You may already have heard that my friend newpioneer, Bobby, was recently widowed. His beloved partner, Juan, had struggled valiantly against cancer for several years. During Juan's final illness, Bobby had no choice but to close his restaurant to care for Juan. He has a chance for a new chef's job that starts in ten weeks, but meanwhile, he has had no income for the months he was a caregiver and he's on the brink of losing his farm, home to numerous rescued animals as well as himself. (You can read the full story in Bobby's words here.)
When a couple of newpioneer's closest online friends got wind of the possible loss of his home and all his animals, they alerted the community and people started putting their heads together. All kinds of folks have pitched in to help. Dave in Northridge and commonmass have written movingly about the kind of loss Bobby is facing. Sara R has posted a fundraiser diary, and she also has a Community Quilt underway. Aji has posted on her own blog. But it's going to take a lot of people to raise the kind of money needed here. It's quite likely to need to get around outside Daily Kos, on social media. There is much in this story to evoke sympathy in all kinds of people -- people whose own lives have been touched by cancer; people who care about the safe haven for homeless animals that could be lost; people who wish we had a more just society that didn't allow a family to lose everything because of a catastrophic illness. All those people just need to hear about it. I'm here to ask you to help spread this story and link around.
I'll quote Aji, because no one could say it better:
Even if you're not in a position to give, you can promote his fundraiser by sharing this link with all your networks, on- and offline. Share and Like it on Facebook, Tweet it, Pin it, send it to all your e-mail contacts and your listservs and your GoogleGroups and your blogs and your Web sites and your other communities, repost it/cross-post it, print it out and give it to people, share it word-of-mouth. PLEASE.
Thank you for helping, monetarily and/or by sharing the story around. (Note that linking the GoFundMe page allows you to share without having to retell the whole entire thing yourself!)
And now, a gift from Bobby: MOAR GOATS!
Santiago and Carolina
Lluviacita
Mama Luz with Nereida
Nereida
Papo is 'King of the Mountain'
Now everybody has to try!
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Kitchen Table Kibitzing is a community series for those who wish to share part of the evening around a virtual kitchen table with kossacks who are caring and supportive of one another. So bring your stories, jokes, photos, funny pics, music, and interesting videos, as well as links—including quotations—to diaries, news stories, and books that you think this community would appreciate. Readers may notice that most who post diaries and comments in this series already know one another to some degree, but newcomers should not feel excluded. We welcome guests at our kitchen table, and hope to make some new friends as well.
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