****DRAFT ***************

Many of you have followed the progress of the Mary Shortridge 914 in Kansas this year. Thank you to everyone who has contributed large and small. It's hard not to be inspired by her mission.

Mary and her family's efforts have been to restore a rusty '72 1.7 to daily driver condition, as a tribute to her late brother Lee who owned and loved the car for over 10 years (????). Lee held a special place in his heart for his 914, as many of us do. Unfortunately, his life ended too early in a car accident during a time of supporting his family. From what Mary has told us, he was an extraordinary man.

Since his death, his car had continued to deteriorate significantly. Mary and her family decided to rebuild his 914, with a purpose of keeping his spirit alive. She had no idea it would be such an extensive and expensive task, but to her surprise, many of us 914 world members have joined her quest.

Today, we are asking for donations and volunteers to make the final push both in dollars and muscle.

We have a final list of parts needed, and we are looking to assemble a team of volunteers to decend on a small town in Kansas to get it done.

Your donation will go towards the last remaining parts, supporting a qualified Porsche mechanic to be flown in to oversee the safe reassembly, and to FINISH the restoration.

Donantions can be made by Paypal. PM RobW for details.

Thank you for being a part of this 914world community and lending a hand.

*********** DRAFT ***************

Very nice Rob. It's informative without being too personal.

I would see more information about what Lee did for a living and how he gave up things in his life to move in with his family and take care of them. But these are details Mary needs to volunteer in her own time.

I agree with rick, but all in all I think the post sounds great.

Thanks Rob

Great start - the timeline is off a little but I can get you those when you are ready.

Draft #2

By now most everyone has heard of Mary Shortridge. Thank you to everyone for chipping in. Every contribution has counted.

Unlike many of our projects, hers WILL BE FINISHED. She has a target date (drive #1) on March 21st - the first day of Spring. It will be a special day for Mary, and special day for all of us.

We are organizing a team of 914 world volunteers to descend upon Garden City, Kansas to finish what Mary started, and to honor her family. Without being too specific, Mary has been through a lot, and many of us have been changed by knowing her. We will see her complete this 914 build.

With the approval of the 914 world admins, we are going to pass the hat around and raise some dollars both for buying the last few parts on the parts list AND support the volunteers who will donate their time to be at the build. Another post will be created to enlist volunteers.

The more we can raise, the more we can be sure that the right people can be there to get it put together right. 100% of proceeds will go towards the efforts to finish building her car safely.

The paypal email for donations is: edwardblume@gmail.com

We know times are tough, but if we all help out just a little bit... we can make great things happen for a very deserving person and her family.

Thank you.

Second post: Draft

Many of you were introduced to Mary Shortridge when she posted in the garage looking to our community for help in navigating through a restoration of her brothers 914.

After reading her post I felt it would be most helpful if someone could meet with her and inventory what she had and help her with identifying what she would need to get her project finished.

I'm sure by now everyone here has read my post requesting one or more of our 914 community to come to her aid and make the trek to Garden City. I'm not surprised by what happened over the next several weeks but I am thankful and humbled by the out pouring of help from Mike Moorman, Carrie Sweet and her dad Allen. They all made a long trip to Garden City and brought back a list of parts Mary would need to complete the car. I can't thank them enough. In addition to Mike, Carrie and Allens offer to help, our community started offering parts even in advance of their trip! My simple request in that post took on a life of it's own. Not unbelievable for this group but unexpected at the time.

Since then Mike has been a driving force with this 914 event. From putting up a web site to constantly monitoring the parts offering and traveling to meet with Mary as progress was made along the way. We have had generous offering after generous offering from vendors Like Jeff Bowlsby and members from every part of this country. Our own Dr. Evil flew in and extended his stay to meet Mary and Mike and rebuild Buttercups transaxle.

Many of us wanted to help but didn't have worthy used or new parts laying around to offer. Well here's our chance to make a difference in the life of Mary and her family. We all know the cost of doing a restoration even to the level of a daily driver. It is taxing and exhausting both mentally and financially. My personal goal is to lift some of the burden here for someone who has endured so much. So over the next week or so I will be bumping this thread and personally thanking everyone involved in supporting Marys family and their goal.

Thanks everyone for caring.

RobW prepared the following opening request for your help with the blessing of Mary Shortridge and her family. Rob has offered to handle the accounting for this 914 event.
During our drive Rob will provide us all with a report of our progress.






I like this draft. But when I post it I will not be taking the credit for it's content. I don't want reveal our behind the scenes work but I want add an intro so people will know this was prepared by you Rob. Credit where credit is due.

None of this will be posted without Marys approval

You know Rick, I really like your description, I'm wondering if we should just put your face on the fundraising post.... leave me out.

Your voice comes through, the detail and summary is much stronger, and I think ultimately it will make a stronger impact..

What do the rest of you think?

I Didn't include the information in my writting that you have in yours. Maybe we need some kind of a hybrid. Yours and mine together.

I write reports everyday that need to be read by someone that hasn't seen what I'm discribing. I tend to say more than is needed out of habit.

Lets visit the thought of a combined writting.

There is one issue that maybe we need to consider here as well. How many of you read long posts in full? I tend to skim over them in a speed read fashion.

I too like the "less is more" concept on a post - at least the initial post to grab the interest and emotion. I think the first drafts are great.

One more thought - is there an alternative for those without a PayPal account? Maybe they can send an email giving a heads up that the check is in the mail so they can be acknowledged during the fund raiser as funds pledged?

I'm cleaning the garage today. Anyone want to edit what we have here in the mean time feel free. Otherwise I will take a fresh look at it later tonight and see what I can do with the two concepts. The first post may be semi longish. But that should be OK.

Without Paypal, how about making a check out to Mike or even Mary? Someone fronting this needs to manage that. I can still track things on a spreadsheet here or coordinate posting a file here.

I'll work on it now. I have a 100 year old birthday in Fairfield to drive to later.

Let me check with my local Bank of America on Monday - I know them well - I can maybe setup an account for direct donations - I have seen it done for local events where funds needed to be collected (familes after a fire or injury without insurance). I can also collect checks here, deposit them in the same account and make Rob aware for tracking. I can probably give Rob access to the account online as well.

Thoughts?

Rick, its hard to change much... I just added the fundraiser part to the bottom, and Mike's idea for direct checks..

Draft #3:

Many of you were introduced to Mary Shortridge when she posted in the garage looking to our community for help in navigating through a restoration of her brother's 914.

After reading her post I felt it would be most helpful if someone could meet with her and inventory what she had and help her with identifying what she would need to get her project finished.

I'm sure by now everyone here has read my post requesting one or more of our 914 community to come to her aid and make the trek to Garden City. I'm not surprised by what happened over the next several weeks but I am thankful and humbled by the out pouring of help from Mike Moorman, Carrie Sweet and her dad Allen. They all made a long trip to Garden City and brought back a list of parts Mary would need to complete the car. I can't thank them enough. In addition to Mike, Carrie and Allens offer to help, our community started offering parts even in advance of their trip! My simple request in that post took on a life of it's own. Not unbelievable for this group but unexpected at the time.

Since then Mike has been a driving force with this 914 event. From putting up a web site to constantly monitoring the parts offering and traveling to meet with Mary as progress was made along the way. We have had generous offering after generous offering from vendors Like Jeff Bowlsby and members from every part of this country. Our own Dr. Evil flew in and extended his stay to meet Mary and Mike and rebuild Buttercups transaxle.

Many of us wanted to help but didn't have worthy used or new parts laying around to offer. Well here's our chance to make a difference in the life of Mary and her family. We all know the cost of doing a restoration even to the level of a daily driver. It is taxing and exhausting both mentally and financially.

The 914 world administration has given us the OK to do a fundraiser for Mary's build. To complete the build, we are looking to raise money to buy the rest of the parts AND support the build team's expenses as much as possible.

A paypal account at: edwardblume@gmail.com has been set up, and a check can be mailed to ____ .

All the funds will go to Mary's parts, and the build team's expenses as much as possible. A separate post will be coming in the next few weeks to fill out the volunteer team.

Thanks everyone for caring.

While lengthy to Wayne's point, I think it squarely touches all the bases on what's happened so far, and where things are going. It also doesn't get too personal with Mary's personal information (that's up to her).

Very well done!

I am waiting Mary's approval.

I think it sounds great! it is very clear and complete without being too wordy.

I vote yes.

With the patriot act and provisions against money laundering and terrorism, any account must be set up with a person and valid id backing it up. I am fine (and others may agree) to set up an account in your name with checks sent to you. It would make it easier for disbursements as well.

We can coordinate the accounting together.

Can we strengthen the fact that we are raising money to do a weekend overhaul on the car in Febraury - it is mentioned buy kind of low key. The more the tone is for a 914 Overhaul build session and less parts the better it might be recieved.

I'm fine with everything. Just waiting for Marys approval with any changes or additions she would like to see. I'm ready to make the post.