Will You Help?

[SniperPlushie]

I don't know if this is the correct forum to place this in, but it is VERY serious. A good friend of mine who goes by the name of ChibiMitzy (http://chibimitzy.deviantart.com/) is in trouble. Her family is barely making it with the two incomes they currently have. However, her step father has been rushed into surgery for brain tumors. They NEED $10,000 to pay for the surgery. See where I'm getting at? It would mean a young woman and her family not loosing their home (and the chance for her to go to college) if you could donate any amount of money. Please! Any little amount is great! I understand the economy is in the trash and everyone is struggling, but to me that means we need to help one another more than ever. Again please help!

Donation Link:https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_flow&SESSION=hBzcjSwgpXiAjIdn3xTKQlezOQChUEzI5mahXr9LZx7lKIYVBUGGJUZHysa&dispatch=5885d80a13c0db1f8e263663d3faee8d5863a909c4bb5aee2fcbfe698ea9bfbc

[PyronIkari]

I don't know if this is the correct forum to place this in, but it is VERY serious. A good friend of mine who goes by the name of ChibiMitzy (http://chibimitzy.deviantart.com/) is in trouble. Her family is barely making it with the two incomes they currently have. However, her step father has been rushed into surgery for brain tumors. They NEED $10,000 to pay for the surgery. See where I'm getting at? It would mean a young woman and her family not loosing their home (and the chance for her to go to college) if you could donate any amount of money. Please! Any little amount is great! I understand the economy is in the trash and everyone is struggling, but to me that means we need to help one another more than ever. Again please help!

Donation Link:https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_flow&SESSION=hBzcjSwgpXiAjIdn3xTKQlezOQChUEzI5mahXr9LZx7lKIYVBUGGJUZHysa&dispatch=5885d80a13c0db1f8e263663d3faee8d5863a909c4bb5aee2fcbfe698ea9bfbc

Uhm... this is definitely serious, but it's also something that you really shouldn't be doing. Really, asking random strangers to give you money to help out a friend is kind of in incredibly bad taste and reasoning.

[JTchinoy]

I'm going to have to ask for your logic behind that one, Mikey.  Would it be more acceptable to you if they were doing some form of fundraiser or donation drive, like the families of terminally ill people do?  I generally don't give these kinds of posts much thought, but at the same time I'm curious as to why it would be in poor taste to ask?

Good luck to your friend's family.

[PyronIkari]

I'm going to have to ask for your logic behind that one, Mikey.  Would it be more acceptable to you if they were doing some form of fundraiser or donation drive, like the families of terminally ill people do?  I generally don't give these kinds of posts much thought, but at the same time I'm curious as to why it would be in poor taste to ask?

Good luck to your friend's family.

Because it's random strangers that have no connection or knowing of the involved parties. Things like this happen all the time, but you generally ask in places within the community of the person or that have some kind of link to the person. Think of it this way. What if this person posted on 4chan or SomethingAwful? Or random internet forum #53948. You're asking people to just hand you money, no questions asked for a cause that shows no reflection or any verifiable truth in the matter. It makes people question the cause and terms of why money is being asked for. This also does a lot of other things like, now everyone that does know of the person involved will think they're a poor family that has to resort to begging strangers for money. This wasn't even posted by the family involved, but by A FRIEND OF SAID PERSON. That makes it even worse because it's as if the parties involved need to have a friend beg for money from random strangers. This reflects so poorly on the family that even if you get a few dollars here and there, the social problems this can cause may out weigh the few dollars you may get from strangers.

There's a socially accepted way to ask for help, and this is not that. I wonder if said person even knows her friend is going around begging for money from random strangers on the internet as well. And at that... on someone else's website.

[Moonblossom]

I agree with Pyron.

This person has one post, and like he pointed out, she's not even collecting for herself. Would you walk into a store and just start asking people for money in a situation like this (just random asking - not legitimate soliciting for a licensed charity), simply because the store sold items that were of interest to you and had similar people in it?

Why is this any different? I admit if it were a regular poster and member of the community I might be less judgmental, but coming in here and asking total strangers for money for a situation like this... I'm pretty sure most of us know at least one person currently living with serious medical issues we're probably better suited to help financially.

[TC X0 Lt 0X]

Personally I'm still half under the impression it is spam =P

But Pyron is right to a degree, though in desperate situations I doubt many will care about going about the proper way.

[SniperPlushie]

Look I'm not going around trying to scam people or portray some horrible person. I bet many people have donated at grocery stores or online for the relief fund for Japan though those people are COMPLETE strangers. I've bought food, clothing, and given all the money in my pocket to homeless veterans because I know their own families will not help them. I'm trying to be selfless and help someone in time where WE NEED TO HELP ONE ANOTHER. Get a grip if you don't like it. And if you don't want to donate that's fine, maybe you'll be a little more considerate and send a prayer for a sick man and his family. Have a lovely day.

[Moonblossom]

Wah wah self-righteous indignation wank wank wank I'm better than you.

Yeah, that will totally get us to donate to your cause. This was misguided. Deal with it.

[PyronIkari]

Look I'm not going around trying to scam people or portray some horrible person. I bet many people have donated at grocery stores or online for the relief fund for Japan though those people are COMPLETE strangers. I've bought food, clothing, and given all the money in my pocket to homeless veterans because I know their own families will not help them. I'm trying to be selfless and help someone in time where WE NEED TO HELP ONE ANOTHER. Get a grip if you don't like it. And if you don't want to donate that's fine, maybe you'll be a little more considerate and send a prayer for a sick man and his family. Have a lovely day.

I donated money to Japan, and a lot of my friends ran fundraisers for that. Why? Because we donated it directly to a charity to help the misfortunate people of that natural disaster. That was a worldwide event and millions of people were directly affected by it. Not only does that disaster affect the families that were directly in harms way, but it affects things on a global scale. Economy, mentality, and so on. I watched the affects of the earthquake happening via stream as they happened.

You are a random person on the internet, begging for money of which no one knows anything about. Are you a horrible person just trying to scam people? Probably not. Is it unfortunate that a friend of yours is having serious problems, yes it is. But frankly, that person has nothing to do with me and I have not seen, met, or know nothing of this person you speak of. So I have a choice to donate money to some mysterious person, or donate it to Japan where not only do I know my money is doing a lot of good, it goes towards people that I know that were directly affected as well.

[DentyneIce408]

Don't want to be rude but I thought the state would pay someones medical expenses and if she cared that much for her step father wouldn't she decide to sacrifice her pursuit to colledge to save his life? Anyways there are better places to get donations rather then here. Like a church or your own community. Trust me I've been in that situation and I'm still in that situation. Asking donations on forums won't get you far unless you're known. Or do what others been doing, make a facebook page and advertise, that is, if you're that desparate...

[Mango Bunny]

Mmm. The problem is that it mostly LOOKS shady. I'm sure your friend and her family are all very nice and responsible people in need, but what if your friend was someone else and they were buying TVs with the donations?

Listen, I appreciate your caring for your friend, but this isn't going to be very effective most likely. It's not that we're mean, it's that we'd like to know where our money actually goes. When I donate, I donate to charities that I know are going to use the money well. My suggestion is that instead, you put your efforts into finding local assistance.

I know when my mom had breast cancer she found out about all kinds of help. One really simple, but useful one was incredibly-healthy, home-cooked food delivery during her recovery process. If I were you I'd contact local charities that might be able to set you up in a way that you could fund-raise in a more usual manner.

[LadyGlitterbow]

You can get help for free you know. My boyfriend, on the verge of death (sorta), was able to have all his care paid for because he couldn't pay himself. They can't refuse you because you can't pay, although depending on the money situation, they could make you refinance the house.
anyway, here's the local hospital near me: http://cchealth.org/
hunt around and make some calls, I bet you can work something out
Also, you can negotiate the cost of the surgery if you are unable to pay, or break it up into payments. $10k sounds like a lot, but it isn't too bad. If your friend wants, she could even get a job and help out with the payments. There are a lot of options, just start asking questions.