The Jack and Te ramp drive -- OMG WE DID IT
ETA, November 26: The ramp project is on hold for an indefinite period. Refunds are being issued. Details here.
ETA, November 21: OMG YOU GUYS WE DID IT. Fundraiser over, officially a success! See below for the timeline.
Original post begins here: You all know Jack (buggery) and Te (thete1), right? Okay, they've been offline for a while, but if you're familiar with DCU fandom online you know who they are, and even if you're not, if you've been reading fanfic for a while odds are you know who Te is.
They're moving into a new apartment. Or, at least, they're trying to. The new place is great, perfect for their needs, and amenable to their gummint benefits. But here's the catch: it's not wheelchair accessible. Yet.
For disabled folks who have rough times with stairs, ramp access is essential. The landlord was willing to build a ramp, but the contractor estimates were more than he could readily pony up. Jack and Te have been negotiating government programs trying to get something to work out, with about as much success as you'd expect. They describe the process as being "like trying to slay a dragon with a toothpick."
I've never passed the hat in fandom. But sometimes, it's the right thing to do. And I think one of those times is when the only thing keeping a couple of fen from moving into their new home is the lack of a dang ramp.
So let's build it. Or at least pay for it to be built.
The high end estimate for the contractor is $2500. So let's go for $3000. Any donations that take us past that will be refunded, and we'll stop the drive immediately. To handle donations, I've set up an Amazon honor site (thanks to brown_betty for the suggestion). To give, go here. In addition to my own donation, I'll cover all the transaction fees, so the full amount donated will go toward building the ramp.
This post will remain at the top of my LJ until the drive is done. Also, until we raise the full amount, every post I make will include the Ramp Fund Paybox, as seen below. If you can't donate, you can still help by linking to the Ramp Fund Page or to this post, or by putting the HTML for the Ramp Fund paybox in your own posts. A lot more folks have read Te's fic than read my LJ; if you pass the news around, you can help a lot.
Let's make this a happy Thanksgiving.
ETA, November 20, 1PM: liviapenn has a handy cut-and-paste for adding the paybox to your own posts.
ETA, November 20, 1PM:: People, you are awesome. We've done amazingly well in a really short time -- let's keep going!
ETA, November 20, 5:15 PM: YOUR GENEROSITY HAS BROKEN AMAZON. No, not exactly, but there is some kind of major lag in our updates for our donation collection, as you may have noticed. Amazon's tech support is on the case, but right now I can't actually say with any certainty how much we've collected, just that it's a good bit more than the tracker shows right now. I don't want to say anything definite until I actually know. This could be a hold-up on the credit card processing end, but we don't appear to have been credited for several transactions that *have* gone through. So I will keep nagging them, and hopefully we'll have this sorted out in short order.
ETA, 7:44 PM EST: I've got more info. Here's the skinny: Amazon provided me with a list of all our processed transactions. That's the source for the total of $1859 listed on the donation page. I checked it out, and everything's right -- but the last transaction they've processed was submitted at 8:18 EST *this morning.* As you might imagine, a lot of people have donated since then. I can't tell you how many, because Amazon's transaction system is down, but I know it's more than the number of people who sent me a transaction notification email. The figures that Amazon was giving me on our transaction page were wrong, so right now I have no earthly idea how we are doing. Apparently, Amazon's Honor System is having a bunch of problems today, so their help lines are a little tied up right now. I am trying to find out what's awaiting processing -- hopefully Amazon will get it in gear soon.
ETA, 9:00 PM EST: I am officially calling for a pause for now. I've talked with the guys at Amazon again; they confirmed they're having substantial technical issues, and right now those issues are preventing them from processing payments or even determining how many payments are awaiting processing for a given account. And the figures Amazon's system is coughing up when I try to look are wrong, so I can't depend on them.
So, let's take a breather for now, and wait to see what happens when Amazon gets its act together. Thanks for your patience.
ETA, 1:18 AM EST on 21 November: WE DID IT.
And by "we," I mean YOU.
We have MET and EXCEEDED the goal. The Amazon account is standing at $3,154, and Betty got 89.11 through Paypal, from folks who didn't have credit cards, for a total of $3,243.11. Thank you SO MUCH to everyone who donated, everyone who pimped the fundraiser, everyone who cheered us on. I just broke the news to Te, who is overwhelmed. Look for her voice post tomorrow.
Te and Jack will have a ramp. I'm officially calling the fundraiser over; we'll let you know how things go, and hope to have the ramp built as soon as humanly possible.
Thank you. All of you.
ETA, November 21: OMG YOU GUYS WE DID IT. Fundraiser over, officially a success! See below for the timeline.
Original post begins here: You all know Jack (buggery) and Te (thete1), right? Okay, they've been offline for a while, but if you're familiar with DCU fandom online you know who they are, and even if you're not, if you've been reading fanfic for a while odds are you know who Te is.
They're moving into a new apartment. Or, at least, they're trying to. The new place is great, perfect for their needs, and amenable to their gummint benefits. But here's the catch: it's not wheelchair accessible. Yet.
For disabled folks who have rough times with stairs, ramp access is essential. The landlord was willing to build a ramp, but the contractor estimates were more than he could readily pony up. Jack and Te have been negotiating government programs trying to get something to work out, with about as much success as you'd expect. They describe the process as being "like trying to slay a dragon with a toothpick."
I've never passed the hat in fandom. But sometimes, it's the right thing to do. And I think one of those times is when the only thing keeping a couple of fen from moving into their new home is the lack of a dang ramp.
So let's build it. Or at least pay for it to be built.
The high end estimate for the contractor is $2500. So let's go for $3000. Any donations that take us past that will be refunded, and we'll stop the drive immediately. To handle donations, I've set up an Amazon honor site (thanks to brown_betty for the suggestion). To give, go here. In addition to my own donation, I'll cover all the transaction fees, so the full amount donated will go toward building the ramp.
This post will remain at the top of my LJ until the drive is done. Also, until we raise the full amount, every post I make will include the Ramp Fund Paybox, as seen below. If you can't donate, you can still help by linking to the Ramp Fund Page or to this post, or by putting the HTML for the Ramp Fund paybox in your own posts. A lot more folks have read Te's fic than read my LJ; if you pass the news around, you can help a lot.
Let's make this a happy Thanksgiving.
ETA, November 20, 1PM: liviapenn has a handy cut-and-paste for adding the paybox to your own posts.
ETA, November 20, 1PM:: People, you are awesome. We've done amazingly well in a really short time -- let's keep going!
ETA, November 20, 5:15 PM: YOUR GENEROSITY HAS BROKEN AMAZON. No, not exactly, but there is some kind of major lag in our updates for our donation collection, as you may have noticed. Amazon's tech support is on the case, but right now I can't actually say with any certainty how much we've collected, just that it's a good bit more than the tracker shows right now. I don't want to say anything definite until I actually know. This could be a hold-up on the credit card processing end, but we don't appear to have been credited for several transactions that *have* gone through. So I will keep nagging them, and hopefully we'll have this sorted out in short order.
ETA, 7:44 PM EST: I've got more info. Here's the skinny: Amazon provided me with a list of all our processed transactions. That's the source for the total of $1859 listed on the donation page. I checked it out, and everything's right -- but the last transaction they've processed was submitted at 8:18 EST *this morning.* As you might imagine, a lot of people have donated since then. I can't tell you how many, because Amazon's transaction system is down, but I know it's more than the number of people who sent me a transaction notification email. The figures that Amazon was giving me on our transaction page were wrong, so right now I have no earthly idea how we are doing. Apparently, Amazon's Honor System is having a bunch of problems today, so their help lines are a little tied up right now. I am trying to find out what's awaiting processing -- hopefully Amazon will get it in gear soon.
ETA, 9:00 PM EST: I am officially calling for a pause for now. I've talked with the guys at Amazon again; they confirmed they're having substantial technical issues, and right now those issues are preventing them from processing payments or even determining how many payments are awaiting processing for a given account. And the figures Amazon's system is coughing up when I try to look are wrong, so I can't depend on them.
So, let's take a breather for now, and wait to see what happens when Amazon gets its act together. Thanks for your patience.
ETA, 1:18 AM EST on 21 November: WE DID IT.
And by "we," I mean YOU.
We have MET and EXCEEDED the goal. The Amazon account is standing at $3,154, and Betty got 89.11 through Paypal, from folks who didn't have credit cards, for a total of $3,243.11. Thank you SO MUCH to everyone who donated, everyone who pimped the fundraiser, everyone who cheered us on. I just broke the news to Te, who is overwhelmed. Look for her voice post tomorrow.
Te and Jack will have a ramp. I'm officially calling the fundraiser over; we'll let you know how things go, and hope to have the ramp built as soon as humanly possible.
Thank you. All of you.