Last night I found myself in an unusual place -- speechless. I received an e-mail letting me know that Alice Giles had donated the last $555 to help us reach our goal of $2,500 and my mind went blank. It's over. We did it.
With 33 days to spare.
I can't explain how amazing this has been, but, presumably, you all have been there with me. As Jane reminded me last night, I was very nervous when Joe first asked whether we would be willing to give this a try. My mind hangs on failure much longer than it does success. I still remembered everything that I did wrong with the first effort, and the final $3,000 that I said I wanted to raise, but never put the effort into raising. But there really was no way to say "no". Joe wouldn't have asked if he didn't think we could do it. Or if he did have doubts, the alternatives were so few that he thought "why not?" And we did.
This is the good stuff right here. I feel very close to, and grateful for, all of you that helped make this happen. I know this post is a little sicky-sweet, but you should be glad I didn't write something last night (it started with a firework analogy). I have a great deal of gratitude and this is the only way I have to convey it.
And I'm not moving the goalposts this time. We've had two generous donors push us past the fund-raising goal, and I, of course, would love to see this continue to allow Living in Recovery additional funds for future houses (at this pace, we can expect to hear from them again). This is a perfect little piece of time that I have no interest in disturbing or taking for granted.
I will make sure to request and post updates. Many folks recommended that I post pictures or other media of the new house. Unfortunately, we can't do that. These are individuals looking to put homelessness behind them in every way. Creating a digital memory for prospective employers, friends, and family works against that goal. And as much as we all love this community, we also know that there are plenty of our neighbors that would fight to make sure an LIR house was never put next to their home and, if later realized, would work to have it moved.
Another round of thank you's:
Judy Johnson
Vaillancourt Family
Alice Giles (!!)
Lisa B, Mrs. S
Lisa Jablonover
Trevor Greene
Julia McCready
Kristi Simon
HoCo Connect
Calvin & Shani Ball
Jason Booms
Nicole McFarland
Throughout the course of the Project, 43 people donated.
LINKS
TJ and I had a fun back and forth about philanthropy and the LIR fund-raising effort. Admittedly, it is not for everyone, but TJ asked some good questions that had me thinking about thinks that I had taken for granted for some time (i.e., why do we give?).
The big news from yesterday was that State Senator Allan Kittleman has made strong signals that he will be running for County Executive in 2014. The hedging from all parts of this CE tripod is just to prevent the "over-ambitious" label, which many politicos view as part of the courting process. That's cool. What they want is the press talking about them as CE candidates, which is mission accomplished. Then, two years later, they can say "A lot of people have asked me to consider running for County Executive and my answer is...YES!" (standing ovation, hug significant other, raise a glass in toast, drink water, ask your friends if the speech went well, repeat).
Upon the news of an Ellicott City man playing Tom Sawyer with HoCo Speed Cams, the Sun looked into acts of vandalism on vans all over the State. We're not alone.
A Baltimore County police officer has been indicted on manslaughter charges in the Christopher Brown case. For those that haven't been following this story, a group of kids were ringing doorbells and throwing rocks at front doors when they came across Officer Laboard's house. When one of them threw a rock as his front door, he came out and chased them. Christopher Brown was in a leg brace and was caught Laboard, who is alleged to have choked the 17-year-old to death.
Mayor SRB will be disappointed to see that census figures project that Baltimore City lost 1,500 residents between April 2010 and July 2011. Meanwhile, Washington D.C. is growing.
Featured Blog Post of the Day: I've known this blog post was coming for some time, so I was particularly excited to see it in all it's glory -- Sarah's Rain Garden. This is a fantastic program run through CA to help live up to our responsibility as part of the Chesapeake Watershed. Ok, so half the Mid-Atlantic region is part of the Watershed, but when you hear of things like lake-dredging or suffocating algae, it is because of all of the run-off we have from our yards, parking lots, and streets. Sarah took a big step forward on this front, and from the looks of it, was rewarded with a beautiful garden.
That's all for today. Have a great Thursday doing what you love. You all have put an extra skip in my step.
