Motley Moose – Archive

The first 25 donations of “at least” $100 are matched today, so today would be a great one to make a sizable donation. AIDS Walk Austin is in less than a month – on Sunday the 20th. I’ve only raised 14% of my (admittedly crazy high) goal of $5,000, so I thought I’d share some music & ask for donations. I’d kinda like to make it to at least one thousand dollars, even if five thousand is out of reach. If you want to skip the U2 song & my babbling, you can make a donation at my AIDS Walk Austin page. This is the 26th year for the Walk & my 26th year of walking it, and I really want step things up this year. And here’s me, talking about why I’ve walked every year of the Walk:

I don’t know if people know how easy it is to make a really big difference. Here’s some of the ways your donations help. And if that’s not enough to get you to visit my AIDS Walk Austin page, below the orange fleur de lis, I pull out the big guns — stories about the people who have been helped.

$35 covers one rapid HIV rest – we know that 40% of HIV+ people don’t know it yet. Through testing, we can get them into life saving care, and further reduce the spread of the virus.

$60 pays for a one month supply of medical prescriptions. Medications can reduce the virus so much that it keeps someone healthy and also reduces the risk of passing it along.

$120 provides education for 440 people. Education is one of the most important tools in reducing new infections.

$250 provides 3 family counseling sessions. It can be devastating for a family when a member is diagnosed, and we know that an intact family unit promotes health and provides a built in support.

$500 provides a month of rent for one family in supportive housing. Assistance with food, daily chores, trips to medical appointments and social support create a foundation for continued health and a step toward independence.

$1,000 gives 450 home cooked meals for hospice patients. When in hospice, there are often unique food needs. You can make sure that final days are spent with delicious food that doesn’t upset someone’s stomach.

So those are the wonderful things that your donations to AIDS Walk Austin can do. I know that cash is hard to come by these days & everyone is asking for some. Well, so am I. Please donate if you can, here’s my AIDS Walk Austin page.

Austin’s Pride Parade is this Saturday. Our Pride events were moved to September a couple of years ago, so the UT students will be in town, and also it is usually less drastically hot now than June. It starts at 8, if you’re interested in coming. I’ll be with a group from my church, in orange “Love Your Neighbor” shirts. There’s a group of welcoming churches, we’re going to make a rainbow with ourt shirts, my church is orange. Here’s the link for parade info: http://www.austinpride.org/#!p…

Hi, it’s me again, about the AIDS Walk again. Yeah, I know, it gets old, me always asking for money. But this is money to help people, right now. AIDS Walk Austin benefits organizations that have foodbanks & are giving out food right now, that are helping people keep their housing, that help people get to their gazillion medical appointments. Donating to this cause today will help someone tomorrow. If you want to help & don’t want to hear the music, here’s my AIDS Walk Austin page.  

I’m doing AIDS Walk Austin for the 26th time on October 20. Twenty-six years. How can it have been that long?? Back in the old days, I used to shyly ask for donations. Now that I know so many who are affected, I walk up to total strangers & ask — I’m not asking for something for myself, but for funding that keeps friends of mine getting the meds they need. Anyway, here I am again, asking for money for the Walk. Below the fold are the ways it helps, but first, here’s my AIDS Walk Austin page. Please donate if you can.

Today is my birthday.  47 years ago, in a small college town in the Midwest, a young married couple had their first child.  Dad was in between his sophomore and junior years.  Mom was a secretary.  They had their 2nd anniversary earlier that spring.  

Please consider giving $10 to Heifer International.

I have been rather iffy on my birthday since my parents died.  My life is kind of crazy right now (yes, still), and I wanted to try to do something a little positive.  So I am going to ask here, and on Twitter, and Facebook, to raise money for Heifer.  My goal is $480.  

I am not tracking anything, so unless you tell me in comments or private message, I won’t know.  

Oh, let’s make this sweeter.  Every $10 gets you a ticket, and I will draw for a prize winnter and knit a hat for them.  Deal?  I am also really good at knitting baby socks right now.  

My small plans today include a stop by the yarn store (sock yarn for my son, consulting on legwarmers for my daughter), the pet food store (so the kitties don’t eat me alive), and taking the kids to their dad’s for the afternoon/evening.  I am trying to take a break from politics for a couple days.  These plans are much bigger than I have had the last couple of years.  So it’s a start.  

Today, starting at 8am, donations of $100 or more will be matched, up to $20,000 for the Ride. The Ride is in a week – next Saturday the 27th – and they are only at 39% of the goal raised. So, if you can, please pitch in $100 today (or pool your resources & donate together, to total $100 or more)

I have some t-shirts from past years, in various sizes that I got in order to give away. People who donate $100 or more will get one. I’ll figure out how to mail them later, but I’ve got shirts & I need donations, so come read the rest of the diary for some music (you didn’t think I was going to post a diary without music, did you?). Or you could donate at my Hill Country Ride page. If you want a shirt and I have one in your size, we’ll figure out the mailing thing.

I don’t know about you, but for me, this year has sucked. Like, a lot. But I’ve been trying to think about helping others who need it, as a way of getting out of my own space. I do the Hill Country Ride for AIDS every year, because the agencies it benefits help people out every day. They have a food bank, for people who really need it – and people with AIDS have to be very mindful about nutrition, about the timing, and what they eat…. so there are people who counsel about that. There’s legal assistance, medical subsidies, volunteers to drive people to appointments….. Just help, that their clients really need.

So I was thinking about why. Why help? What do I get out of it? I did some searching, and the results of my quest are below the squiggly thing. Of course, if you want to skip the inspirational quotes, the video & the U2 song, you could donate at my Hill Country Ride page now.

Oh – and a picture. Here’s a picture from the year I was top fundraiser (not gonna happen this year, I’m in 16th place right now), but anyway:

I’m doing the Hill Country Ride for AIDS in 2 1/2 weeks. I’m nowhere near my goal, but I’m not moving the goalposts until after the opening dinner the night before the ride. This diary is to tell you about the people helped by your donations. If you want to bypass all the heartwarming stuff, you can just donate here at my Hill Country Ride page. But if you want to read some great stories about people getting the help they need, come below the squiggly thing. Be warned, since the Ride is only at 27% of their goal, I’m going to pull on your heartstrings all I can. And here’s a picture of me at last year’s ride:

So I wrote one diary about what your money does, here. And here’s a picture of me with our then-director, the year I was top fundraiser (not that that’s a hint):

I thought I’d tell y’all some more things your donations do. Of course, if you’re already convinced this is a good cause, you can go straight to  my Hill Country Ride for AIDS page and donate. Also – with 3 weeks to go, the Ride as a whole has only raised 21% of the goal. This is money that, as you will see, goes directly to help people. Research is great, but feeding people who need it is better; counseling for families affected by HIV is needed, helping with rent or legal aid — all of these help real people, right now.

Did you know that only one third of all HIV-infected people get anti-retroviral therapy? I didn’t. What if everyone who needed it could get it? How much better off would we all be?