This woman pretty much summed it up. “Everyone is an artist.” FIGMENT NYC 2012

It’s not too late to get into the action. FIGMENT will be in Detroit, Boston and Washington DC in the coming months.

Truthful Tuesday Family Edition. My dad was the oldest of ten so I have lots of aunts, uncles, cousins and so on. I can’t say I know any of them. Weird families are weird and dysfunctional and disjointed and disorganized and dis-whatever. But this past week a cousin of mine who lives in Florida was coming to New York with her husband for the Doctors Without Borders conference and searched for me on the Inter-webbies. She found an email address and asked if I would like to go to dinner.

We each had snippets of family history. We each had the legacy of dysfunction. We had a weird bond despite not knowing each other. The last time I saw her was at my dad’s funeral 15 years ago. I remembered her being there and that she seemed nice which was one of the reasons I agreed to meet her. Within the few hours we had spilled out tons of stories and she and I were definitely, as she put it, kindred spirits. Her husband is great too. I heard about how they met and what they’ve been doing and there just wasn’t enough time.

goestoeleven:

In 2005 my Grandfather passed away from complications of Alzheimer’s disease. He suffered from the disease for many years before losing his battle. The disease took him from being a former head of design staff at General Motors to being someone who had trouble functioning on his own. It was a very painful progression to watch, and since his diagnosis my family has been active in supporting the Alzheimer’s Association and related causes.

Our mission took on an even bigger significance in recent years because my Grandmother, who was the primary caregiver for my Grandfather during his struggle, passed away from complications of a stroke. We have dedicated our walk and fund-raising efforts to their memory.

In 2006, my family began participating in local Alzheimer’s Memory Walks. In 2007 we raised over $1,400 and were the second highest contributing family in the walk. We immediately decided we wanted to aim higher for 2008 and set our goal at a lofty $10,000. We fell short, but still reached a total of $2,400. 2009 was a good year, but we still didn’t reach $10,000. 2010 was our best year ever. Our total of $4,625 was enough to earn us the “Most Money Raised - Team” award. We’re still shooting for $10,000.

I’m posting this link and story to ask if you might be able to contribute to our goal or our personal mission as a family. I realize everyone is busy and may give to other causes, but I figured it couldn’t hurt to ask. Anything at all would be greatly appreciated, be it the donation of money or simply words of encouragement for my family and those who support us. Whatever the case, please know that we appreciate your support.

If you’d like, you may donate via my Cut for a Cause fundraiser, which I’m sure you’re pretty tired of reading about by now. If not, you can just make a simple donation on my main walk page.

Thank you for your time and consideration.