Fire Relief Fund

[Mourning Dove]

Don't send them anything they can just spend on non essentials. Anything that can be spend on items to add to a new hoard is just setting up wherever they live next to burn down.

I suggest that any excess funds go to the Greene County area to support autistic awareness, firefighters, other charities for the homeless or needy, or even just our own Cwcki forums. Even if I donated I still don't fully trust the Chandlers to use the funds wisely, knowing their financial track record. My contribution is mainly a token to show the Chandlers that not every stranger out there is a vile person out to get them, perhaps. I may have otherwise used my donation for something stupid and selfish myself, so I may as well have it potentially contribute to a good greater beyond my own wants and needs?

 

[CatParty]

Don't send them anything they can just spend on non essentials. Anything that can be spend on items to add to a new hoard is just setting up wherever they live next to burn down.

I suggest that any excess funds go to the Greene County area to support autistic awareness, firefighters, other charities for the homeless or needy, or even just our own Cwcki forums. Even if I donated I still don't fully trust the Chandlers to use the funds wisely, knowing their financial track record. My contribution is mainly a token to show the Chandlers that not every stranger out there is a vile person out to get them, perhaps. I may have otherwise used my donation for something stupid and selfish myself, so I may as well have it potentially contribute to a good greater beyond my own wants and needs?

Ya any excess should go to the firefighters.

 

[teheviltwin]

Would it be possible to print and frame a couple of the better Chandler family photos? Particularly ones with Bob in?

 

[Spaulding]

Would it be possible to print and frame a couple of the better Chandler family photos? Particularly ones with Bob in?

You could volunteer to take part in the Chandler family album project at this thread: viewtopic.php?f=7&t=3279

 

[teheviltwin]

Would it be possible to print and frame a couple of the better Chandler family photos? Particularly ones with Bob in?

You could volunteer to take part in the Chandler family album project at this thread: viewtopic.php?f=7&t=3279

Thank you for that. I had missed that thread.

 

[ShazbotChan]

I never expected so many white knights. I'm honestly ashamed of you all. I had no idea so many of my fellow Christorians were so gullible and sentimental. So easily mislead.

Remember what happens when you feel pity for Chris.

So much ween. I know its terrible people wanna help an unstable man who just lost his home and possibly all his belongings. Its terrible of them to have some sympathy and want to help somebody out, regardless of who they are or what they did. How dare they act like humans and show emotions!

 

[cans.wav]

I never expected so many white knights. I'm honestly ashamed of you all. I had no idea so many of my fellow Christorians were so gullible and sentimental. So easily mislead.

Remember what happens when you feel pity for Chris.

So much ween. I know its terrible people wanna help an unstable man who just lost his home and possibly all his belongings. Its terrible of them to have some sympathy and want to help somebody out, regardless of who they are or what they did. How dare they act like humans and show emotions!

Ignore the Crazy Pacer man. He always does this just to make people upset.

 

[Anonymous]

I never expected so many white knights. I'm honestly ashamed of you all. I had no idea so many of my fellow Christorians were so gullible and sentimental. So easily mislead.

Remember what happens when you feel pity for Chris.

So much ween. I know its terrible people wanna help an unstable man who just lost his home and possibly all his belongings. Its terrible of them to have some sympathy and want to help somebody out, regardless of who they are or what they did. How dare they act like humans and show emotions!

They have insurance and are in a hotel. Barb wasn't working and Chris never worked so their current income isn't affected. The house was a shitty horde of crap, filled with health hazards and their memories/items were 100% trash or slowly turning to ruin. The fire was the best thing that could happen to them, IMO. It's a fresh start.

I doubt Chris will care about your gift package or acknowledge it.

 

[teheviltwin]

I'm a little concerned about giving extra money to Barb. She's a compulsive hoarder who just went through a catastrophic loss. The urge to hit Goodwill hard would be very strong. It would be easy enough to use the money on somewhere like Amazon.com and pick out clothes, shoes, toiletries, crayola etc. all from one place and have it sent directly.

 

[timtommy]

I want to be careful about this message, because I am calling a lot of people wrong. I hope no one is too offended.

I donated $25. I am ok with whatever choices Null makes about gift cards, money etc.

For those of you who are super-worried/don't want donations spent on vidya/lego/porn, I sympathize with the sentiment.

BUT

The amount we are planning to spend is substantial for people with the finances of the Chandlers. But it looks like it is going to be in the order of 1 month's income or less of Barb and Chris' combined social security money.
Combining our money with social security/other people's charity/insurance etc. the Chandlers may have a few grand to get themselves back on their feet in the next few months. We only "control" a small-ish proportion of it.
If we send money orders/Walmart cards, he may spend it on stuff we wouldn't want him to. If we send cards that can only be used for food or clothing, he won't be able to use our part, but he can use the proportion of the tugboat he would have spent on food and clothing on vidya if he wants, because we freed the money up.

My overall point is, if we send Chris stuff, it might well lead to more vidya, directly or indirectly. There is nothing we can do to stop that. If you donate, you should probably be aware of that, and ok with that. I am, because I hope it leads to more/better food/clothing/shelter as well, and I think it might.

TL DR: I don't think it makes a huge difference what Null decides to send him. I will leave it up to Null, and I think other people should relax as well. My only suggestion is that I don't think any gift cards should be for expensive stores and I think Null should try as much as possible to minimize gift card surcharges. That way Chris gets the most bang for our buck.

Edit: Also, if the deadline is tomorrow morning, maybe that should be put on the front page or header with the info about this drive that is already there. We don't want anyone to accidentally miss the deadline.

 

[TopCat]

Best bet:

Kevin Mann
ATTN: Christian and Barbara Chandler
1760 Timberwood Blvd.
Charlottesvle, VA 22911-7593

 

[qld]

Don't send them anything they can just spend on non essentials. Anything that can be spend on items to add to a new hoard is just setting up wherever they live next to burn down.

If you really want to prevent Hoard II, why not bankroll it all into a big sweaty wad of cash to throw at a hoarding therapist for Barb and Chris? But I'm sure they both have health insurance and could get that help without donations, they just won't take help at all. So just send him some gift cards and watch for the excess cards to start popping up on his ebay account.

I'm a little concerned about giving extra money to Barb. She's a compulsive hoarder who just went through a catastrophic loss. The urge to hit Goodwill hard would be very strong. It would be easy enough to use the money on somewhere like Amazon.com and pick out clothes, shoes, toiletries, crayola etc. all from one place and have it sent directly.

That should make returns easy so they can ultimately make their own purchasing decisions from Amazon. Why try? Just give him cash or a solitary Amazon card. Que sera sera.

 

[The Fair Lady]

I doubt Chris will care about your gift package or acknowledge it.

Actually, Chris posted on Facebook that he will eagerly accept anything sent to him and Barb. Plus, it's not like he's going to know who this is from.

 

[Thetan]

Updated OP. Thanks everyone.

Names in green means the money's already been received by Paypal. I think that Paypal might have gobbled up anything that went to the admin@cwckiforums.com address, but since it's only like $18 I'll make up for it if it never gets through. Ones sent to the current address are being received automatically.

Maybe that's why I had trouble donating yesterday. Just made a second attempt at donating a little while ago, and it went through with no problem.

 

[DustyR]

I want to be careful about this message, because I am calling a lot of people wrong. I hope no one is too offended.

I donated $25. I am ok with whatever choices Null makes about gift cards, money etc.

For those of you who are super-worried/don't want donations spent on vidya/lego/porn, I sympathize with the sentiment.

BUT

The amount we are planning to spend is substantial for people with the finances of the Chandlers. But it looks like it is going to be in the order of 1 month's income or less of Barb and Chris' combined social security money.
Combining our money with social security/other people's charity/insurance etc. the Chandlers may have a few grand to get themselves back on their feet in the next few months. We only "control" a small-ish proportion of it.
If we send money orders/Walmart cards, he may spend it on stuff we wouldn't want him to. If we send cards that can only be used for food or clothing, he won't be able to use our part, but he can use the proportion of the tugboat he would have spent on food and clothing on vidya if he wants, because we freed the money up.

My overall point is, if we send Chris stuff, it might well lead to more vidya, directly or indirectly. There is nothing we can do to stop that. If you donate, you should probably be aware of that, and ok with that. I am, because I hope it leads to more/better food/clothing/shelter as well, and I think it might.

TL DR: I don't think it makes a huge difference what Null decides to send him. I will leave it up to Null, and I think other people should relax as well. My only suggestion is that I don't think any gift cards should be for expensive stores and I think Null should try as much as possible to minimize gift card surcharges. That way Chris gets the most bang for our buck.

Edit: Also, if the deadline is tomorrow morning, maybe that should be put on the front page or header with the info about this drive that is already there. We don't want anyone to accidentally miss the deadline.

I don't know why there should be worry about Chris spending the money. If it any money orders are made out to Barb, Chris will be sorry out of luck. Now one possibility to consider is that if gift cards are sent to the Mann address, and if Chris is the one who gets a package to bring to mommy, he might take the gift cards and not tell Barb. I would be sure any envelope is made out to Barb with no mention of Chris. He would be less likely to open an envelope made out to Barb. I think if the gift cards can be given to Barb instead of Chris, they will probably be used responsibly. I would not worry too much about rebuilding the hoard, as she has nothing now, and no place to put the hoard. I think that once new permanent lodging is found and basic furniture, essentials are met, then the hording may resume, but I do not think she will go spend it on a $700 shopping spree picking up knick-knacks and other rubbish at Goodwill. Since her physical mobility is reduced, she also may have a lot less opportunity to go out to thrift stores and rebuild the hoard (assuming that is where most of the hoard came from. Some hoarders accumulate trash and things like newspapers, bills, etc., so if that is the case with Barb, going out to Goodwill may not be necessary to rebuild the hoard.)

A suggestion for a hoard therapist is a nice idea, but they would reject it, and it would pay for probably only 3-5 hours of therapy, nothing to make even a dent if it was graciously accepted.

 

[CatParty]

Man just either give something or not. Just please stop with these tl;dr walls of text.

 

[Greg Sestero]

Please let's not delude ourselves about the effect that giving charity to the Chandlers will have. If they were starving or didn't have necessary items, gift cards might do some good. But a lot of you seem to be saying, "If we give him $100, he'll spend on it porn and vidya, but if we give him a $100 gift card it'll do some good." That's slow-in-the-mind thinking. If he's spending $100 dollars on vidya and $700 on food/blankets, and you give him a $100 giftcard, then he'll only buy $600 of necessary goods out of his tugboat and spend twice as much on random crap.

You're still buying him porn and dildos, just indirectly. You might as well just flat out buy him the new Sonic game or whatever he wants; that's where your money is going anyway. I went through this exact situation with a friend of mine who had a coke problem. if you tried to restrain his spending by giving him gift cards, or giving him money through a responsible caretaker, then he would buy food with the money that you were giving him, but then he would spend his usual food money on coke. The net result of giving him a hundred bucks of GOOD FOOD AND DRINKS was that he would do a hundred bucks more of cocaine.

If you still want to give money to Chris, that's fine. But you're paying for him to masturbate and play children's video games, and that's not how you help someone with compulsive behavior. What my friend needed and what Chris needs is not money - giving Chris money is toxic - but psychological help so he can spend it responsibly.

I mean really, what do you think is going to happen? Give him $50 bucks of canned food, and he'll say, "Wow, I have $50 of free food! Since I already have enough to eat, I'll take the 50 I WOULD have spent on McDonalds, and invest it in something productive!"

No. Chris is going to say, "Wow, someone gave me 50 bucks of free food! Looks like I can spend even more tugboat on bullshit!"

 

[qld]

Please let's not delude ourselves about the effect that giving charity to the Chandlers will have. If they were starving or didn't have necessary items, gift cards might do some good. But a lot of you seem to be saying, "If we give him $100, he'll spend on it porn and vidya, but if we give him a $100 gift card it'll do some good." That's slow-in-the-mind thinking. If he's spending $100 dollars on vidya and $700 on food/blankets, and you give him a $100 giftcard, then he'll only buy 600$ of necessary goods out of his tugboat and spend twice as much on random crap.

You're still buying him porn and dildos, just indirectly. You might as well just flat out buy him the new Sonic game or whatever he wants; that's where your money is going anyway. I went through this exact situation with a friend of mine who had a coke problem. if you tried to restrain his spending by giving him gift cards, or giving him money through a responsible caretaker, then he would buy food with the money that you were giving him, but then he would spend his usual food money on coke. The net result of giving him a hundred bucks of GOOD FOOD AND DRINKS was that he would do a hundred bucks more of cocaine.

If you still want to give money to Chris, that's fine. But you're paying for him to masturbate and play children's video games, and that's not how you help someone with compulsive behavior. What my friend needed and what Chris needs is not money - giving Chris money is toxic - but psychological help so he can spend it responsibly.

I mean really, what do you think is going to happen? Give him $50 bucks of canned food, and he'll say, "Wow, I have $50 of free food! Since I already have enough to eat, I'll take the 50 I WOULD have spent on McDonalds, and invest it in something productive!"

No. Chris is going to say, "Wow, someone gave me 50 bucks of free food! Looks like I can spend even more tugboat on bullshit!"

Exactly. I've been saying that for two days now, but it seems none of what you said is perceived as being even close to true by many here.

 

[The Nameless One]

The fiancee and pooled together and are giving $20. Whether all the donations amount to anything in the long run is kind of beside the point: I think everyone donating hopes that it will, but understands that Chris could very well just end up disappointing us.

 

[Null]

We're over $800. This is more money than I know what to do with, so today is going to be the official end of the collecting money. I'll take off the global announcement at around midnight. I want to make the package timely, and I don't want to drag this out to the point where they've already bought everything I'll be sending them.

The process moving forward is this:
- Today: I'm placing an order on Amazon for things I can't get nearby me, including some giftcards. This will arrive to my place in about 1 or 2 days.
- Today: I'll go and pick up items from nearby stores today, and probably hit up the coinstar to collect some more giftcards.
- Monday I'll talk to the State Farm representative to see if he can handle the package. If I cant get a hold of him I'll try calling Chris again. If that doesn't work I'll call his Church.
- Monday: I'm also probably going to stop by a local office supplies area and print out a Sonichu themed note accrediting the donation to "Loyal Sonichu Fans". I think this carries the lowest risk of having the box thrown away in paranoia.
- Finally: Once everything is squared away, the Amazon box arrives, and I've done my shopping I'll go to the post office to get an adequately sized priority box and ship it over. Any extra money will be placed into a money order for Barbara Chandler. The moment before I walk out the door to get the money order I'll delete the URL and shutoff the paypal route to donating money.