Christmas 2022

[Flyin6]

I'll start off the Christmas 2022 donation drive/collection. We'll start with $100 in the kitty.
I have not yet identified who/what we will be giving the money away to, but like every other time, it will be appropiate and be much needed. You all should feel proud, since 2022 marks nine years in a row we have done thins!

[Bigdave_185]

I'll start off the Christmas 2022 donation drive/collection. We'll start with $100 in the kitty.
I have not yet identified who/what we will be giving the money away to, but like every other time, it will be appropiate and be much needed. You all should feel proud, since 2022 marks nine years in a row we have done thins!

Did we ever get an alternate donation option besides direct from the forum? Venmo or other?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Flyin6]

I'll start off the Christmas 2022 donation drive/collection. We'll start with $100 in the kitty.
I have not yet identified who/what we will be giving the money away to, but like every other time, it will be appropiate and be much needed. You all should feel proud, since 2022 marks nine years in a row we have done thins!

Did we ever get an alternate donation option besides direct from the forum? Venmo or other?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Ah, no
What would you suggest?
A snail mail check to me would work, I suppose. I draw down the funds into my personal checking and stroke the check for whatever/whoever when the time comes anyway.
Totally open to suggestions

[stlaser]

Don, setup a venmo account (it’s owned by PayPal) however once you do that we can gift money to friends and family w/o fees. Once you do that text me and we’ll connect as friends. More money goes to where it should this way.

[Flyin6]

Don, setup a venmo account (it’s owned by PayPal) however once you do that we can gift money to friends and family w/o fees. Once you do that text me and we’ll connect as friends. More money goes to where it should this way.

OK, Venmo account coming right up.

[Flyin6]

Venmo account created

Donaldharward@donald-harward-1

[stlaser]

Sent you a friend request, please accept if I got the right person.

[Bigdave_185]

Done!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Flyin6]

Venmo account created

Donaldharward@donald-harward-1

OK, got the first monies in...$50...Kool

That puts us at $150

Good start

[Flyin6]

And we have the $103.16 donation a particular individual has made famous over the years!!!!

Thank you!

Puts us at $253.16

[Flyin6]

And another donation just came in for $75

Thank you very much for giving year in and year out!

$328.16

[Flyin6]

Well, that odd-ball number didn't last for very long. We're back to God's eternal love message again at $333.16

Thank you again!

[Flyin6]

Another outstanding member of this au-gust organization stepped up with $100

That brings us up to: $433.16

No idea just yet who or what to give this to but early on I'd conceed that I have a soft spot for St. Jude's Children's hospital, and for Tunnels to Towers...

[Bigdave_185]

How did the tornado folks make out a year or so later?

Last year you found a church of some sort i think to help?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Flyin6]

How did the tornado folks make out a year or so later?

Last year you found a church of some sort i think to help?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

That church and pastor was hard in it when we helped. He/they lost their physical church, and he was in the process of burying some of his members. We came in at the right time. I have not followed up with them since.

[cj7ox]

Oooh! Venmo! We're getting new age around here! LOL

[Flyin6]

Oooh! Venmo! We're getting new age around here! LOL

I know...Teachin' old dogs new tricks...

[Flyin6]

We picked up another $100 donation.

We now have $533.16 to donate to someone

[Flyin6]

Another of our faithful has stepped up again for $50

Many thanks

We now have $633.16 to give away

[TexasRedNeck]

Don, you know my conviction doesn’t allow me to celebrate XMas but I was thinking.  Have you thought about filing for a non profit and using your military connections to enrich the lives of veterans?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Flyin6]

Don, you know my conviction doesn’t allow me to celebrate XMas but I was thinking.  Have you thought about filing for a non profit and using your military connections to enrich the lives of veterans?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

In a few words, yes, I have
I'll share
I learned something about non profits. And I learned why almost all of them are for profit.
Government red tape requires it!
My thoughts: I am already $700-$800 out of pocket for this site annually, when you folks do not step up to help. If I executed a Non-profit, putting the paperwork together and getting all that filed (Roughly akin to forming an LLC) I'd be out of pocket for all that. I would have to file semi-annual accounting with Kentucky and an annual tax return along with required statements. I could take more of my time and do those and risk getting something wrong which I may have to defend legally or just pay an attorney to do it for me. My attorney is $150-$200/hr depending on what I have him do, so filing this thing would cost me say a grand, with annual costs of say $500 to $1000.

I do not charge anything nor collect any monies from this activity, so to do that would have me forking out $2K-$3K annually.
So where would I get those funds from?

Not the membership, I can safely say, and that is not a hard statement and is not meant to be harsh nor mean, but just look at the past seven years and you can see that annually, the members, just a few of them, btw, donate around a grand for Christmas, and sometimes also supply a few hundred to help me with the costs of keeping the doors open.

So that's that. It is also my belief that non-profits are scrutinized more than private citizens simply because a greedy government smells more cash.
For those reasons, given the current setup, it would be far from my best interests to file for and maintain a non-profit.

But

What if I started making money here?? I am not sure how to do that exactly, but I would suppose adding in some advertising might bring in a small stream of money. In my view, it would be smarter to still not make this forum into a non-profit, as I would probably still just give it all away. Since starting this forum, I have never kept a single penny for myself, it's just not my way. I think I would likely continue to give aplenty if this place made a profit.

So there it is, my take on that question

I wll, however, always listen to counterpoints and suggestions, as long as they are well-conceived and thought out.

Now to the question of doing something to help my fellow warriors, man do I ever try! I went to my pastor and suggested I could lead a therapy/prayer/whatever group for the real warriors. I can reach them because I am one of them. I can lead and most will recognize me as an officer and a leader. I think I could be darned effective in reaching many, but I have never been able to get a church leader to get behind the idea.

To be transparent here, it angers me that none will allow such a group to be formed. As a result, I have not been going to church very much, exactly for that reason. I see non-warriors saying they want to help and then going and appointing someone who has zero ideas about what we went through. My big church is like that. They have an ex-marine who was always an embassy guard, and a 5-year Air Force security policeman (so-called) "ministering" to vets. Neither would recognize the crack of a bullet if it whizzed by their ears. Combat guys can sniff out a fake in a New York minute).

So, could I help? Yea, I could help a lot. Will I get the support, the venue, or the money from anyone? I'd say an ice cube stands a better chance of surviving in hell!

Sorry for the rant, but this is a sore point for me...

[stlaser]

Can’t argue with much of that. However, LLC’s are easy and normally cheap to file. Colorado was $90 annually I think and Indiana was less than that. In Indiana prior to filing my first one on my own my accountant & his lawyer buddy wanted $600 to do it. It was literally like filling in 5 spaces on a government document and paying the fee. Needless to say I found a different accountant.

The biggest issue I see is just staying up on the annual meetings, I’m sure Ken and I would be free to volunteer as board members. Maybe a Dave could volunteer as a secretary and try to keep meeting minutes? Wouldn’t that be fun, me telling H jokes and Ken calling me a hippy…… and Dave well being Dave there might be more questions than minutes being written

[Flyin6]

Can’t argue with much of that. However, LLC’s are easy and normally cheap to file. Colorado was $90 annually I think and Indiana was less than that. In Indiana prior to filing my first one on my own my accountant & his lawyer buddy wanted $600 to do it. It was literally like filling in 5 spaces on a government document and paying the fee. Needless to say I found a different accountant.

The biggest issue I see is just staying up on the annual meetings, I’m sure Ken and I would be free to volunteer as board members. Maybe a Dave could volunteer as a secretary and try to keep meeting minutes? Wouldn’t that be fun, me telling H jokes and Ken calling me a hippy…… and Dave well being adage there might be more questions than minutes being written

Ya know, I do enjoy a fight!

The idea of that wacky board you just mentioned sheds a whole new (good) light on the subject.

I'd want to add some difficulty for you three of course, like making Tex the president of the board since he mentioned it in the first place...I'm imagining him trying to reel the three of you in...I'm grinnin'

Continue...

[stlaser]

Can’t argue with much of that. However, LLC’s are easy and normally cheap to file. Colorado was $90 annually I think and Indiana was less than that. In Indiana prior to filing my first one on my own my accountant & his lawyer buddy wanted $600 to do it. It was literally like filling in 5 spaces on a government document and paying the fee. Needless to say I found a different accountant.

The biggest issue I see is just staying up on the annual meetings, I’m sure Ken and I would be free to volunteer as board members. Maybe a Dave could volunteer as a secretary and try to keep meeting minutes? Wouldn’t that be fun, me telling H jokes and Ken calling me a hippy…… and Dave well being adage there might be more questions than minutes being written

Ya know, I do enjoy a fight!

The idea of that wacky board you just mentioned sheds a whole new (good) light on the subject.

I'd want to add some difficulty for you three of course, like making Tex the president of the board since he mentioned it in the first place...I'm imagining him trying to reel the three of you in...I'm grinnin'

Continue...

Charles, President…… egging me on to tell H jokes. Love it……

[Flyin6]

Can’t argue with much of that. However, LLC’s are easy and normally cheap to file. Colorado was $90 annually I think and Indiana was less than that. In Indiana prior to filing my first one on my own my accountant & his lawyer buddy wanted $600 to do it. It was literally like filling in 5 spaces on a government document and paying the fee. Needless to say I found a different accountant.

The biggest issue I see is just staying up on the annual meetings, I’m sure Ken and I would be free to volunteer as board members. Maybe a Dave could volunteer as a secretary and try to keep meeting minutes? Wouldn’t that be fun, me telling H jokes and Ken calling me a hippy…… and Dave well being adage there might be more questions than minutes being written

Ya know, I do enjoy a fight!

The idea of that wacky board you just mentioned sheds a whole new (good) light on the subject.

I'd want to add some difficulty for you three of course, like making Tex the president of the board since he mentioned it in the first place...I'm imagining him trying to reel the three of you in...I'm grinnin'

Continue...

Charles, President…… egging me on to tell H jokes. Love it……

He seems very presidential to me, so good choice there. And, he also enjoys stirring the pot. I believe he could keep you two/three energized for quite some time.

[Flyin6]

Are we done at $633???

I am looking at some candidates for the giveaway.

First is a family that is always struggling...Parents and three kids. House in poor repair, no money, bad car...

The second is a woman who I came across who has cancer. They look to be dirt-poor.

The St. Jude's Children hospital is still in there

as is Tunnels to Towers

Although the last two have national attention whereas no one knows anything about the first two candidates.

[Bigdave_185]

I’d say keep it more on a individual person(s). Those seem to be the people who have the hardest time getting help or even asking for help


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[stlaser]

I’d agree w/ Dave, did I just say that again? 

[Flyin6]

I’d agree w/ Dave, did I just say that again? 

You did, have you on record!
And
I agree with him as well

[Flyin6]

We just picked up another $100

Total now is $733.16!

[cj7ox]

I’d agree w/ Dave, did I just say that again? 

x2

[Flyin6]

Gentleman, we have found our man

He is S_____, a grandfather. He has a reputation as a hard worker and is respected by his peers. He is in his mid 50's and has some grandchildren who he takes care of. He is a man of good principles and lives a simple life. He lives with his wife still and although he earns a very low wage, he still manages to give and try to help others.

I sort of felt he was our guy a month ago while I was watching him work. Ya know, there was just something there. So, I prayed about it and I asked some people about him. With everything I heard I felt more and more convinced he is the right person this year to receive our generosity.

I have it set up to make the presentation tomorrow at his place of work. His general manager will participate, but we will keep it very quiet as it should be. Perhaps I can get a photo of the moment, but maybe not as I want this to be as anonymous as possible.

If you were planning to donate, now is the time.

[wyorunner]

Good good! This one hits close to home as my parents provide everything for my niece (their granddaughter).

[Bigdave_185]

See if you can get the GM to match our donation!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Flyin6]

See if you can get the GM to match our donation!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

He already did. He confided in me that he already gave him 1/4 of a cow...That's pretty big too! (But a really great idea!)

So, $733.16?  Going once...

[Flyin6]

Good good! This one hits close to home as my parents provide everything for my niece (their granddaughter).

Ya, I may be doing something like that myself.

Another story, but I have this one Grand Daughter. She seems to fit in very well here, but not so much at home. We have mentioned to her mom, our daughter that we would be happy to let her move in. This young lady is a total self-starter. Taught herself how to cook, and now all of a sudden, she sews! 8 years old, no help from anybody, and she sews. I have noticed for years she is way ahead of the litter. I can show her the better and more challenging things in life. We talk about her possibly becoming a pilot. Before we started talking about it she was convinced "girls" couldn't do such things, and she was destined to be a mom (her eyes glazed over)
I see real potential with her and getting her free and focusing on her and pointing her toward more challenging things... Well, It's in the Lord's hands. I know I am willing to do it all over again if given the chance.

[Flyin6]

$733.16 going twice...

[Bigdave_185]

Oh no


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Flyin6]

No time left...

$733.16...Gone

Off to gift a deserving Grand Father!

[Flyin6]

And Gentlemen, another Christmas is in the bag.

You all made the day of a well-deserving man.

Mr. Steve was humbled and very grateful. It is amazing to see and experience this and to see what a few hundred dollars can do to someone's life!

[stlaser]

Good deal 

[Bigdave_185]

Good deal 

Great reminder what Christmas is for


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk