Last month, we kicked off a GoFundMe campaign for Lisa, one of our staff members who was severely impacted by the recent floods in Lismore, New South Wales.
After a warm response from the GoFundMe page, family, friends, strangers and her local community, Lisa has decided to close the fundraiser.
A Word from Lisa
Hi everyone,
I’m winding up the GoFundMe page that was so generously setup by my employer, RLOA.
I’m closing it out for a couple of reasons. You see as a direct result of the page I’ve had people contact me asking if they can deposit money into my bank account rather than through the page, so the total you see here is less than what’s actually been received. And then there’s all the wonderful donations that I’ve seen land on the page. Just amazing!
A wonderful friend, Kimberley Garlick, who owns Northern Rivers Pilates here in town organised a local fund raiser for me and sent me $5,000. She then contacted me to say one of her families wanted to make an anonymous donation of a further $2,000. I will never know what to say to that.
I’m also very conscious of the fact that I am so, so lucky. There are people who can’t go back to their homes, they’ve been condemned yet they still owe the bank, they still need to live. And even though I have so much yet to replace, to continue to fund raise doesn’t feel right to me. And even though the money I have been gifted represents a fraction of what I’ve lost, I’ve got a lot more than a lot of other people here in Lismore and to continue to raise money just doesn’t align with my values.
To give you an idea, my contents were insured to a value of $75,000 and the insurance assessor felt that that amount was ‘under insured’. Didn’t matter anyway as I wasn’t covered for flood so the whole conversation seemed a little irrelevant! Anyway to continue fundraising feels like I’m taking money away from people who need it more. And the generous donations have made a huge difference to me and set me on the path to recovery. I’ve got a great job. My three kids, two dogs and two cats are all fine.
Anyway, added to all this financial generosity, I’ve been gifted a second-hand washing machine and little fridge to get me up and running by a friend. I was given a spare phone from another friend. I've got a bed coming from someone I don’t know. Kimberley has offered a lounge and TV from another friend in Sydney. And an army of friends have been working tirelessly in the background washing clothes, kitchen stuff, precious irreplaceable and sentimental items all of which I had no clue had survived.
The thing I’m finding really hard to do is to articulate clearly what I have lost. All I can do is focus on what I’ve got. If I ever needed confirmation that I’m a glass half full kinda gal, this is it. My brain simply will not compile a complete “lost” list…it just keeps latching onto how fortunate I am.
So, thank you everyone for everything.
Take care and remember, “Bad things do happen. How I respond to them defines my character and the quality of my life. I can choose to sit in perpetual sadness, immobilized by the gravity of my loss, or I can choose to raise from the pain and treasure the most precious gift I have – life itself.” - Walter Anderson.
- Lisa from Lismore
Thank you for your support.
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