Amy Hopkins needs our help after open heart surgery!

[Jim McConkey]

A benefit concert has just been announced for Amy on Wednesday, August 22, 2012, 7-10 PM at the Boordy Vineyards in
Hydes, Maryland. If you live anywhere close, please come out and show your support!
http://openheartforamy.com/

[Clint Searcy]

Here's an update on the Indiegogo effort.

http://youtu.be/kPjKh9HxEQs

[Mario Proulx]

Clint, I just sent you the $350 from the pickguard sheet sales; to all who purchased them, thanks a bunch! They'll go out on Friday morning via parcel post(about a week from my door to yours), but if you have a pressing need for them, like right now/yesterday, drop me an e-mail and I'll send them priority.

[Jim McConkey]

Last night a benefit concert was held for Amy at the Boordy Vineyards in Hydes, Maryland. Much to my surprise, several hundred people showed up (at $20 per head), with all the proceeds going towards Amy's medical bills. Many of the attendees knew or knew of Amy, but some folks were just there for the wine (the winery has a summer concert series). The venue was a beautiful old converted barn, with fine stonework, massive timbres, and a few giant wine casks for good measure.

An acoustic duo called Beggars Ride opened the show. Followed by the Infidel Castros, good friends of Amy's. Their young daughter Daisy is an absolutely amazing jazz/gypsy fiddler.

[Jim McConkey]

The guest of honor herself made an appearance to draw for the door prizes (a basket of CDs, bottles of wine, and a fiddle!). She also gave a teary speech about how touched she was that all these people would do all this for her. I told her privately later everything the MIMF has been doing to help, and she just broke down again. All the crying aside, she is doing really well, her scars are healing amazingly fast, and her spirits are as good as ever. She is slowly getting back to her repair work, as her recovery allows.

[Jim McConkey]

The show finished with a rollicking set by the He Men, more good friends of Amy's and mine. Dave, the banjo player, builds very fine minstrel-style banjos, but doesn't do computers. There were so many old friends there, I barely got to listen to the concert, but everyone there seemed to be having a great time. Thanks to everyone who came out!

[Clint Searcy]

We have had a few folks donate on Indiegogo.com that were not able to attend the benefit show for Amy.

The total collected not counting the concert is currently $7577.49. That is a total of Debs direct donation to Amy, Indiegogo donations, direct donations to the PayPal account, the money from the MIMF bass and Mario's pick guard donations.

Posting updates and new information is the way to keep the donations coming in at Indiegogo so here is a little video Alicia did for the Indiegogo effort.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7r7yZzgFtI
Here is the updates page from Indiegogo where I have tried to paint a picture of who Amy is. I don't think I hit the make to I try.
http://www.indiegogo.com/AmyHheart?c=activity

Thank you again everyone! There is 70 more days left on the Indiegogo effort. I'm hoping to break $12,000 by then.

[Alain Moisan]

Thanks for letting us know Clint.

But why are you not counting the concert?

[Clint Searcy]

Well, really just because I don't know how much it was. <g>

[Alain Moisan]

Ah, ok. I assume they gave it directly to Amy.

I'm looking forward to see how we will do with the auction. Chuck, do you have a lot of stuff yet?

[Charlie Schultz]

Right now I have about 10 items with a couple more promises that have not materialized yet. I'd like to get 4-5 more things.

[Clint Searcy]

Ah, ok. I assume they gave it directly to Amy.

I'm looking forward to see how we will do with the auction. Chuck, do you have a lot of stuff yet?

I think they did give it to her but I wasn’t there. These fund raising efforts have all happened spontaneously and independent of each other. I haven’t asked Amy who else is help raise money. My ultimate goal is $35000 as that is a ball park number of what Amy will be responsible for when all is said and done. Honestly that’s a hell of a deal for the operation but it still more than 4 or 5 years pay for Amy.

[amy hopkins]

You all are so nice to do all this! Jim, your pictures are great, that was such a nice night. Rob, who owns the vinyard, told me that they only sold seventeen tickets ahead of time and then more than 200 people showed up! The whole thing was set up by Rob, and several friends and I don't know how they got the word out but they must have put up a bunch of posters-someone recognized my face from the poster at the Goodwill yesterday! I was there to get a smaller pair of pants, not the weight loss regime I would recomend but I lost over thirty pounds!
The Boordy benifit raised just over six thousand dollars, that is helping pay for some of the initial tests I had (I borrowed the money from my sister Holly to pay them and I want to pay her back) Just a cathaterization is around twelve thousand for anyone here who might want one!!The bills from Hopkins (the main surgery) are starting to trickle in, not in one fell swoop as I had thought but in bits and pieces, radiology here, parts and supplies there- I never found out what the actual valve cost! Pennsylvania medical assistance will help some with that thirty five, they helped with about half of the cath and echo, and a good final estimate is between twenty and twenty five thousand. I'm starting to get some repairs done also, though not with my usual vigor, I tend to work for a bit, then read a book for a bit, then work for a bit, then go sit in the rocker with a glass of ice tea...........
Again, I want to thank everyone, this is not a situation that I could have imagined for myself, always so healthy, but we never know how our life can change in a moment. I'm not a hundred percent yet but feeling better every day and will spend the rest of my life trying to give back to others some of what you all have given me. Thank you all so much from the bottom of my part-cow part-plastic part original amy heart!!

[Mark Swanson]

That's great to hear Amy and thanks for checking in and getting us all up to speed! Fantastic!

[Darrel Friesen]

Thanks for stopping in Amy!!

[Clint Searcy]

Time for some updates I think. We have about 6 days where the PayPal account was locked because they wanted confirmation of a physical Our old land line used to fulfill this requirement but after the flood we decided we didn't need it any more and canceled it. Seems that waited until right in the middle of this drive to ask for new confirmation. We got everything fixed and PayPal is happy but it did cost us some momentum.

But! Drama aside the Indiegogo site has raised $4935 and paypal donations from MIMF efforts added to that number make for a total of $6967 plus Debs donation is $8463.15 . My hope is that this number will break 10K in the next 49 days and I think we can.

I can't tell you how proud I am of everyone for helping Amy out and giving back to this amazing lady. Some new videos have been added to the Indiegogo gallery of folks talking about what it's like being around Amy. Dave and Calum from the UK were here last week and they recounted their working with Amy in the latest video.

http://www.indiegogo.com/AmyHheart?c=gallery&a=833015

Spread the word!!

[Alain Moisan]

Thanks for the update Clint.

I'm very optimistic the total amount raised will be over 10k. The auction alone should get us close to that on its own, if not over it. Add to that the 6k the benefit concert raised and, although not all the way there (yet!), it starts to be a significant load off Amy's shoulders.

Let's keep up the good work!

[Alain Moisan]

Hey, the 5000$ mark just got passed on Indiegogo!

[Alain Moisan]

Just for fun, I added up the amount resulting from the auction. If I didn't make any mistake, it adds up to 985$. Not bad!

I'd be glad to see an update on the overall fund rasing campain. Are we over 10K yet?

Cheers,

[Charlie Schultz]

$985 is correct, but a few people have chipped in some extra $$ and we're now just over $1000!

A *huge* thanks to all the folks who donated and to all the generous bidders!!