Please help one of our own....NakedRicci

[griswold]

Folks,

As we all know, when our "family" here is in need, we'll do a great job of chipping in.....

Well, as you can see from the link (http://www.gofundme.com/AQS-dancer), our good friend, NakedRicci, is need of some help for his son to take his great dancing talent to the "next level", please try to click on the link and donate some funds to help him out.

Thanks in advance...

Gris

[griswold]

Bump....and thanks to Brian and Jason for helping out!

[Vecmizer]

Done

Good luck

[Bob Kohm]

In.....

[Don Quixote]

In, and glad to help a little.

[jwlincy]

Very cool of you to post this, Gris. If you can spare a few bucks, click on the link to help a fellow junkie out.

Alek has raised $3200 of his $5000 goal.

[griswold]

Very cool of you to post this, Gris. If you can spare a few bucks, click on the link to help a fellow junkie out.

Alek has raised $3200 of his $5000 goal.

I'm sure he would have done the same for any of us....

That's awesome that he's at $3,200 already!

When I started this, he was at less than a few hundred dollars....keep it up, folks!

[NakedRicci]

Guys..... I am absolutely speechless.

I had no idea a thread had been put up here. I honestly have to say I'm overwhelmed. Sheila and I have talked a bit about how damn cool it was to get the support that Alek had been getting from the RotoJunkie crowd. That made us feel really good as I've said to a number of you in private messages, RJ and you guys have meant a lot to me/us over the years on many different levels, and meant a lot to still feel that support even after not being around here much recently. And supporting something like a teen boy dancer isn't typically the first thing that jumps out for a bunch of sports guys. So THANK YOU. Deeply and honestly THANK YOU.

I know things are tough out there for everyone. That makes it so much harder to be in a position of need. My layoff late last year has made (and still is making) a mess of things here. 4 kids and everything else are expensive regardless... but when down to a bank teller's salary and a little bit of freelance, it's scary. And as important as Alek's (and the other kids') dance is... there just isn't any $ to cover it. For Alek, it's not just giving up a lesson. He's really in the dancer's realm of a kid who's training for the Olympics and there only being a few locations in the country that he can get the training he needs. At 15 he's already attracting attention from professional ballet companies and college dance programs. I'd have killed to have an opportunity like this at his age. of course I'd have killed to have had near the talent he has in my activities (baseball, tennis, bowling, art, writing, etc...). Anyway, just like olympic training for the top level, dance training isn't cheap (check out the documentary First Position... Alek has trained with 2 of the kids who were featured in that movie).

He has done pretty well in his fundraising. At this point he is right about $3500 raised of $5000. 70%, but still a ways to go. I'm hoping he manages to raise it and before the last minute so he can focus on preparing vs. stressing about whether he can go or not. He's an amazing kid and deserves the world. It kills me as a dad to not be able to just hand it to him. I'm dying to see him tear this up and take a big leap forward in his development.

For reference, here are a couple photos of him from his most recent Gala performance. This is the kid that WifeSwap woman said shouldn't be dancing. I think it's safe to say that at 15, this is a kid who DEFINITELY wants to be doing this.

076.jpg027.jpg


If you feel like contributing a $1 or two, every little bit helps and gets him a little closer to his dreams. If you're on Facebook and want to follow him, he has a fan page there at: https://www.facebook.com/AleksandrQSchroeder


But again, thank you Gris, et al. This is not what I expected coming into the Sportsbar tonight. It honestly brought tears to my eyes. I'm sure Sheila will be the same when I tell her tomorrow. You guys and all of RJ are amazing and I wouldn't trade any bit of my eperiences with you guys for anything. Thank you. I can't say that enough.

[Judge Jude]

Geesh, that was so well-written, you even lured unsentimental me in!


Let's get these guys to the finish line....

[bryanbutler]

done. best of luck. more arts for youngsters is never a bad thing...

[Steve]

done. best of luck. more arts for youngsters is never a bad thing...

Arts for Youngsters would be a good name for a band.

oh, and in.

[NakedRicci]

Judge, Bryan, Steve thank you very much. Again, the RJ support is amazing.

He is now $150 shy of 80% of the way to his minimum goal which is awesome.

The local goth community is hosting a Black Swan Benefit club night next week for him which hopefully will raise a little bit with some donations at the door. They have me on the bill plying my DJ skills too. Come on out if you're in the area and catch an awesome darkwave, industrial, aggrotech and assorted madness from DJ Archaotic! lol

[Judge Jude]

$4,125 out of $5,000 now - we might as well make this happen...

[Long John]

My sister actually trained in ballet for many years. If Alek is working half as hard as my sister did, he's not kicking back with this money and chillin on the east side.

Best of luck.

[BatsMeow]

My dearest Junkies,

You have melted my little black heart. Thank you so much for this outpouring of love and support for Alek [and by extension for NR and I]. We've always counted you as friends and certainly don't take that for granted, but when Junkie names started to show up on the GoFundMe page, we were definitely reminded. I've been brought to tears more than once.

We have had a tough year and hate deeply that it can affect the kids. You're not only keeping his present from being affected, but most definitely his future.

And no, the irony of one of the biggest lines of support for a male ballet dancer being a bunch of "sports guys" is not lost on me.

Love you all.
Bats!