Ken brought up the idea of starting a gofundme campaign two OMARC meetings ago, to help the club get funding for a digital repeater. Having worked with nonprofit campaigns and organization since I was 8 years old, my grandmother started me out in going door to door collecting for Cerebral Palsy as well as she put together one of the first NYC feasts block affairs) with a crazy transplanted Pennsylvania priest, a Father Arthur ... called the Saint Anthony's Feast .. one thing I learned, was, there are periods of time when history just lines up right and these campaigns are more effective. With what's going on with both Covid, with this country, dependence on our touchy powerlines going down weekly up here as well as our internet access .... along with, all the transplanted NYC people ... this may be the opportunity for an emergency network as evidenced by the recent Kenny's Weathernet yesterday. Just a thought. But I like this hobby. I had no use for it in NYC ... how do you run a 50' dipole in a 12' apartment ... And I got my licence because I'm experiencing LIVE the isolation of communication in the mountains and how fragile it is up here. My neighbor had a house fire at 1PM, the day of the big storm. I took a 2 1/2 minute video with an old Samsung phone and a free phone editing program (Filmora) ... posted in a neighborhood app called NextDoor ... another neighbor registered it for a gofundme campaign, and already the couple has $39,000 in donations. It will never replace a cherished residence, but in an emergency, from an event that only a handful of us knew about, that's a nice and needed surprise. I'll post the video below in case you may be interested in donating. **************************************************************************
MY NEIGHBOR'S HOUSE IS ON FIRE !!! My wife called me to the window. Brown smoke was pouring into the sky from the house. At first, I thought someone must have mixed plastic in their woodburning stove ... that's what it smelled like ... I walked down to the house ... several fire companies were arriving at the scene ... The couple got out unharmed with their dog .... it's just something you don't expect ... And today, a massive snow storm is predicted up here between 4PM expected to dump between 1 and 3' and it's already a below freezing 22 degrees up here. We have such a good sense of community up here ... at least the locals (a lot of transplants escaping NYC have moved up here) ... Thank God ... and if you're an atheist .....Thank the local volunteer network. BTW: If you'd like to contribute. https://www.gofundme.com/f/gilles-and-mary-anne-fire-relief-fund?utm_source=customer&utm_medium=email&
Thank you ... I guess that little video is going to make this couple who lost their house a LESS STRESSED Christmas.