NEW UPDATE [#36]: NOW OVER 2/3 TO GOAL!!!; GoFundMe up! Let's give JoanMar shelter, warmth, and light for this winter [Fundraiser].

Photo copyright Aji, 2021; all rights reserved.

NEW UPDATE:  GoFundMe up here!  Michele set it up for $5,500, which was the full amount left to goal when she began working on it; she decided [rightly] that it would be better to keep that as a goal, because JoanMar needs breathing room. Something ALWAYS comes up that you can't anticipate, and that's all the more true when a global viral pandemic has taken away your employment and you have no regular income. I am also not going to be tracking the numbers now, other than to report totals if/when I get them from JoanMar, because they won't jive with the amount of the GFM anyway. 

SECOND:  Donations have slowed. I'm seeing lots of celebration today, but also a lot of immediate amnesia. The work BEGINS today, not ends. And we cannot abandon the folks who have suffered and lost so much this last year. This is a chance to fix a little of it, to help one person stay alive. It's not a lot, and I know my online communities have raised far more for far lesser purposes, so let's do this now.

Also, folks at the Great Orange Satan?  PLEASE stop sharing the post that's almost 3 weeks out of date now. You know this is the current one, so please share the one with the current info, as I have asked explicitly already. Outdated info that you know to be outdated helps no one. This has been the current post for more than two weeks now, and save for a few minutes between getting our other posts up, it is ALWAYS at the very top of my site.

Also, since that amount is $5,500?  Wings and I put in $55, 1/100 of it. Can you match it? So far, she's got $160 $270 $710 $720 $775 $800 in the GFM (which is effectively no more than $150 $255-260 probably $670 $690 $750 $775 or so at most, because GFM deducts fees).  100 more people matching us would cover it, AND probably cover the fees, too. 

NOW COMES THE HARD PART.  We have to raise the second half.  We can do it.

I want to be clear about timelines here: The match was met in the early hours of Tuesday afternoon, NOT Wednesday, and the donor deposited the matching funds approximately ten minutes after the match was met. That was on January fifth, 11 days ago ago. 

Since then, there has been one new donation, have been four[?] new donations. She's now at $5,186 $5,286 $6,286 $6,436 $6,536 $6846 overall, with $4,814 $4,714 $3,714 $3,564 $3,464 $3,154 left to raise.

A mutual friend is setting up a GoFundMe on JoanMar's behalf, which may be up as early as tonight. It'll make tracking easier, and donating, too. We still need to help raise $3,464 $3,154, and time is short. Please share this post now, share JoanMar's PayPal and CashApp addresses now, share the GoFundMe when it's up, and help us get her there ASAP. 

I told you that I would be creating an updated version of the fundraiser I posted here Saturday for someone very dear to us, someone a lot of you reading this know and love. Most of you know this woman as JoanMar. She's JoanMarDK on Twitter, and JoanMar at the Great Orange Satan. We know her as a dear friend, a spirit sister of sorts. She is strong, brave, beautiful Black woman with a heart filled with love and a warrior's spirit, and she needs us now. She's been struggling for six months now, alone and in silence, in the middle of this deadly pandemic. No one should carry such burdens alone, but no one should have to bear the burdens in the first place. Let's give JoanMar shelter, warmth, and light for this winter.

Tracking update:  We're at $4,814 $4,714 $3,714 $3,564 $3,464 $3,154 left to raise; not bad for just ~2 weeks of getting the word out. Please keep sharing, and please keep donating!  WE CAN DO THIS!

BUT FIRST, the links:  PayPal address is nevfai [at] optonline [dot] net; CashApp is $ForYouMaria.

I said "strong," and there's no lie there, but frankly, she's been stronger than anyone should ever have to be. Some years back, she lost her daughter, a beautiful young woman, to a terrible example of medical malpractice. She's the one who's always there when someone in her extended family needs something: the one everyone goes to when they need money, or a hand, or a shoulder. But the same is not returned to her.

I said elsewhere this morning that Black and Indigenous woman know this burden well: We keep everyone else alive and safe and well, as well as possible and better than anyone could reasonably expect in this terrible colonial system. But we're so good at it, so skilled, so silent about our sacrifices and what it costs us that everyone has just come to expect it as the nature of things. And when we are the ones who need that help?

There's usually no one to be found.

None of us should have to be so "strong."

And JoanMar has been struggling to make ends meet for herself, as well as for everybody else, in the middle of this deadly pandemic where there's no work and no income and no help to be had, where too many this week are again being forced out onto the streets in the middle of this danger, and the more ordinary dangers of winter. And she's one of the "lucky" ones: Her landlords are a couple who understand well what she's up against, and who are not going to evict her. But she owes three months' back rent, she owes arrearages on utilities and every conceivable bill and expense, because that's what happens when there's nothing coming in even as the whole world continues to suck you dry. It's going to take a good $10,000 to cover everything she owes, and that may sound like a lot to you, but she lives in a place where this is very ordinary for cost of living — for 3 to 6 months? It's actually low. She also lives in a place where winter is both already here and also already cold and deep, and everyone needs warmth and light now.

Everyone also needs not to be alone, struggling through what's left of this god-awful year with no one to help shoulder the load. JoanMar hasn't had that; she's been doing it all by herself.

No more. Now that we know, it's our job to do something about it.

The breakdown is more or less as follows: About one-third of the $10K is three months' worth of back rent. The remaining two-thirds are a mix of state and local taxes still due (and federal taxes are coming up again in a few months), plus utilities like electricity, heat, water, probably garbage/recycling, too. Then there's vehicle insurance, maintenance, gas in the tank. And, of course, food, toiletries, cleaning supplies, other essentials. These are all sort of off-the-cuff calculations; we just threw this together last night and this morning. I can tell you that if it errs, it will be in being too conservative. I want her to have some breathing room.  A room with a safety net in it.

Look, we all know how terrible this year has been for everybody, us included. Sales are way down; we're struggling, too. But we're blessed: We have a roof over our heads, wood for the fire, food in the cabinets and the fridge; our power is on, and we have good clean water. With such good fortune, how could we NOT help? We have to. This is a friend, someone we love.

So we gave $100 the first day, via PayPal. [Yeah, but I can juggle a few things; if we have to take a late-fee hit on the electricity bill, it's worth it.] Will you match it? If you can't, will you donate whatever you can spare? And if you're comfortably situated, will you donate more than that, to help get her $10K and beyond as fast as possible?

Because this is supposed to be the season of peace, and there's been precious little of it anywhere. JoanMar needs warmth and light, and the peace that comes with knowing she can cover the bills the pandemic has turned into insurmountable obstacles. So let's do this. I'll update as I have info. First hundred now:

Here's that donation info again:  PayPal address is nevfai [at] optonline [dot] net; CashApp is $ForYouMaria.

And Wings and I would consider this a personal favor.

Thanks.

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