This was originally published here, but we didn’t want anyone to lose track of our mission as the blog grew and the posts migrated down the page.
This is finally starting to get off the ground, so I need to make a post to let everyone know what was going on, and why we’re doing this…
In late June, while Jade was visiting some friends in New Mexico, he had a severe allergic reaction to some of his medicines, and ended up in the University of New Mexico Hospital for several days. He was admitted for congestive heart failure, but there were also complications with severe glucose fluctuations, renal failure, and a blood pressure so high that they thought he was going to have a stroke at any second.
In short, if not for the phenomenal care that he received at UNM, he would not be here today.
Unfortunately, UNM could not help Jade with the costs of his stay. For those of you that have been out of touch with him for a bit, Jade has been blind due to diabetic retinothapy for a while now, and Medicare does not kick in until two years from the date of disability. As a result, Jade has no health insurance.
Now, the owners of Ninja Pirate and Dragon’s Lair, have agreed to help us hold a benefit to help us defray the costs of Jade’s medical care – which now are over $15k – and have been very generous with their time and suggestions and support.
S o, come the weekend of August 25th and 26th, we are holding an in-store event. We’re going crazy trying to make some of these great suggestions into a reality, and have been juggling volunteers and participants from all over the state.
What’s been discussed: A game day, a Warhammer tournament, a VtES tournament, a raffle, a silent auction, a webpage (you’re there!), a donation button (see right hand column), a giant sponsorship based benefit game, donation buckets, a car wash, fliers (on the way) a bake sale… (forgive me if I’ve forgotten anything, just let me know via email)
As you can see, we have no shortage of ideas, just a shortage of time in which to organize, run and hold these events. We also have a shortage of people to delegate some of these tasks to. If you want to help, please fee free to email us.
Also, we’re trying to setup an email list for those that want to stay in the loop, so email me if you want to be included. If it gets large enough, I’ll start splitting it between participants and judges.
As the events start solidifying towards the end of the month, we will post updates. We will also keep this site up as long as there’s a need. Very important note: anything collected in excess of the 15k that Jade currently needs will go into savings for future medical expenses.
Many thanks to Ninja Pirate and Dragon’s Lair for the opportunity, WordPress for the forum, and Matt for guiding me so patiently when I couldn’t figure out how to put the darn donation button on. Also, thanks to Tom, Jason, Hieronymous, Ed and Joe for patiently emailing back and forth with us, and trying to get this together. There a hundred other thanks to add to this, but we’ll put them in a later post. If I can figure it out, I’m going to make a page for thanks – that would look nice, wouldn’t it?
