Your donations have made a huge difference. As a result of what they have seen, the Board of Directors for Pretty Bird Woman House has decided to start the process of purchasing the house. This means that PBWH may have a house very soon - soon enough to have a shelter for women this winter - when temperatures in South Dakota are lethal.
The only reason this is happening is because of your kindness.
I wanted to share betson08's (the head of this whole campaign, she deserves much applause - putting this together even as she finished her doctoral dissertation and looked for a job!!) email to me this morning:
spoke to Georgia yesterday. They're going to do an official tour of the house with the real estate agent and talk to the bank about putting the money down on the house and getting a mortgage for the rest, based on predicted donations. Apparently another shelter was able to do that.
The offices they're in now are unheated and I guess one of the rooms is too big to heat with one of those radiator space heaters, so they're all freezing. They can't plug in another heater because it blows the circuits. I think they're getting cold enough to not worry about having all the money at once. They just need to get the house
already.
Georgi Little Shield, Shelter Director sent a very brief email of thanks early yesterday:
Looked in the paypal account and the total with out checks is $33,658.35. That is great. plus the checks of 2000.00 something wow you guys are fantastic people.
Please, do not mistake her brevity as indicating she takes this for granted. Georgia is a woman of very few words in emails and her gratitude is much deeper and heartfelt than any brief email could convey.
As for me... I just love these communities. You guys are the most wonderful people, all of you. I have so enjoyed being a part of Street Prophets and Daily Kos over the years - I come here to visit my tribe, if you will. This is where I find hope even when it seems so very bleak with torture, war, corruption and the media aiding and abetting the whole damn mess. So, here, again, let me tell you thank you. You guys are superheroes.
THANK YOU!!
Now a last bit of business. We're well over halfway there, but I am tired of treating my tribe/friends/allies like an ATM. We really need a creative, imaginative way to raise the remaining $33,000. And in a way it's even more important now - they are buying a house with faith that as they step into the abyss we are waiting with a net to catch them. Time to start weaving that damn net!!
So, please, yes, if you can DONATE
But equally important, or even more important - join us and let us know your ideas or help us bring to fruition an idea already out there.
It looks like we are slowly going viral on livejournal - we are getting many hits on the blog and some donations and our Facebook App is spreading. We have a team working on an application for Extreme Home Makeover (please don't bombard them with requests to do PBWH - trust us, we have a way to approach them that offers a lot of promise). Another team is approaching Oprah. We are signed up for igive which gives a percentage of your online shopping to PBWH.
What are we failing to do? What are we overlooking? How come last fundraising drive it was covered on so many different progressive blogs like Firedoglake and the feminist blogs... no posts at all. Can you help us change that?
Finally, for those of you who need more info, here are Links:
Pretty Bird Woman House Blog - many more resources and links here!!
Amnesty International Report-Maze of Injustice: The failure to protect Indigenous women from sexual violence in the USA
The Story of Pretty Bird Woman House
Why traditional fundraising avenues are closed to Pretty Bird Woman House
Again, thank you. Have a great weekend.
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