g.i.s.h.w.h.e.s. 2016 {unofficial} Team BreakfastOctopi needs YOUR help!!
5Team BreakfastOctopi has set up a CrowdRise fundraising page to help Random Acts raise money for two Syrian refugee families in need. The first is a family where a mother of 4, Khouloud, was paralyzed from the neck down by a sniper’s bullet while tending her vegetable garden. For two years, she has been unable to leave the tented shack she shares with her family in a refugee encampment in Lebanon. The second is the family of 12-year old girl, Khawla, who attempted suicide so that her mother would have one less mouth to feed (the father is presumed dead by the Syrian government).
To make a donation, follow this link:
https://www.crowdrise.com/change-a-life-khoulouds-story/fundraiser/teambreakfastoctopi
There is a minimum donation requirement of $10 through CrowdRise. If you cannot donate, please share this post with others. Thank you!
Note: If you choose to donate, please know that CrowdRise is upfront about their service/processing fees. So those fees will be added onto the donation. This ensures that the charity will get 100% of funds raised.
- 9 comments, 19 replies
- Comment
Unofficial?
@medz Um, I am unsure what you mean. Please clarify.
@MzSooze does the breakfast octopus himself support this cause or is his namesake used in an unofficial tribute sense?
@medz The entire team supports it. So, yes, the breakfast octopus does as well. @dashcloud, could you please confirm?
@MzSooze the question they mean to ask is this: Is this year’s gishwes team considered by mediocre/meh staff to be the “official” team of mediocre/meh?
The relevance is this: the request for donations carries a different connotation from a mediocre/meh backed team vs. a team that happens to be made up of users.
Sorry you got hit with so many questions. The folks here are generous, but skeptical and like details before they dive in. Gish on, friend.
@Thumperchick Understandable, thank you for the added clarification. As for the mediocre/meh association, I cannot confirm or deny that. They will need to do so.
@Thumperchick I don’t know if it relates or not but this team does involve @hollboll and @katylava so I don’t know if that makes it more or less official or not.
No, at least get it right - two Syrian refugee families need the help. Not for nothing but gishwhes kind of makes this one stink like yesterday’s fish by turning helping into a fucking competitive sport. Seriously, in the grand scheme of things, saying that team breakfastoctopi needs help to help random acts help two families that need the help comes off pretty damn insincere. Sorry to drop shit on your thingy - just how I see it.
@mehtherfucker I was fairly certain that I had stated that two families needed the help, and reasons to back that up. You are entitled to your opinion. Thanks for your input.
On a side note, I try to help a lot of causes that hit close to home. This would be one. I was born in Germany and all of my mother’s family is over there living this.
I also know, first hand, what it’s like to think that if you kill yourself your family will have it easier. I know what it is like to need help.
A little compassion never hurt anyone.
@mehtherfucker It’s not about the competition for most teams. It’s about doing new things, pushing yourself a bit, doing something creative, and maybe doing something nice for someone.
@mehtherfucker Sorry you feel that way, but I think you are misinformed. Yes, you can get points for this but they are only offering them because it is a competiton. If you read the email that came out with it, I feel you would change your feeling on it. However our team is doing this because it’s the right thing to do. GISHWHES was created to spread kindness, love, creativity and yes, weirdness in the world. If you feel so strongly, just scroll along, this is not a post for negativity. Gish on my friend.
@mehbee Can you post a copy of the email here?
@MrsPavlov Yes ma’am, I posted it below I just saw your comment.
Can someone from the team provide more info? I don’t mind helping, but I’m really, really confused now.
@medz says > Unofficial?
@mehtherfucker questions the motive(s)?
@cation tells @mehtherfucker to fuck off in a now redacted comment (which doesn’t bode well for the cause if @cation is on the team - not a great way to win friends and influence donations - I don’t see what the point in getting defensive is if this is on the up-and-up)
So - anyway - what’s the (real) story here??
@katylava? @dashcloud? @ ‘any name I might recognize’ (sorry, I haven’t kept up with the thread listing the participants / members of the team)
What is Random Acts? Do they keep a portion of the donations? How were the families chosen? How are the funds dispersed? Does our gishwhes team benefit in the week long contest through our giving?
A little more info / transparency might go a long way!
Again, sorry, I’m just confused after reading comments and following the link!
Thanks!
@MrsPavlov Random Acts a non-profit organization, created by Misha Collins (who happens to also be the creator of Gishwhes), has asked gishers to help raise funds for two Syrian refugee families. It is an official fundraising campaign, if that is was @medz was asking. @cation only redacted her post because she is on the team and felt she was representing it and gishwhes in a negative light. This is not about milking the cow dry, we have no hidden agenda. Our team is only trying to do something selfless.
Bottom line, if you would like to donate and help out GREAT. If not, that’s totally cool too. No one is telling anyone what to do, least of all me.
I hope that clears things up for you. If you have any other questions, please ask away.
@MzSooze Thanks!
@MzSooze I think the request for “unofficial” is because the team was put together by forum members and not employees. It is not an official Meh team although we do have staffers as members.
@sammydog01 Okay, that is what I thought but wasn’t sure. So I asked for some sort of clarification. Maybe I should have tagged team members in the page. I try not to do that though because some people get really sensitive about things like that.
Thanks.
@MrsPavlov I absolutely made and redacted the comment and am indeed on the team. I apologize to my team if I in any way curbed this fundraising for families we can make a difference for.
Here is a short blurb about Random Acts. If you would like more detailed information, you can go to randomacts.org.
Working with volunteers around the world, Random Acts encourages people of all ages to perform their own acts of kindness wherever, and whenever, possible.
Give me a moment and I will post the email regarding this charitable act.
Here is the email we received about this, it was a very last minute addition to our list. I hope it helps explain it better than I could. I’m happy to answer any questions to the best of my ability.
The Hunt’s nearing its end.
You are in the final stretch! You are a machine! Nothing can stop you now. DO NOT GIVE IN to the fatigue, the self doubt, the temptation to eat the corn off your own blouse. This is the time for a second wind, a sprint to the finish, a quadruple-shot latte.
Speaking of lattes… (I am searching for a segue for what follows)…. Speaking of lattes, if you’ve found yourself picking up a paper at any point in the past year with your morning coffee… you’re aware that we’re facing a refugee crisis of tragic proportions because of the war in Syria.
I’ve read articles that have made me weep (like this one: http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/06/27/syrias-war-on-doctors); the cruelty and suffering are on a scale hardly fathomable. So, we have decided that since Gishers can break Guinness World Records by the bucketload and get mountains on Mars renamed, we can also do something to profoundly change the lives of two refugee families in truly dire circumstances. I won’t go into detail here, but their stories are terrible—a mom who was paralyzed by sniper fire and a 12-year old girl that tried to take her own life so that her starving widowed mother and sister and brothers would have one less mouth to feed. You can read more about them here.
Together, I think we have the power to radically alter the course of these families lives. Let’s see just how big an impact we can have. Let’s see what a force of good we can be.
We don’t want to strong-arm anyone into participating in this item, so if there are other ways you would prefer to support displaced people from around the world, you can do so and still get points for the Hunt - and, more importantly, points for your heart.
Thanks for posting more information and answering my questions, I was delighted to make a small donation and encourage others to do likewise!
@MrsPavlov Thank you.
@MrsPavlov Thank you so much!
@MrsPavlov Thank you! We can really make a difference in the lives of these families.
Also, if people do feel passionately about this issue, I have to drop a plug for all the local organizations that make differences in refugees and immigrants lives. Here in the Seattle area we have branches of international and national aid organizations. We also have a lot of local organizations that help out locally with immigrant and refugee issues, and they are always looking for volunteers. I bet other places probably have these types of local organizations. Just in case anyone wants to take it to the next level.
I’m in.
I want to thank everyone who donated. Because of the generosity of people around the world, GISHWHES has raised over $200,000 for the families so far, and Random Acts will able to help two additional families.
They also added two more families in need.