We're raising money for JPay stamps to send encouragement and creative inspiration to students incarcerated at Marion Correctional Institution, the largest source of COVID-19 infection in the U.S.
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Wooo-hooo! We've made it to our goal, and have even surpassed it by a bit! Thank you to everyone for your generosity and support.
The project is going strong, AND we have our own domain name and should be fully findable on Google within a few more days. The easier link to the project is now simply lifelinesformci.com. Please visit it often (and share it!) to contribute to the mailings we send in, and to keep up with the responses we receive from inside.
And thank you again for making it all possible!
Shannon Lakanen/Lifelines for MCI
With 2,028 incarcerated people and 169 staff members testing positive for COVID-19, Marion Correctional Institution is the largest source of the viral infection in the US. All programming is shut down; the National Guard is filling in for prison staff. Our fathers, brothers, sons, and husbands incarcerated there are frustrated, scared, and anxious for word from the outside.
So Lifelines for MCI is collecting words of encouragement and inspirational quotations to send along to the men we know on the inside. We compile them a few times each week into a Jpay email that we send to everyone on our list.
We're publishing an online archive of the daily messages, as well as responses we receive from the men on the inside, on this project's website.
We're encouraging the public to send along messages through an online form. You can also use the form to add contact info for loved ones incarcerated at MCI who might like to receive the messages. We are eager to reach out to as many people as possible.
But unfortunately, each message requires a 20-cent "stamp" to send via email to each recipient, which quickly adds up. We are paying approximately $25 each week to send three messages with a single pre-paid reply credit to every person on our current (and growing) list.
Thanks for your support, whether it comes as an encouraging word sent through the online form or a monetary donation of any size.
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Wooo-hooo! We've made it to our goal, and have even surpassed it by a bit! Thank you to everyone for your generosity and support.
The project is going strong, AND we have our own domain name and should be fully findable on Google within a few more days. The easier link to the project is now simply lifelinesformci.com. Please visit it often (and share it!) to contribute to the mailings we send in, and to keep up with the responses we receive from inside.
And thank you again for making it all possible!
Shannon Lakanen/Lifelines for MCI
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Lifelines for MCI is SOOO close to meeting our new fundraising goal, which covers the cost of the project through the end of this year. Huge thanks to all of the donors who've responded so rapidly and generously to this campaign.
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WOW! Only half a week in, and we're $75 from our original goal ... thank you for your generosity! And our recipients are deeply grateful as well: check out some of their responses in the website's archive (https://lifelinesformci.wixsite.com/lifelines/blog).
This fundraiser felt like a long shot a week ago, but I'm confident now that we will get to $700, which covers the expenses that will take the project through fall with our current mailing list (and we still have room to add a few more recipients!).
Thanks to your show of enthusiasm, we're increasing the goal to try to cover the cost of purchasing a domain name for the website, which will make it easier to find in Google searches. We'll use any remaining funds to start covering costs of JPay stamps for fall!
Thank you again for all of your compassion, positivity, and support!
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Thank you for such a speedy response: only one more $10 donation will get us halfway to our goal! Please continue to share widely and spread the word about this campaign and project!
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