Thursday, April 18, 2013

Boston Marathon Auction to Benefit Victims and Families

*Update 4/18/13 at 10:30 PM: I have decided to include the One Fund, created by Govenor Patrick and Mayor Menino, to pair with the First Responders Fund.  Winners participating in this auction can chose which they'd like to donate, or, they can split their donation between the two.  Either way, the money is going where it is needed most--to the victims and their families.*

(This is an open letter to all my friends in the #writing community I posted via my Facebook page a couple days ago. I've received some amazing donations so far from wonderful people, but there is still plenty of room for more donations! Please contact me if you or anyone you know are interested in participating. I hope to go live with the first batch of donated items later next week. As a hint, I have a couple of critiques and an author visit, plus awesome books to bid on, so this auction is already going to help those affected immensely. But in times of tragedy, there is always room for more help. Thanks to everyone who has contributed so far--your generous, caring hearts warm my soul and I'm forever grateful to you all.)

Hello,

My name is K.T., and I'm a born-and-raised Bostonian. I'm also a writer, looking to our beloved writing community for some much needed support.

As you know, the tragic events at the Boston Marathon on April 15 at 2:50 PM left 3 dead and 176 people injured, plus countless more traumatized. These bombings rocked my hometown, and I can't sit idly by.

I'm writing to you today to ask for your help. I'd like to organize an auction, with all proceeds going to the Boston First Responders Fund, a fund organized through the Boston Firefighters Credit Union. 100% of the proceeds go to benefit the victims and their families. But I can't do it alone. So I'm asking if you and/or anyone you know (fellow writers, agents, editors, illustrators, etc.) could donate. It could be your time (Skype chat, phone call, visit etc.), some swag, a book/ARC, signed bookmark, name a character in your book, critique, edit or service, anything that others can bid on over a 5 day period. All winners will donate directly to the fund, send a copy of the receipt to me, and I will organize and facilitate everything--from the official auction postings to putting winners in touch with the benefactors--through my personal website.

If you or anyone you know can participate and if you could spread the word, I, along with the countless people affected, would be forever grateful. You and anyone else interested can contact me directly at crowleykt [AT] gmail [DOT] com. If I can get at least 10 donations, the impact could be huge. Please feel free to pass this message along.

Let's show Boston just how amazing this writing community is.

Thank you so much for your time and consideration.

K.T. Crowley

5 comments:

  1. Thanks for organizing this, K.T. I just posted an excerpt of your letter at Verla Kay's site.

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  2. I'm tweeting to writers and posting on their facebook page. So far I left messages on Stephen King, Joe Hill, James Patterson, ... gonna keep posting. I hope some of them help. Can't hurt to ask.

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    1. Have I told you how awesome you are lately?? Thanks again, Stephanie!! <3

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  3. I'm not sure if anyone would be interested in rec'g a 10 page crit but I'm happy to do one (I lived in Boston for 10 yrs). I'm a YA/NA author currently on sub. Agented by Stefanie Lieberman of Janklow & Nesbit. I'm a judge for Agent Query Kombat, cohost a weekly writers' bloghop called Thursday's Children, used to work as a marketing copy writer/proofreader. Email me at sugaropal@gmail if you want me to participate.

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