Charity Drive in Melora’s Memory
Hi everyone, Splinka again.
In talking with Melora’s (Amber’s) mother, rather than send flowers or a gift to her family, we’ve decided to hold a small charity drive.
All donations received will be split between two worthy charities in the US:
Floyd County (Virginia) School Children’s Weekend Food Backpack Program - Volunteers purchase nutritious food for 2 days to give to needy school children (in Head Start) on Fridays, so they can eat over the weekend and focus on their studies. Mel grew up in Floyd County, VA, and this is where her mother has asked for donations to be made, “to help our young children in Floyd love reading as much as [she] did.“
[Edited to add: Melora's mother has been in contact to say that a new memorial scholarship is being set up in Mel's name for kids graduating from the high school she attended in Floyd County who are going on to study science or math in university. If this scholarship is set up in time, we will fund the scholarship instead of the backpack program. More news soon.]
BAGLY, the Boston Alliance of Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Queery Youth. Mel, Winter and I always worked extra hard to keep [DTOP] a positive, inclusive guild, with a focus on safe fun for everyone. While we are not a LGBTQIA+ guild specifically, we actively promote acceptance and positivity during our meta map runs, and I personally can attest to how seriously Melora took that responsibility. Mel lived in the Boston area, and we wanted to be sure that some of our raised funds went towards the place she also felt at home.
I, personally, will be matching all donations 1:1. That means, if you donate $20, I will match that with $20 of my own money for a total of a $40 donation. (My matching caps out at $1k. I challenge you to make $1k in donations!) The donations will be made in memory of Melora, and copies of the letters/responses to/from the charities will be sent to Mel’s mom.
We will be accepting donations through Friday, March 15th.
Receipts of my donations to these two charities will be posted publicly here. If you’re nervous the rest of [DTOP], [SAND], [PuG] and others can assure you that every single penny of your donations (x2!) will be sent to these two fine charities before the end of March.
If you would like to donate, please use this PayPal link. (We are using PayPal directly to avoid the overhead of many of the crowdfunding platforms.)
On behalf of Melora’s mother and the entire [DTOP] family, thank you for your contributions. And see you on Sunday!
