Edit: I took down the site. I gave it more thought and believe that a book actually needs to be written before anyone will participate in anything like this. I don't know if this is possible given their situation, but I'll look into it. You all are the best. Thank you.
I came up with this idea to help a homeless family by offering to write their story. It even has a little video we put together: http://igg.me/...
I'm not going to ask any of you to contribute to it. (I also won't ask you not to, of course.) I only request that you give it a look and see if you think it's worth sharing. I created a Twitter handle, @Chelsie_Story, that you can follow. I don't have a vast social network, so if you could send out a tweet or share the page or any of those other social media thingies that people are always on about, I would be indebted to you. Sometimes the difference between failure and success is the right person advocating for a cause at the right time.
For those of you who haven't clicked on the link, I'll sum it up. After making some calls, I realized what the family was up against. I want to help the family get housing, but they have some debt (due to circumstances beyond their control or others taking advantage of them) that is a sticking point. The family also wants to tell their story and give back. If enough people buy into this project, I think we can do a lot of good on both fronts. And if you like perks, well, we got perks.
So what if we fail to reach our goal? Contributors get their money back. If we don't have enough to pay off their debt, the biggest obstacle to them finding permanent housing, then it just won't work. I really hope it does, though, not only for them, but because I'm excited about the writing project.
Anyway, that's the gist of the campaign. I should also mention that this is my last crowdfunding/fundraising adventure for the foreseeable future. I'll continue to post updates from the family and possibly about the campaign, but I won't be begging for anything. I do plan to continue hanging around DK more than I have in the past few years, though. I miss chatting with folks about science, the environment, etc.
Oh, and if you just want to give to the family, here is the GoFundMe page I set up for them: http://www.gofundme.com/...
Thank you for helping me help these folks. They appreciate it more than you know. I will continue to do for them what I can offline no matter what happens.