MICRO-LOANS & REPAYMENT
I just spent two hours on PayPal repaying $1820 to the awesome friends who came through for me on January 8, 2010. You can read more about my loan situation here.
Loans ranged from $10 to $500. A third of the total came from Canada, just another confirmation of my home away from home.
Here are all the people who loaned me money:
Jeremy Alexander
Jessica Nappa-Siegel
Karrie Waarala
Cheryl Maddalena
Bob Nelson
Gabrielle Bouliane*
Ravenna Kibbutz
Jessica Standifird
Joshua Sampey
Kimberleigh Irene Marie Smithbower Roseblade
Craig Steward
Anis Mojgani
Wayne Mercier
Thomas Budday
Peter Hunter
Mindy Netifee
Ginger Wetzbarger
Kevin Whitley (Sparks)
Samantha Libby
Laura Swearingen-Steadwell (Yes! Yes!)
Yvonne Naimey
Moira Reilly
Jill Binder
Kate Stewart
Annelyse Gelman
This list doesn’t even come close to the response I got from people offering to send me checks by mail, but I reached my goal via PayPal so quickly, that I could not take anything else.
RC Weslowski sent me a “birthday check (cheque in Canada)” of $250. He’s coming to New England for some shows in May! Yay! You cannot miss this kind, lovely man…
I am still so humbled and grateful for all the help.
This community is beautiful.
*I was floored when Gabrielle Bouliane sent me $50. She was adamant about me not worrying about it. So I didn’t. I had hoped to pay her back before she died, but that did not happen. She probably needed xoxos from me before she needed $50. So this is what I am gonna do:
THE GABRIELLE BOULIANE NATIONAL POETRY SLAM VOLUNTEER AWARD
I don’t have the specifics completely lined up, but every year after the National Poetry Slam, from here on out, I will award one volunteer $50 for their selfless work at that year’s event.
There will be a voting process whether I attend or not, as it will be handled via the internet. People will be nominated and voted on. Essays will have to be written as to why said volunteer deserves the award. The $50 is just to be tradition, as it certainly does not cover any expense laid out by said recipient, but it is to say thank you for all of their help and to put a name to the year’s example of selflessness in poetry slam.
I will create a page on my site for this award and ask a poet each year to design a simple award/plaque/statuette, in Gabrielle’s spirit, to also be awarded along with the monetary prize.
Any and all advice on this concept is certainly welcome.
I chose the National Poetry Slam because of its size and Gabrielle’s affiliation with it.
Your thoughts are a must.
———
Word to the nerd.
Bunny up.
This entry was written by , posted on 11 February, 2010 at 2:58 PM, filed under Personal Updates and tagged award, gabrielle bouliane, gabrielle bouliane volunteer award, loans, volunteer, volunteerism. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.