Snagged and Reposted for Photognome!
For those of you who don't have
photognome listed on your LJ... this is a message that he posted and I'm reposting in an attempt to get even MORE people involved !!!!
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Hey all, I'd like to ask everyone to take a minute, read this story and then please sign the petition. If my journal brings you any kind of joy or amusement, I would ask this simple favor in return. It takes no effort and could potentially bring some joy into the life of a wonderful woman facing a terminal illness. It's currently at 3200 signatures and with just the people who read my journal we could easily push this to over 4000. So please, click the link and sign the petition. It would mean so much to Melissa and her family. Please reply here if you sign, I woulld love to show Melissa and her family how many caring folks my friends list is made of. Thank you all in advance. -Joe
The Petition: http://www.petitiononline.com/FIVER/
The Website: http://projectfiver.com/
Melissa "Fiver" Kern has been a fan of J.R.R. Tolkien since she read The Hobbit as a child, and has always loved books. Her heart leaped when she saw the preview for Peter Jackson’s film adaptations of Lord of the Rings, and she has been involved in organizing like-minded "Ringers" in the Southeast for many years now.
The hard truth is that Melissa has just been diagnosed with ALS, commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease. Essentially, it causes all the motor neurons in the brain to shut down, gradually making the muscles unable to function. It’s very rare (1 in 1 Million) for someone who’s only 34 years old to come down with this, as it mainly affects people between 50 and 70. Life expectancy is 3-5 years from diagnosis, and there is no cure. (She’s had the disease for about a year already.) The disease progressively takes away movement and coordination. In September, she marched with fellow LotR fans in the annual DragonCon parade. Six months later, she is barely walking, and needs my help to climb stairs or get dressed. We have a son, Matthew, who just turned six.
She is excited about the filming of "The Hobbit" sequels, but was apprehensive about the release dates of 2010 and 2011: She doesn’t even know if she’ll still be alive when these movies are released. I told her to make that her goal : to be around to see these films in the theater. But we don’t know how this disease will go.
The goal of PROJECT FIVER is to deliver a petition to Peter Jackson, New Line, and whoever takes the Directorship, asking that Melissa be cast as a costumed hobbit extra in the film. Even if she’s not there when the movies are released, just being part of the production of The Hobbit, even if it’s just sitting at a table in the background, will absolutely mean the world to her. It would be her reason to hang on.
Melissa has done an incredible amount to promote Tolkien Fellowship. She has been a key member of the Tolkien Track at DragonCon for several years, and has also volunteered with the Young Adult Literature track there, and helped to plan the Harry Potter Yule Ball and DragonCon's (in)famous Pirate Party. She has been an active member on TheOneRing.net, co-leader of ArmsOfMiddleEarth.com and member of numerous LotR-Related Moots, and Meet-Up groups in the Atlanta area. She has volunteered at Anime Weekend Atlanta for the past two years, and for the Mythic Journeys organization since 2004, and worked PR for the past two conferences. Additionally, she has helped organize local Release Parties for the Harry Potter books and coordinated with movie theaters to have a crew of costumed Pirates raise money for the AMC Stars of Hope Charity at the Pirates of the Caribbean movie premieres.
Many in these groups have been asking what they can do to help her out and lift her spirits, and PROJECT FIVER is my best answer. She did not ask for this. Project FIVER is the community and my wish for her. It would a simple thing for a large production company like New Line (Time Warner) to so this, and we're only asking that she be given an extra's part, just a background Hobbit. (Not a script re-write of the script, inserting her into the storyline.) This is something simple that would mean the world to someone...who means the world to many of us.
Melissa and her son Matthew