I regret that I haven’t been blogging very much lately (I’ve been full-on occupied with training requests and other projects this September at my university), but I wanted to use my blog to amplify a plea for help from a virtual world friend, Timothy Jackson, whom many of you know better as Maxwell Graf, a talented content creator in both Second Life and Sansar. I interviewed Max back in 2017 about his work in Sansar. His Second Life store is called Rustica: in-world location; SL Marketplace).
Like so many who have had their lives upended because of the coronavirus pandemic, Tim/Max and his wife are in danger of losing their home, so they have started a GoFundMe page:
Tim/Max writes:
We just had an offer accepted this week on the mobile home you see in the picture, our lender approved it but today we found out our total costs to go into contract are about twice what we have in our savings account. We have not been able to find housing close enough to let [my wife] keep her job, renting or buying, until this one. We are so close to having some stability. We need your help desperately to be able to keep from becoming homeless again. Please fund us if you can.
If you can help them with a donation, no matter how small, to help them meet their GoFundMe goal of US$7,500, it would mean a stable roof over their heads. Or, if you prefer, perhaps you can purchase something for your virtual home in Second Life from Rustica, such as this amazingly detailed set of bookshelves and books:
I personally own this set, and I never fail to marvel over the workmanship, and smile at the clever titles on the spines of the individual books!
Thank you for your support.
UPDATE 1:25 p.m.: Jinkies, from the Second Life Syndicate blog, has also written about this fundraiser, saying:
I have known Maxwell Graff (Timothy Jackson) of Rustica for many years, in and out of SL. Having known him and his wife Lyric, and all they have had to go through, I am hoping we can do our best to help them in their time of need. They are at risk of becoming homeless as they wait to try and buy a house. There is more to the story, which you can read on the GoFundMe page, but I will post a bit of it below.
What we are all hoping people can pitch in in any way they can, no matter how big or small. There is the GoFundMe page for direct donations, the in world store location to buy his products, and the marketplace (it is not fully updated so some products are not listed).
Others are also helping get the word out, so know it is not just me. Max is dear to many of us, so if you would like to see what some of the others have to say, you can check out blogs from Ryan Schultz and Mona Eberhardt.
UPDATE Oct. 6th, 2021: I just wanted to let everybody know that Max/Tim and his wife met their goal, and have closed their GoFundMe page, posting the following message:
We have reached our goal, between this fund and donations to our PayPal, so [we] have locked accepting further donations, rather than continue to keep this open! We have what we needed, what we asked for, and more than we dared to hope. Thank you to all who shared, reposted, blogged, upvoted, linked, and most of all to those who donated. As of today we are legally in contract for the house and will be able to get this home. Your kindness and love have made every difference. WE ARE LIFTED BY OTHERS.
Congratulations to Tim/Max and thank you to all who contributed!