My fish rescue business is in danger. Can you help?

[Kelly68]

Thanks Pk for sharing the testimonials. I take pride in helping others as you can see. I woke up this morning to two more donations that came in and just now received a third. Another fish lover found out about my story and posted it back on their site. PlecoFanatics.com - The Ultimate Loricariidae and Plecostomus Community (Thank you Leslie) Three donations came in from MA, CT and the United Kingdom. How awesome is that? Fellow fish lovers know how much work this is, and how much of a need there is. I also asked them to post a link to the Bubbler so they can see how kind everyone here has been and the see the articles and pictures.

Someone just stopped by, her and her elderly father who wanted to know if they could take a tour. Wonderful people. Completely amazed at this and all the babies. How I love to share my hard work.

Kelly

[MichelleC]

Kelly - How close are you to having enough to make the downpayment to the power company so the fish won't die tomorrow? Maybe if someone sees you're X dollars away they could get you the rest of the way? I know you need more for the long term to get everything right but it would be nice to know if we at least have a chance at keeping them alive tomorrow.

Michelle

[Kelly68]

Hi Michelle. It has been one heck of a day. Finned Friends/KARS just received their 17th donation a little while ago. One came in all the way from Switzerland. How they found out, is beyond me. Another one came in from a great fish friend of mine in northern Wisconsin. My total right now in donations is $655. We need $1100. So we are still $445 short. My bill came out again today and it says my disconnect date is scheduled for the 18th. In order to be put on a plan for the remainder I will have to come up with the downpayment then the rest will be divided out by a period of months. So there will be some HIGH payments even after coming up with this. One day at a time I guess. Get through hurdle number one.

Again, thank you everyone who has helped in every shape and form.

Kelly

p.s. One of my rescue fish found a home today! Isn't that great?

[pk]

United Kingdom and now Switzerland!! How totally great is that?!!! Just shows people have good hearts in so many places. This does show how much smaller the world seems now that most of us has Internet.

Well just keep holding on to the faith I am sure you will make it to your goal to keep the electric on for this month! Then you will have 30 more days to figure out what to do after this. Hopefully someone will give you an idea of what to do with the furnace. At least you will be in much better weather in 30 days too.


I'm so glad that you actually have until the 18th on the bill!! See, good things have been working for you the last couple of days.

[Kelly68]

I would like to post a copy of what I added to Michelle's Web Site:

Michelle:

I was wondering where my donation from Switzerland came from. How could someone so far away hear about me. You may be interested to know it came from your site. Here is the reply I got when I emailed a thank you. Thank you again for putting this on your site. As you said you may not receive many visitors but someone as far away as there found you.

Thanks,

Kelly

Here is her email:

Hi Kelly,

It's an honor to help you in this great cause.

So many lifes depend on you.

I was actually looking for a solution of a technical problem (internet stuff) when I came to MichelleC's website and saw her post about you.

Again, Michelle...thank you.

So really, if it wasn't for Michelle I'd probably never heard of the power cut and the awful consequences it might bring

I just hope your fishes will make it. I've just send another 50$ to kickstart your last 400$. Keep on going Kelly, you'll make it!

Best wishes and I hope everything will be well.

Carli

[MichelleC]

I knew. I just didn't want to take your thread off topic. I posted in response to you on my site if you're interested.

Go Kelly go! You'll get there!

Michelle

[keith]

Amazing how much some Mods and Members here are helping.

I've been privy to some great chat room sessions.

I think Michelle started the thread at reddit.com: Power company about to pull the plug on the lives of 12,000 gilled friends at fish rescue - Donations needed! and I encourage everyone to click there, register (takes less than a minute and no email required) and click the "Hot" arrow to move the story up.

Good luck, Kelly.

Regards,
Keith

[pk]

So we are still $445 short. My bill came out again today and it says my disconnect date is scheduled for the 18th.

OFFICIAL DISCONNECT DATE IS SCHEDULED FOR THE 18TH OF APRIL.

Hopefully Kelly you will make it in time. You have a couple of days more than we originally thought...That is good.

pk

[Kelly68]

I just wanted to give an update. I really appreciate all the help from the bubbler. I have only received one local donation from my city. After pushing 75 brochures and letters out to businesses and the local paper running a story, only one person from my city found my cause to be worth while. It has been this site and other fish sites that all my donations came from. It is sad to know that others from around the country think that my cause is worth saving when my own city hasn't stepped up to the plate. Finned Friends raised some nice donations however we have fell short by about $400 to solve my immediate problem. I have til the 18th the letter that arrived in the mail yesterday says, so hoping it will all work out in the end. I am praying that I can get through this immediate danger. With the talk of someone on here (thanks Greg) trying to get me a fundraiser started, to help out my next obstacle of raising enough money to fix the problem that caused these high bills and to get an attorney involved to sue this company.

But I just wanted to make sure it did not go unsaid that you have been wonderful to me here. So thank you.

Kelly and all my finned swimming friends.

p.s. One of my rescues got adopted yesterday!

[Kelly68]

Guess what folks? Finned Friends met our immediate goal. No disconnection on the 18th!!!! Enough money was raised thanks to everyone who has faith in me and my fish friends. Three more donations came into today, with one taking care of the rest of the immediate danger. This lady lives on the East Coast and is a member of a fish site that I belong to. She is the quiet type and didn't really want a lot of fuss, but I still had to give her the recognition that she deserves for the outstanding donation today and the one she made yesterday.

Everyone on here has been so wonderful to me. There are still talks about a fundraiser type thing to be done on here to help me continue my efforts. These donations stopped the immediate disconnect and is buying me enough time to try and solve what caused this to happen in the first place. I am talking some very high payments here on out to keep Public Service happy. They are talking $300 a month PLUS my current bill which is falling between the $600-$700 range. And the rescues keep coming in.

I need to raise enough money yet to pay for another contractor to fix this mess this scamming contractor did to me. In order to do this my best chance is hiring an attorney which is a huge expense on its own. If I cannot get the Manufacturer to approve another contractor to come in and fix this, I am left in the same position next month and the next month. So I have a lot of work to do.

So from the bottom of my heart thank you for helping me save my fish. We have overcome so much so fast, I just hope that is a sign of more good things to come. 12,000 fish are still here today because of you. Minus one who found a home.

Kelly

[Lauri]

Kelly, I think I can speak for everyone when I say we are relieved that the extremely short term crisis has been resolved but that much work still needs to be done to keep the Fish Rescue SAFE in the near future.

Please give us the name of the manufacturer of the equipment which was installed but failed miserably to stand up to the task it was suppose to handle. We could contact them and give our "2 cents worth" encouraging their cooperation at the very least so a qualified person can work on the equipment, or THEY can send out a qualified person to work on THEIR EQUIPMENT to make things right. Word of mouth is a really good or a really bad thing. I believe an equipment manufacturer would want to repair their equipment and the damage it caused, as well as make financial compensation to you before any bad word of mouth tarnishes its corporate reputation for making equipment that may be not up to basic standards much less being energy efficient....there is also the slant that they need to stand behind their equipment: breaking down 18 times this winter would suggest to me that it is more than just an installer problem.

Yes, you need to legally go after the installer, but you also need to go after the manufacturer as something must be basically wrong with the equipment. I wonder if there is a "Lemon Law" for equipment like there is for automobiles. Lauri

[Lauri]

God Bless all who donated time, prayers, and money. The lady from the East Coast must have a huge heart and a big hug to her from everyone who wanted to donate money but who couldn't afford to, and from those who donated something when they wanted to give more. Lauri

[pk]

I was so excited for Kelly when she pm'd and told me we met the goal for this month! I could not write her back, I felt we had really talk so I sent her my phone # and had a great talk! lol By the way..great to finally talk to you in person Kelly. You are really such a fantastic person and I'm so glad that we could all band together and help you.

Now, Laurie is right...let's all write or call this manufacturer and complain about this issue. We need to forge ahead and continue with this since we all cared enough to get this far. Let's not drop it and let Kelly fall back into the same place next month.

Keep the Faith Kelly.

Patti

[Kelly68]

Lauri, the manufacturer is York. And thank you for saying what I was trying to say. See you are gifted with words. Thanks again everyone. Now it is time to kick butt with this whole furnace mess. Hurdle number two.

Patti, it was nice to finally "talk" to you too. For some reason you sounded like I thought you would. lol I am ready to raise some h e double toothpicks here. I have one month to come up with something and try to save another month. So please, have any ideas, share. Know an attorney that would like to do this let me know. This is a for sure win win.

Thank You Everyone!

[Lauri]

Kelly, Is this the "YORK" Manufacturer?

YORK Offices

Company Headquarters
Street Address:
YORK
631 South Richland Avenue
York, PA 17403
United States
Phone: (717) 771-7890
Fax: (717) 771-7381 Mailing Address:
YORK
P.O. Box 1592
York, PA 17405-1592
United States

[Kelly68]

Lauri...here is a link to their official site:

Johnson Controls : YORK Products and Services

[pk]

I noticed that this has been very quiet today. Just wondering how things are going now? Any word from the manufactor yet? Any fundraisers in the works?

[Kelly68]

Patti, I have been hanging out a little low key as someone is following me around to all my sites and bashing me like no tomorrow. One of my fish sites had a guy join just to harrass me and they protected me and locked the post. They knew right away he was just out to harm me so they tracked him down to another site where there was at that point already 14 pages of defamation going on. I didn't even know this existed. A lot of slander, harassment, threats to contact the authorities on me for animal cruelty, you name it. So he has joined 4 other sites including this one to keep his negativity going. One other site warned him for trolling and said they would not stand for his crap. I am sure he is reading this too and the stuff he wrote about the Bubbler would make you all wanna ring his neck.

So I have been devastated to say the least. He is actually a MOD on the site that is 20 pages long of that post about me. Fueling it every chance he gets. I have been getting emails now from others on that site, people calling my phone and hanging up. I am very sorry at this point I allowed myself to be vulnerable and asked for help. Another person on there flat out lied and said that he personally tried to contact me to offer me big bucks for 8000 of my angelfish and I ignored him. I cannot believe people will lie like that just to get a response from others. Then call me the bad person.

So that is why I have been quiet. Too much crying after reading all the horrible stuff. I understand there will be a few bad seeds in a bunch, but this was a WHOLE site. I did send out a pm to a sister site of that asking for the Webmaster name and they are checking into all the facts and has pulled the thread from Public View. Thank heaven I did saved what was written for proof.

I am presently working on the letter to send to the Manufacturer. It will be mailed to them certified mail. Apparently the one I did with the company didn't work and I see he is now being sued, yet again...so I need to get on the ball and get this done ASAP. And I did know that the nice gentleman on here who was talking the other night about a fundraiser via the bubbler is still working on it I believe getting it started. But all I know right now, is how much further should I push this when there is so much negativity going on. Maybe I should just finish this on my own that way people wouldn't think I was out for personal money or scamming them. This has really got to me so I am at a loss on how much more of this I can take.

As I said to all my sites, if you feel after listening to him that I scammed you, please let me know. I will be more than happy to refund your donation. Somewhere I will find it if I have to sell everything in my possession to get it. I just want to do what is right and not be called a liar.

Thanks Patti

[demon71]

Kelly,
It's to bad that there are individuals out there that try to make other people look bad.

I have watched the progress of your business since you first started. If memory serves me correctly, you posted on the Bubbler when you were trying to fine a domain name and you had several great suggestions.

I know from talking to you that you have a great passion for what you are doing. People should not fault you for some unethical contractor taking advantage of you.

Hold your head high and know that there are more people out here that support what you are doing then there are trying to bash you.

Things will work out.

Greg

[MichelleC]

Wow, don't people have better things to do than kick others when they're down? How awful! I don't feel scammed in the slightest. That's just crazy! I'm just glad those fish are alive today and that you and your family have the lights on. Let's hope this month brings some better news.

Michelle

[pk]

I am so thankful that the bubbler runs a tight ship around here and we don't have to put up with slander and bad mouthing, and stories getting all twisted. I read a lot of the posts that Kelly mentioned and was just sick to think of what Kelly must have felt like having to read such trash and knowing these nasty people were actually talking about her.

I'm with Michelle. I don't feel scammed by Kelly. I am very glad that I could take part in trying to find her the help she needed. All of us at some time in our lives could be in a situation where we need help from others. In fact I have needed help from others years ago and was always so grateful that several of my good friends were there to lend me a hand. I always said if I can do a favor back to someone else than I am there.

And yes, I am also very glad that Kelly's family and all her fish are doing OK for now. But the month will go by quickly and then she will find herself in trouble again. I hope she finds a way to take care of the problem that is causing all of this so she can finally get some peace.

Patti

[pk]

Just wondering if you have an update as to how things are going kelly...I know the month is starting to tick away before the next bill will be due and wondered if you have had any luck in finding someone to come in and see what the problem is with your furnace. Any feedback from the company?

Hopefully donations are still coming in to help raise the necessary $$ for fighting this situation and save the fish before your time runs out again.

I wish you all the luck. Let us know how things are going.

Patti

[Kelly68]

Thanks guys. After a lot of thinking and major persuasion from others on this site to include a updated letter regarding my situation I have decided to do it. This does play hard on my heart as you have read on here that I ran into a lot of negative people not saying nice things. But a member on here did remind me that all the people here on the Bubbler have supported me from day one and followed my story from the beginning. As Demon71 said, he was one of the ones who was trying to help me come up with my new business name. Even when the bad people are saying negative stuff I know not to take it personally, but it still hurts. I am a human being. I just want to thank everyone on here who has read my story and gave me support. As Lauri did before, she made my letter outstanding in her way of writing, so she took it upon herself to do it again. Thank you Lauri (and I am still praying for your family). Thanks everyone.

Kelly

p.s. I got a name on an attorney to call tomorrow. Say a prayer he will help.


Dear Friends of Finned Friends Fish Rescue:

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! To everyone who donated time, empathy, and money to help save my Non-Profit Fish Rescue from immediate electrical disconnection this month, I want to thank you a thousand times! That was the total amount needed to prevent the power company from disconnecting the electrical lifeline on 12,000 little gilled swimmers. Your generosity purchased thirty days in which we expect to make strides in resolving the cruel twist of fate which created this crisis. I will continue to desperately search for a viable way to keep the power on in the months to come, but I am still in need of any emotional, technical, financial, and legal help you can provide to help put this nightmare behind me. Your prayers are always welcome!

Again, my name is Kelly Rector. Out of a deep sense of compassion, I began my home-based, dream business, Finned Friends LLC and KARS, aka Kelly’s Aquatic Rescue Services, to rescue and provide temporary foster fish care while seeking new homes for fish their owners no longer wanted. At age 39, my journey into this unique animal rescue began after I became disabled and could no longer work outside my home. Not wanting to just take a government handout, with the help of the Department of Vocational Rehabilitation, I spent $25,000 to facilitate the expansion needed to accommodate a fish rescue within my home. This included the creation of a freshwater angelfish breeding facility to help offset the cost of the rescue operation. The expansion last year included the installation of new energy efficient equipment for heating, cooling, and air exchange. To make a very long, heartbreaking story short, I literally got scammed by the individual who installed the new equipment because my heating and electric bills not only TRIPLED, but the furnace broke down EIGHTEEN TIMES this past winter!

The original installer won’t return my phone calls. If, as I have been informed, he is filing for bankruptcy my options of recouping my financial losses and saving the Fish Rescue by winning a lawsuit against him will not even be a possibility. I am trying to get the equipment manufacturer to back their product and agree to repair the failed system at the very least with no additional cost because I put my family’s personal savings into the initial expansion and have nothing to fall back on. Even if the manufacturer agrees to do this, it will still take a miracle to get the huge electrical bills from this past winter under control and paid on time to prevent disconnection at some time in the future. I am in a really tight spot and at this time I am dependent upon the good will of everyone because I can’t even afford the cost of a legal retainer to hire an attorney to fight for us.

Thus, for one month at least, WPS will not be shutting off the electrical power on the 12,000 fish that I either rescued from surrounding communities or raised, to keep the rescue solvent. Like other rescues, Finned Friends is non-profit as there is no charge to rescue unwanted pet fish. They are not euthanized if a home can not be readily found. As a result of the publicity surrounding the Fish Rescue Electrical Emergency, Finned Friends has received an even greater number of fish rescue requests. Assistance of any kind that you can provide to help the Fish Rescue in our ongoing crisis will be extremely appreciated. In the short term, I continue to need money to pay huge outstanding electric bills so I can stop WPS from turning off the electricity this next month. In the long term, I need help to resolve the failure of the equipment which caused this catastrophe to happen in the first place.

I would truly appreciate any suggestions or technical advice you might have, or outright financial help you can give me. Please contact me by calling (715) 212-6637. If you can make any sized donation, please send it to: FINNED FRIENDS, 2004 Water Street, Merrill, WI 54452.

My Website http://www.finnedfriends.com]Finned Friends Aquatic Rescue & Angelfish Breeding has a DONATE tab on every page that goes directly to a PayPal account for FINNED FRIENDS if you can donate by this method.

I thank you, and so do 12,000 little angels and friends.

Sincerely,

Kelly Rector

[Kelly68]

It is kind of funny. With the Daily Herald article I am now being spotted and referred to as the Fish Whisperer. Out of the blue at a local gas station someone came up to me and said Aren't you the fish whisperer? Makes me wanna change my name on here. Anyhow, I did 5 fish rescues last week, some of my fish were adopted out to new homes as well. Still have another rescue this week to do. It has been very busy. With all this, still trying to raise enough money to retain my attorney to fight this company who started all this mess. I was told by a huge attorney I spoke with yesterday from the Oshkosh area that my next step is to not take this upon myself and retain that attorney as fast as I can. With this case being so complicated, and because of the amount of time and money invested an attorney can fight my battles her on out better than I can do for myself. But that is a large sum of money that I don't have growing on my money tree in the back yard. Anyhow, just wanted to update those that follow Finned Friends.

Thanks

Kelly

[pk]

But that is a large sum of money that I don't have growing on my money tree in the back yard.

Oh how I have wished to have one of those trees in our yard! If only I could find where you can purchase one. I can tell you it's not at our local Steins!

Anyways, I truly hope Kelly that people aren't tired of trying to help and start sending in some donations for you . I would hate to think we all came this far to help you save your fish to just have you in the same place again in a few weeks.