Is there anything we can do to help this man out?

[FarkusSWR]

I was just looking at the Basses category in the classifieds and saw this:
Fbass "Superbass" Leukemia Sale

It really gets to me that Chrisloe gets the bass of his dreams and then has to sell it because he got sick. Truthfully, I have never spoken to him or met him, or really know anything about him but I couldn't just not at least throw this idea out and see what you guys think.
He is trying to get $2800.....I figure if 140 of us can donate $20 each he can hang on to his bass for when he recovers.

I don't really know how to go about it other than e-mailing him and seeing if he has a PayPal account that we could send funds to. I guess when someone makes a donation they could just post the amount so we could keep track.
Obviously the economy is in the crapper but I think we could come up with 140 souls ( Including me ) that could skip buying a set of strings this month and help him keep this bass.

What say you?


If this post is out of line or could be viewed as solicitation, I apologize. The mods can delete the thread.

[colcifer]

Seconded.

[Selta]

You probably want to run this by a mod/admin....

[FarkusSWR]

Thanks, Ray. I didn't even know where to start so I just threw it out there. I guess I just PM one of the mods??

O.K.
I just PM'ed one of the mods. We will see.

[sandmangeck]

Let me know, I'm in.

[Hollow Man]

That's a kind sentiment, and I hate that he's in that situation.

However, this kind of thing has happened before here on TB, and there was one very notable incident where a well-known TB'er 'set up' a fund for struggling musicians (started with one particular guy, also a TB'er, and then the fund was then supposed to expand to help others) and requested donations from a bunch of us. All was well until the original TB'er who was supposed to benefit from the fund reported that after several months, he hadn't received any money. The well-known TB'er refused to account for the money he'd taken from us, and in short, he was banned, and since then, TB has not allowed its forums to be used as a vehicle to donate to funds.

I don't mean to crap on your good intentions, and perhaps there is still something that can be done, but you should be aware that TB as an institution is leery of this sort of thing because of this one, markedly bad experience.

[MJ5150]

As Hollow Man mentions, our community has been burned once already in a similar situation.

Perhaps you can set up a Facebook page for the guy to help him out? Before you do that, you may want to reach out and get to know this fella before you run around trying to gather up $3K for him. Some people don't like handouts and may be offended by your good intentions.

-Mike

[Chris Fitzgerald]

Closed. Unfortunately, due to past circumstances charity threads are not allowed at TB.

[john turner]

just to clarify, and in the interest of full disclosure, that former user who was responsible for our hardline stance against solicitations was named bigmikew on TB, and his real name is mike winnen. at last count, he absconded with something on the order of $1000 donated by fellow TB'ers to the fund he had set up to help musicians in need.