Just so folks know, since I finally swung by and checked my messages after several months: no, I am not dead, and no, I was not a scammer. I just… really don’t use Tumblr much, to be honest.

For reference, I’m posting this on 6 June 2016. I do have a new chair now, a replacement funded by the YouCaring drive. It’s nearly identical, and it’s great. I also managed to graduate from college, and am now enjoying the life of the working stiff.

I disappeared partly because I seldom use Tumblr, and partly for shittier reasons. A few days after the initial post and the outpouring of Internet Love, I got a bunch of Internet hate, including a whole storm of accusations and insults that a disturbing amount of my fellow students seemed to take at face value. Also a few threats, which were ever so much fun. I didn’t want to post about them since I hoped they’d just fade away, which they did, and that sort of kept me off the site.

Anyway, there you go- quick update, hoping to post more often in the future. I’m currently editing the first episode of a YouTube series on disabled life, to go up whenever I’m done. Should be fun!

We’re within $167 of being able to afford a new chair. Please, at this stage even small donations are incredibly helpful. If forty people each donated $5, this would be done immediately. Thank you all so much.

https://www.youcaring.com/david-rinella-437103

Last Friday, I was measured for a replacement chair. It all went well- the new chair is pretty much an exact replica of the stolen one. However, they sent me the price today, and it’s much higher than I expected- $4,259. The current fundraiser is $172 below this.

I hate to do this, but I’m going to up the goal on the fundraiser to reflect this. I’m really hoping we can get enough to not only afford the chair, but also have at least a bit of excess to donate as planned.

As usual, if you can’t afford to donate please signal boost, and wish me luck.

https://www.youcaring.com/david-rinella-437103

Hey there! It’s been one week, almost to the hour, since I found out my chair was stolen. In that time, the Internet has been pouring support on me. The YouCaring fundraiser has hit $4,087 dollars, over a thousand dollars past the original goal. I’ve got over three hundred messages of support sitting in my inbox from all over the world.

And on Friday, I was measured for a new chair.

This has all been amazing, and I’m incredibly grateful for the kind of charity and love I’ve experienced. I am incredibly fortunate to have received it.

Let’s see if we can make it happen again.

Mackenzie McCullough is a teenager from Washington, and she’s got a huge list of diagnoses, the only one of which I can even spell is Ehler-Danlos Syndrome. The current chair she has is an absolute clunker, and she can’t make it move at all, rendering her immobile. She needs a new one, badly, but insurance can’t help.

Maybe we can. A family friend of hers reached out to me with the link to her GoFundMe, asking if I could help. I figure that this is maybe what part of this blog can become- a place to help direct all the goodwill I’ve received towards other people who need it.

Please, if you can help, do so, and if not, signal boost. Let’s give a kid back her life. #wheelsformackenzie

https://www.gofundme.com/kf5yydrw