I agree that finding several hundred people to donate 10 bucks each just shouldn’t be that hard, considering the size of the FasterSkier community. LET’S GET IT FINISHED THIS WEEKEND!!! (By the 20th…) We’re now at 77%, need about 2800 bucks. That’s under 300 donations at 10 bucks a pop.

Cheers to everyone who’s already taken part. Jen

What bothers me is when Sabot posted his vent, the fund was 43% of its target goal- the number is now 53%, but if we factor in Swix’s $1000, that accounts for an increase of more than 8%… meaning in response to both you and Sabot, an extra 2% was donated by the ski community.

Maybe I have got the numbers mixed up on how far we have come, but lets look forward: if $6000 is donated in $10 per FasterSkier reader, than 600 donators is all we need. Simple math. Whats not so simple is understanding where are those 600.

I’m an undergraduate student, living out of my (small) pocket to race and ski- what college student is not? Yet I too managed to sacrifice my 1.5 Starbuck Lattes of the day to give something to the McCabe family (I actually hate Starbucks, but this is Sabot’s math here) There are many little things you could give up for ONE DAY to make a contribution- once we succeed, those pictures will last a lifetime to the McCabe family. Caculate THOSE numbers.

I am especially calling out to the younger generation, those who might not yet have full-time jobs and might have pockets larger or smaller than mine. You might feel intimidated by the generous donations by Sven and Swix- $10 is a very small amount of $12000. What matters is you can say you were a part, no matter how small, of the community that cared for the McCabe family. Is there anything in your life that you could give up for one day to help the McCabe family? There has to be more than 600 FasterSkier readers out there that can do that.

I never met Sean, and I live in a completely different state. And yet I have been motivated by two forces that have driven me to give to his memorial fundraiser: 1) gratitude for what I now enjoy; and 2) a certain disquietude with my own relative abundance. I also feel like I can identify with Sean–I am the father of young children, and I have similar interests. Plus I have a huge admiration for Sean’s many talents.

Now to get a little philosophical. Are you really being generous if you don’t have to stretch a little to help someone else? Are you really being generous if deep down you are hoping to win some cool skis with the raffle? (My donation happens to be under a different name…so I’m not trying to get extra points by writing this). I know that we all have had economic setbacks, but I also know that donating $5-10 simply requires a little re-ordering of priorities and perhaps a little sacrifice.

Now to be a little personal. I finished my graduate and post graduate training not long ago. Now I have a job that pays the rent, allows me to pay my debt obligations that I incurred during grad school, and support a family. For the past 10 years I have been looking forward to the day that I could purchase some new race skis. I thought last year would be the year, but instead I bought a new pair of race skis for my wife (it really wasn’t that generous…that move went a long way toward marital happiness). This year my “new ski fund” was getting to the point that could be able to buy some new skis at the end of this season. But I did something different. I donated that money to Sean’s Memorial Fund (I admit, I had to do it in two separate donations because selfishness was holding some of the money back initially). I don’t have any reason to brag (again, my donations were under a different name). I say this only because now I feel that I have done what my conscience has told me to do–not because I somehow felt guilty, but because it was simply the right thing to do.

So I want to challenge you to give what your conscience tells you to give. However small or large the amount, give something. You’ll feel like a better human being for giving.