My fish rescue business is in danger. Can you help? - Page 4

Kelly68 · 04-14-2008, 01:08 PM

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 · 04-14-2008, 04:36 PM

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 · 04-14-2008, 06:19 PM

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 · 04-14-2008, 06:42 PM

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 · 04-14-2008, 07:44 PM

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 · 04-14-2008, 08:04 PM

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** · 04-14-2008, 10:25 PM

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 · 04-15-2008, 11:25 AM

Quote:

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 · 04-15-2008, 12:12 PM

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 · 04-15-2008, 05:00 PM

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 · 04-15-2008, 09:30 PM

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 · 04-15-2008, 09:35 PM

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 · 04-15-2008, 09:53 PM

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