Help Us Help Keith’s Family
You have seen me write here for the past three years now. During this time, I have promoted the conference, workshops, and shared my ideas. I have never asked you to participate in this kind of community effort. Hopefully, I’ve earned enough trust from you to ask you to give something back.
What’s Happened to Keith
Above is a picture of Keith Anderson, Julie (his wife), and their two daughters (Maddie and Cecily). Keith Anderson is one of the main organizers of Big Design Conference, IxDA Chapter Leader in Dallas, husband, father, metalhead, and more. On November 3, Keith was having chest pains and called an ambulance. His original diagnosis was Pancreatitis, which is inflammation of the pancreas. Complications have occurred since Keith was admitted to the hospital.
Right now, Keith is fighting a painful battle in the intensive care unit. He originally started at Baylor Hospital in Grapevine, Texas, but some complications led to a Care Flight trip to Methodist Dallas (which has the best pancreas doctors in the area. Keith’s original struggle with pancreatitis led to pneumonia and ended in surgery, where his gall bladder was removed and part of pancreas. Keith has been sedated and on a ventilator since Saturday, November 5th. Keith has also been on dialysis since November 14th.
Julie has been tirelessly by her husband’s side. With Keith being out of work for nearly a month now and a long recovery expected, the Anderson family needs our financial support. With no extended family, they have no one to turn to (except us).
How You Can Help
Here’s how you can help. Right now, I am looking at ways to divert money to help out Keith’s family. I am going to hold a workshop in January, where all the proceeds will go to Keith’s family. I’m asking if you could think about doing the same thing. At the very least, help us get the word out about Keith Anderson.
We have paid the December mortgage for them. We originally wanted to raise $2,000 for Keith and his family. We wanted to raise enough money to help pay for the Anderson’s mortgage for December. It was a modest goal. Pay for your house for one month. We were overwhelmed at the response! We collected $2,000 in less than 16 hours! So, we upped the effort to $10,000 (December 2011 through and July 2012 mortgages with some additional money to spare). We will keep this open until December 31st. Give what you can, even $5 means alot.
I know this is the worst possible time to ask for anything. But would you consider the following:
1. Giving whatever you can. (“Chip in” uses Pay Pal. It’s very easy to donate and secure.)
2. Spread the word. Please, please blog this, tweet this, re-tweet this.
3. Help find a donor (maybe a generous company or individual).
4. Go to Pray for Keith to Like and Tweet your support, too.
Click the above button called Chip-in to donate. We have Chip-in page called Team Keith: http://teamkeith.chipin.com/team-keith. You can also go there to donate.
NOTE:Chip-in uses Flash, so iPad users can go directly to PayPal to make a donation.
If you do not feel comfortable using Paypal or Chip-in, send me an email. Help us help Keith’s family.
Thanks for your help,
Brian, DFW-UPA, and Big Design Organizers
Related articles
- Pray For Keith (thenewreview.net)
- Buy a Holiday Gift, Support Keith’s Family (bigdesignevents.com)
About Post Author
We have had people from three countries show support the Anderson family–US, Australia, and Lithuania. Please continue to spread the word. Your generosity, kind thoughts, and prayers do make a difference.
Correction, sir. Four countries. Denmark is the fourth. 🙂
I’m also utterly impressed by the speed of this collection. Big D has a Big H(eart).
We can also add Canada,
Please add Chile, Argentina to foreign countires and Tennessee to US states. Julie and Keith have many people in my network (Tennessee) sending healing thoughts and prayers to them. Signed, Julie’s siser, Sue Ann Freese McClellan
People from the following states in the USA have donated:
• Texas
• Iowa
• Oklahoma
• Massachusetts
• South Carolina
• Arkansas
• Oregon
• New Hampshire
• Washington
• New Mexico
• Illinois
• California
• New Jersey
• Georgia
• Arizona
By my math, we have 30% of the states covered. Let;s get that up to 25 of the states.
Call your friends. Tweet and RT.
Also, visit the companion sites of teamkeith.net and prayforkeith.com.
Add Minnesota to the list now.
You can also add Florida to the list. I used to write over at The NewReview (http://thenewreview.net/) and was a big fan of Keith’s reviews. I’ve been keeping up with his status via Facebook and hope everything turns out for the best for him and his family.
Florida REPRESENTS
New York represent!
Florida needs to stop being slackers, too.
Done!
New York has just represented!
Add Colorado to the list!
Yes, Colorado. Germany, Australia, and The Netherlands have also donated.
I’ve got ten art peices to auction with the proceeds going to the Keith family fund. Here’s #1 http://flic.kr/p/aN8ceV These are all individual pieces based on the light icon that is in the top row of the “My Favorite Machine” sculpture piece created for the BigD11 conference. http://www.flickr.com/photos/belveal/sets/72157627045673793/show/ Details to follow.
Roger, very cool work and great that you are giving the proceeds to this cause! Wonderful show of support! Would love to see a site with all of your work here and where can it be purchased or see current pricing?
Following up, Great to see Keith on the mend, though i know it has been a long rough road.
I’m beginning work on a piece, or pieces, that are of a very personal nature, a figure depicting the experience of a person dealing with cancer. Not the same diagnosis as Keith, though I imagine the pain, trauma, and uncertainty of the ordeal is fairly universal.
As one having dealt with cancer up close from a number of angles, I was inspired to create this figure, I call MySisterOfHope. Ironically, as I was just beginning work on this piece, I ran into some delay due to health issues of my own. I am hoping to carry on with it very soon.
http://www.belveal.com Or just Google, my name, “belveal”, to find me easily. See Geek Art along with stuff that is only geek, or only Art, or only Other.
Work on this along with all of my other Geek, art, and geeky art ramblings can be seen at http://www.belveal.com
– Roger