guest post by Chicken John
So our friend Hollis Hawthorne (who’s part of the bicycle dance team The Bay Area Dérailleurs) falls off a motorcycle in India while exploring the planet. Hits her head and tumbles into a coma. Sad. Scary. Mom flies over, hospitals, information gets passed around… and this thing happens. I’ve seen it before. It’s amazing. Activation. People activate. It’s almost like a hive mind thing. It’s like: boom. All business. Someone found a program at Stanford Medical Center for head injuries that she qualifies for. The program is free. Hollis has no medical insurance. So we just needed to get her from India to Stanford. She would ride in an air ambulance.
$150,000 meter on that cab ride. So fundraising started on Monday.
Today we are somewhere between $60 and $70 thousand dollars.
Huh?
We have collected over a thousand donations from $1 to $5,000. It’s incredible. But that’s not the juiciest part. We contacted the Motorcycle Association. Someone knew someone that was part of that group. Someone else was the ex-boyfriend of the lobbyist of the Head Injury Association. Someone from Senator Dianne Finesteins office called asking if we need a jet that Bank of America’s has jets and are looking for good press… maybe they can donate. Knows a guy. In our small community, we were able to find plane people, doctors, lawyers, lobbyists, immigration people, fundraisers… on and on. I’ve got the cell phone of the #7 guy at Paypal. There isn’t anyone we don’t have access to. Really.
Hollis cast the chains of her respirator aside yesterday, and today is banging out 24 breaths a minute. She forgot how to breathe for a bit. Hopefully in a minute, she’ll remember to wake up. Stretch her legs. Complain about the food. (is hospital food in India terrible? Can that even be possible?) We are all hopeful. She’s young, strong. Did a lotta yoga and all that crap. I think that stuff matters.
It’s just an inspiring and amazing thing to watch unfold. It’s like basic Chaos… possibility turning into actual with no blueprint. And the most beautiful part is that it’s all action and people and emails and donations and 7 fundraisers to be booked and shows and dinners and art auctions and blogs and facebook and mailing lists and on and on and on and on……. all happening whilst this delicate little flower just lays sleeping. A slightly Elven look to her… you could almost see pointy ears tucking out from her hat. Trucks being loaded and unloaded, banks changing money, DJ’s blaring that awful music, artists feverishly applying paint to canvas, the stages being set up, the bloggers ticking away on their laptops in a café, signs being painted, people standing in front of the benefit shows smoking, 20 million phone calls… all this chaos in a million different directions costing billions and billions of calories, and in the center: this peaceful creature. Snoring.
To donate something to Hollis to reach the $150,000 goal to bring her home, or to check in on her, please visit the blog that has been set up:
Or write something here in the comment section. Thanks to everyone who kicked down. It’s really just amazing.
And I’d like to leave you with this:
“The essence of all beautiful art, all great art, is gratitude.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
UPDATE: “This just in, if you give today before 6:00, a donor known only as Mr. Dragon will match your donation… up to $3,000!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” Please put “Dragon match” in your donation note field… Thank you, Mr. Dragon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Please add your donations to the comments, so we can keep trackk. At this rate, Hollis will be home for dinner on Monday!!!!!!!!!!!!!
photo by unknown
{ 16 comments… read them below or add one }
Her cousin has also created a blog for Hollis entitled Helping Holli Get Home. Personally, I prefer reading her cousin’s blog as the writing is more succinct.
http://helpholligethome.blogspot.com/
as always, Chicken, you get right to the welds. the astounding response to this accident, esp in the face of all that’s messed up right now, has been breathtaking.
Chipped in $10 (although I guess it may take a few days for paypal to process it).
Crap, donated earlier today and was not aware of the Dragon match, and didn’t note that in my donation
Keep up the good work, soldiers of light.
We are nearing $2,000 with 2 hours more to go!
Thank you for your small, medium, and large donations.
Inch by Inch is a cinch!
This is a great reflection of the power we ALL have, ready to be harnessed.
I am the one monitoring the inbox. It doesn’t matter how long it takes to get through, it matters when I got the email.
THANK YOU!!!!!!(to the millionth power)
Chicken ken write. That was very moveing bro. And its nice to see such solidarity in such a trying time. Best wishes to all involved. Onward ever, backward never.
It was a moving piece about Hollis John, thanks for bringing this to the attention of others…
After a bit of soul searching ( yes i do have one, i think it’s everywhere) after reading the link http://friendsofhollis.blogspot.com/ I’m saying my prayers for Hollis…
Doing a bit more soul searching and in angst about the economic doldrums concerning financial restraints. What everyone’s doing for her is impressive, all this scurrying around to gather funds for something that should have been done yesterday… For medical transport that should be provided gratis, out of sheer humanitarianism.
I’ve just contacted President Barrak Obamma
at http://www.whitehouse.gov/CONTACT/
asking for his support and have suggested this would be a good use for Airforce 1…
I also think that the American Embassy in India can possibly provide some relief.
How about a public relations article on the evening news?
I know you know how to work a press release.
In all due concern.
Thank you to all who donated in time!
We crossed the finish line with $3,547 that specifically mentioned “Dragon Match”.
A few emails to the president would be a great idea.
The lesson here is deep. The poorest people I know have raised so much money. The true innovators of our time will always be on the struggle to show people the light. The news media has been alerted, but we have utilized the information networking tool of the internet to immediately and compassionately secure $53,500 since Friday. We have four benefits occurring in three cities in the next week, with satellites blinking their fund matching goals as they circle the world. Artist and visionaries don’t mind congregating in the name of fun, merriment, and sacrifice to allow the chance for someone who has fueled their creativity.
This is the lesson the new Obama Administration needs to learn, but the web it struggles in has already seen the eight legs of oppression climbing toward another feast. It is time to acknowledge the webs in our society and get to them with a broom.
And least we forget our own webs, the ones we make, the ones we need, the ones that connect us. They might be invisible, but in the right light, you can see that they stretch wide spans, ready to catch and ready to provide food.
This is an inspiring and ongoing story demonstrating several things: the basic goodness of people, the danger in riding motorcycles (murdercycles) and the parasites who latch on to tragedies such as this. (See the ads at the end of the story).
It tells a lot.
in Artur’s vein, this sad/inspiring story should be a reminder to all to GET TRAVEL MEDICAL/MEDIVAC INSURANCE. If you can afford the plane ticket, you can afford the insurance.
Thanks for posting this, I hadn’t heard the news. I worked on a show with Hollis a few years back and passed the info on to all of our co-conspirators. Its fantastic to see how many people are jumping to help her and I hope she gets home and recovers quickly!
Keep up the good work, soldiers of light.
We are nearing $2,000 with 2 hours more to go!
Thank you for your small, medium, and large donations.
Apparently there’s a benefit for Hollis at Slims on Thursday, 3/12 8 pm: http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/2122529/
today at the Urban Iditarod, we slapped together an Air Ambulance sled, strapped in a gold mannequin dressed in flair (that would be Hollis, of course), covered it all in signs that explained our mission, and sprinted down the Embarcadero, beers in hand.
and we collected quite a few bucks!
I just posted this. Help it continues to get the word out: http://www.examiner.com/x-4533-SF-Literary-Culture-Examiner~y2009m3d9-Local-artist-Hollis-Hawthorne-needs-your-help-to-receive-medical-care
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