Jade’s day, Feb 4, 2014

Today started out great.  A rare work from home morning to work on getting the Crossing Lines campaign up and running again, as well as some work and personal life stuff.  But things took a turn for the worse when I got into work.  Sonya received a text from me “Send me something that will make me smile please.”  The slew of pictures (mostly from www.ponandzi.com) that followed helped ease the “Oh dear god, the world is coming to an end around me” feeling (Hyperbole, do you speak it?), but I was still down when I left work.  A good friend of mine actually left work early to come give me a hug.  Another friend made me dinner and exchanged work horror stories with me.  In short, I have some completely awesome friends.

But upon getting home and getting back on my computer, Sonya sent me a message on gchat. “I can cheer you up”, followed by the link to our Indiegogo campaign, which had gone live again mere hours before.  The progress bar was completely green, indicating that we had reached our final goal.  We had only been half way there when it went live that morning.  I was confused, floored, giddy.  Several people had jumped right in to contribute, including one anonymous donor who had contributed the $590 remaining of our $1300 goal.

In short, people are incredible.  The support from the global slackline community, our friends and family continues to surprise and amaze me.  Its a beautiful reminder that even on your worst days, when you can’t breathe because things have gone so wrong, there is an entire world of people out there who will restore your faith in humanity.  We really can’t thank you all enough for the support and enthusiasm for our project.

 

Sonya’s day, Feb 4, 2014

Over coffee at our usual table in our favorite mom and pop coffee shop (literally; mom can often be seen in the back prepping pastries with an infant wrapped to her chest), Jade and I went over plans for reopening our paused Indiegogo campaign. By the end of an hour we’d written an update and a blog. With the help of the support crew at Indie, the campaign was live again by mid-morning. I spent my day at the lab in a surprisingly productive state of  distraction, checking Facebook comments and smiling every time I checked my email to find another contribution.

With $5 here, and $50 there, I had no doubt we’d reach our goal by the new deadline, Feb 28th. We picked that date so that we could celebrate with the Iran Slackline team in Turkey during the Highline Carnival. I was just about to pack up and head home for the day when I clicked on my email one last time and saw a new contribution. Smiling, I opened it and promptly sat down with my jaw dropped open.

You know the rest.

Biking home my mind was full of thoughts about the amazing people in the world around me, friends and strangers alike. I’m curious to see, when this is all over, where most of the contributions come from. Slackers? Friends? Family? People who know me well and want to support my projects or people I’ve never met who simply think what we’re doing is worth supporting. When we started this funding campaign I spent thirty minutes on the phone with a good friend while he assuaged my concerns. I don’t usually ask for money, for help. It’s doesn’t feel right to me. Now I’m glad we did ask, though, not only because we already have the money we need to replace the lost gear, but because the experience has reminded me vividly of how beautiful people are and that amazing things can happen when you are willing to try.

<3

 

What this means going forward?

As we said in the campaign, the initial $1,300 will go to buying Iran Slackline a new highline rig.  Any additional funds raised will go to the travel expenses to bring our Iranian friends to the US to play in Moab and Yosemite (assuming OFAC cooperates.  See our previous post for details on our backup plans and other options.)