and very expensive safety net at the time. Hit #2: They took what I know all too well to be a humbling step, and got food and meals from community kitchen programs that feed the hungry. They grew what food they could themselves, too. And on the days and nights when there wasn't enough to go around, they did without so their children could eat.

Eventually, her husband found another job. Between his income and her perseverance at turning their family's home and lives into something both cost- and energy-efficient (and thus also eco-friendly, sustainable, and positively green), they and the kids managed to survive. And for Liane, it sparked a renewed interest in energy efficiency and sustainable living as both avocation and vocation, and she set her brilliant mind to creating ways to help other people make their own lives more greener (and more cost-effective, as well). 

Things were finally humming along smoothly. I'll let Liane tell it:

On Monday, our son took a placement exam to get into college a year early. He's a bright kid, and is highly motivated to become a robotics engineer. He has worked so hard for this! He did well on the test, so all that's left is the SAT in June and he'd likely be heading to Vermont Technical College in September. 

A few months ago, our daughter was accepted into the UnCollege Gap Year Program. It's an amazing opportunity! She has been busy readying herself to go, and taking on odd jobs to raise some of the funds, and we've been putting money aside each month, to help fill in the gap. 

In the mean time, I've been working on building a way to help people overcome the up-front cost hurdle of green energy projects. I've made good progress, but need to learn a bit more in order to finish up the work-in-progress. With that in mind, I applied for the General Assembly Web Development Immersive program.

And Hit #3: She was accepted.

Two hours after her husband was laid off from his job with no warning, no notice.

Those Fates: What a sense of humor. A dark, black, sick, mean one.

As Liane put it, she went from feeling that all would at long last be well to utter hopelessness in the space of four hours flat.

So. 

These are our friends. A lot of us know Liane (and by extension, we "know" her family) from various online communities. And if you know her like I do, you know what a big heart and generous spirit she has whenever someone else is in need. So we need to pay forward and give back, which means we need to extend our own hands to Liane and her family and help them get through this, with their kids' futures intact.

She's set up a crowdfunding site to help her get attend the coding course, so that she can get her project, Green Planet Heroes, up and running and bringing in income to help her family. The goal is $10K. That seems like a lot, but you know what? We can do that, and more, provided we spread this as far and wide as we can. 

You remember Shanesha Taylor? When I wrote about her terrible and tragic situation, her $9K goal was already exceeded, with donations totaling more than $17K. As I write this, her donation total sits at exactly $102,000, with 18 days remaining for her fundraiser. One hundred two thousand dollars in a couple of weeks for a homeless woman and her children, raised almost entirely from strangers over the Internet.

Surely, between all of us, we can raise the $10,000 Liane needs, and some extra to help get her son to college in September.

Go here. Give if you can. But even if you can't, share it with every person in your networks, both on- and offline. You never who that one person will be who will be moved to donate in a major way.

Chi miigwech.