The Mansion’s gofundme campaign to raise $10,000 for a new van has just passed the $5,720 mark in just four days, we have $4,000 to go. I am optimistic that we will get there, but there are so many causes and needs in need of attention. I appreciate that.Your support for the residents is a wonderful thing.

A van for the Mansion is not a luxury, it is an urgent necessity, a lifeline for the residents, the only way they can see their doctors, visit their families, go on field trips, get out doors. Their current van is dying, and George Carla, the Mansion’s owner, has spent so much money fixing up the facilities he runs that he can’t get a bank loan for a new van.

He is contributing half,  he is seeking help in raising the other $10,000. I suggested a gofundme project, it is a way to reach the blog readers but also beyond them, they are already supporting newly arrived refugees, the Round House Cafe, and other good and worthy causes.

This is a time where we will have to decide of our hearts will turn to stone or to compassion and love. I choose the latter. In America, we are proficient at keeping the elderly alive for longer and longer periods, but we have failed to think about the quality of those lives. The medical world offers many cures and surgeries and marvels, but has failed to consider the nature of life itself.

My choice in a polarized world is not to argue, but to do good. By your letters and messages and gifts, you are doing wondrous good at the Mansion. I hope some of us can do more. I hope we can get to $10,000, we have passed the 60 per cent mark.

The van is the means by which the residents can expand their lives beyond the confines of their building. The Mansion is a Medicaid facility, the reimbursement system is complex and difficult, there is just no extra money, not even for a van. And the Mansion refuses to sacrifice the quality of their care for money. I have seen that firsthand, Red and I are there several times each week.

So thanks for considering this. You are changing the lives of people who sometimes feel abandoned and left behind. You can help here.