I wasn’t really sure how to post a request for donations for my AFSP fundraising drive at work this year given I’m still pretty new to the company, and Slack channels seem to have pretty strict rules in them about what you can post and when. And being remote, and well, forever remote as long as there’s no New York City office for my company, it’s going to be difficult for me to “meet” people to get to know me better so that they feel more compelled to donate to a cause I am fundraising for. But I figured I’d give it a shot anyway and post it on the Wellness Slack group. I eventually got just over $200 in donations from this effort, and so it was more than I expected I would, especially in a year of COVID-19 when everyone is clutching their purse strings more and more conservative about spending in the case that the worst possible situation happens in their lives.

Without any of the matches coming through yet, I still haven’t hit my goal of $4,000 yet, which was half of what I would have originally made it given that I’ve been increasing my goal by $1,000 each year since I began. But I’m still grateful for the generosity and hope these dollars will go towards helping others who struggled the way Ed did. I just hope they actually survive.