islandmonkey

islandmonkey

Well Known Member
The dreadful events in Japan just over a week ago and the situation in Libya have meant that the Foreign Exchange markets have been highly volatile. Japan will have to repatriate money in order to pay for the earthquake and tsunami damage which is now running at four times the cost of Katrina. For some reason this has strengthend the Yen against the dollar and overall the dollar is weaker against a whole basket of currencies, the Swiss Franc included. What does that mean to me? Well, in the next week or so, I will be placing my order for the complete RV-4 kit. In real terms the cost of the kit has reduced by 10% just in the last week and therefore I cannot let this oppertunity go by.

However

I do not feel very good about profiting from someone elses misery and I will donate most of what I have saved to good causes. Tsunami relief will obviously get a chunk of my savings but I am open to suggestions for other charities to donate to. I would be willing to consider a favourite charity of your choice. Please give some justification and good reason in your response
 
A very generous offer...

...indeed, Anthony.

Being a very "Mission" oriented guy, I have to put in a plug for "The Voice of the Martyrs"...a group fighting religious persecution around the globe.

www.persecution.com

Thanks again,
 
The "other" earthquake

Christchurch, New Zealand

Hoping it doesn't get lost in the headlines......... and in your charitable giving.
 
Donation

You could send some money to Col Muammar Gaddafi as someone recently put a hole in the roof of one of his palaces.
 
Christchurch earthquake

If you are interested in donating towards the christchurch earthquake you could do so via the New Zealand Red Cross website, www.redcross.org.nz/donations
After a month the news this morning says the city water supply is close to being drinkable, although the city itself will take many years to rebuild, and many people have lost homes/workplaces and of course friends and family, though not on the scale of the Japanese quake.
 
doctors without boarders

We have been donating to different organizations but Doctors without boarders are on top of my list. These folks do amazing [selfless] things considering they could making a comfortable living to say the least.

edit: changed my original comment, after realizing it was not a fair statement. Hope I did not offend any one.
 
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Consider Kyle and Amanda Franklin. USA folks who perform at airshows. She is a wingwalker and he is the pilot. They are also married. They met after their fathers had a mid-air collision and were killed. A couple of weeks ago they were performing at an airshow and their engine exploded. She barely made it inside the airplane when it crashed into the ground and started on fire. Both Kyle and Amanda suffered severe burns. He is making good progress but she is still in critical condition with burns over 70% of her body, plus broken bones and other injuries. Their medical expenses are mounting so there is a fund that has been set up for them. In the search toolbar type in Kyle and Amanda Franklin and you will find the post with the link that explains how to help out. They have entertained many of us at airshows. They need help and they are fellow aviators.

Here is the link to the thread:

http://www.vansairforce.com/community/showthread.php?t=69711
 
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Thanks for the replies so far. Christchurch is a good suggestion and one I would not have considered. Doctors without Borders I will look into. Libya, may need some help after Gadaffi goes but I want to make sure any money I give, goes to the needy and not to some other jumped up dictator.

The Swiss Red Cross will get a donation as they are totally neutral and are normally one of the first organisations into any trouble spot. I will check out Pierre's suggestion too.

Thanks again for your suggestions.
 
I heard a couple of blondes say we should have started bombing Tsumani, not Libya. They are the ones that started this whole mess. "Did you see the mess they left in Japan?" ;)
 
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Hard to argue with some of the above suggestions given all the misery in the world lately, but how about something a little more upbeat and RV related? There are a couple of school kid RV build projects out there (see archives) that I'm sure could use a financial hand to help keep them going or maybe to start the next project. Hey, we are supposed to keep this forum RV related aren't we?

Erich
 
How about looking for need in your own neighborhood?


It's just that you can find worthy efforts and significant suffering anywhere. If you help out in your neighborhood, you'll inspire others to improve things, too, and it'll be a better place. They are your neighbors, after all.
 
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4-19-2011 update from Kyle Franklin

aarvig said:
Consider Kyle and Amanda Franklin. USA folks who perform at airshows. She is a wingwalker and he is the pilot. They are also married. They met after their fathers had a mid-air collision and were killed. A couple of weeks ago they were performing at an airshow and their engine exploded. She barely made it inside the airplane when it crashed into the ground and started on fire. Both Kyle and Amanda suffered severe burns. He is making good progress but she is still in critical condition with burns over 70% of her body, plus broken bones and other injuries. Their medical expenses are mounting so there is a fund that has been set up for them. In the search toolbar type in Kyle and Amanda Franklin and you will find the post with the link that explains how to help out. They have entertained many of us at airshows. They need help and they are fellow aviators.

Here is the link to the thread:

http://www.vansairforce.com/community/showthread.php?t=69711
Click to expand...

I received this message this morning forwarded to me by a RV owner in Fayetteville Arkansas:

Sent: Tuesday, April 19, 2011 7:08 AM
Subject: amanda update from kyle

Amanda 4-18-11

I went to the hospital today for my physical therapy and was hoping to get good news on Amanda's surgery this morning. I was wrong. As I said before, It's amazing how things can change in 24 hours. The doctors went in this morning all optimistic on doing skin graphs, instead they came out and told us that she was back were she was last week. All of her infections are back, none of the cadaver skin has taken, and they have some serious concerns about some spots on her right arm. They're not even sure what the spots are yet. So now the plan is to take her in to surgery for the next three to four days to try to kill the infections. They will be bleaching her out again, which from what I understand is not good on her being able to heal herself either. I went in to see her briefly, I couldn't stay without loosing it in front of everyone. Today was the worst I've seen her look, or maybe it's just getting harder and harder for me to believe that that's my beautiful girl in there. I don't know......she's a much stronger person then I am.....that's one reason I love her so much.
I don't have much else today.

God Bless,

Kyle
 
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