Now, I wouldn't normally beg like this - it's not even as if I ask for handouts to pay for this website - but I truly believe that Maria's is a special case and deserves your kindness, if you can possibly spare any. A dollar would do. In return for any dosh you can send her, Maria will make some fantastic bespoke graphics for you - pc wallpaper, internet blog and forum user icons and avatars, website banners (she made some for www.alainmatters.com), Christmas cards even! (See the examples of her work dotted about this page). She's so very talented, so whatever you can give her will be paid back three hundredfold in the creativity she has.
And now for Maria's story. She's a devoted Morrissey fan, but has never had the chance to see him play live. She hoped she'd be able to see one of his gigs sometime this year, and so had been saving up. "I want to go to a show more than anything I've ever wanted in my life." And then, her husband lost his job. Luckily he found another one, but had to take a pay cut. "We are down to living paycheck to paycheck, being late on almost all our bills, and fielding almost daily calls from bill collectors." Maria has health problems and so needs to take several different kinds of medication. In the UK, this wouldn't be a problem - you pay your £6.50 for your government subsidised meds, and you don't have to starve. Unfortunately, this isn't the case in the USA. If you can afford health insurance, it's not a problem, but by her husband being made redundant, Maria's family lost their health insurance. To be able to afford the medication she needs, Maria has to pay a couple of hundred dollars a month. These calamities have swallowed up all the money she had put aside to be able to afford gig tickets and travel.
And like I said, if you can spare anything at all for Maria, "you will get something in return from me. I make web graphics: banners, website graphics, icons, animations, colorbars - if you can describe it to me, I can probably whip it up in photoshop. All donators can email me or leave me a comment with any graphics requests and I will make them right away for you."
Now, I know the Dogs' Home needs money for inoculations. I know the kittens need their biscuits. I know the Donkey Sanctuary would like some extra sacks of carrots. I know the human race is flawed and doomed and fundamentally awful. I think Maria even feels a bit embarrassed going to these lengths, and this isn't even some made up scam that you'd get in a suspicious email. I don't have $700,000,000 to give you from the bank account of the assassinated president of an African country. I just think it would be a really kind gesture on behalf of any of you who can help - as some kind of community of Morrissey fans, to make like Jimmy Saville fix it for Maria. For god's sake, infect the world with kindness!
Please help the cause against giglessness by clicking on the paypal button here (her paypal email is hilarious, by the way).
