Alrighty fellas, I have stumbled upon what I feel is a worthy cause and I need some ideas on how to raise some money.

Here is an email from Troy (Messix) who has been posting about his trial and tribulations with a custody battle over his daughter. This email was to me only so you all have not seen it, but is beats paraphrasing it.

"Mike,
a little back round on what the issues are. my ex has had a drinking problem and in the last couple of years it has gotten very bad. this has been tough to prove since my ex lies about almost every thing and is very manipulative, last november she was arrested for dui , this is her third dui in 10 years, her second was 3 years ago and also included an assault charge, this was deferred and she was on probation. she now faces her current dui and she has been charged again on the one she was on probation for, she entered treatment and her and boyfriend with held that she had been arrested and that she was in treatment, they even had my daughter lie for them about it, i had only found out about what had happened when one of my ex's older adult daughters called and told me what was happening. she also filled me in on some things that had happened that showed how detrimental it was for my daughter to have been living with the mother. this is when i had to take action.

things went well today. the judge found cause for this to go to trial, and the judge also took more action to limit the time my daughter is with her mom. if i did not live over an hour away from my daughters school the judge would have granted my daughter to me full time but the judge did not want to take my daughter out of her school so close to the school year ending. so this means that i will have to transport my daughter to school three days a week and have every week end with my daughter, she is only with her mother to allow her to be in school with out such a long commute to school a couple of days a week. there has also been issues raised by the gal and the judge about my ex's boyfriend and how he has over stepped his role to my daughter.
i am going to need alot of help. this is very hard for me to do, i have a hard time with my pride getting in the way when i am in over my head. and that is where i find myself right now.
as of today i owe my dad $3500. i also owe the guardian ad lit em $2000. and my attorney $3000. these are just what is due at this time. my expenses are still accruing and by june i will need a $6000. trial retainer

if could e-mail you some of the reports if it would help you understand what has been going on.


if you would like to relate any of this to other world members you have my permission.
bottom line i do need help, any help i could get would be very much appreciated

thank you so very much for your concern and help."


We can all appreciate the situation, many more personally than others. As the product of an alcoholic, crazy mother, I have a more personal interest. Troy has a hard time asking for help, but he needs it. Any ideas on resources? I can build another tranz and auction it. It should net us at least $1000. I was considering feeling out the membership, but I wanted to get some other points of view before going it alone.

Thinking caps on!

Thanks guys

wow, we definitely should find SOMETHING to do...

since it's late nothing to raise that kind of cash comes to mind(legally, anyway)

that said. this group has never ceased to amaze me with it's generosity. whereas Mary's project was a personal plight that needed blood and sweat, maybe this time guys like the george hussey's of the world can help. turn a meager raffle into a much bigger fundraiser. it wouldn't break pelican or any of the big vendors to donate a few pieces to help add value to the raffle, with a rebuilt Dr. evil tranny as the grand prize...

sorry, you mentioned raffle and that's all that's coming to mind right now... is to expand the raffle to more prizes, therefore creating more desire to gamble

we'd have to work on the logistics of a bigger raffle, though.

time is probably precious and even more fleeting than before. so we better get busy

I think it has been proven that 914World loves to gamble - the money raised for a chance to win the EvilWerks transaxle showed us that...

WHo wouldn't spend $10 or so for a chance - I would.

Now to find something of value to raffle.

Checkin in here. I'm behind this. I have a project I'm working on. I'm making fibre glas clocks from a Fuch hub cap I have. I just started to make the mold. I should be able to get $150.00 for these. I may not have them ready for a month but I will make some and donate the proceeds. I'm up for any other idea's.

Heres the start.

Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment

I am doing the first splash mold this weekend. I'm not making an announcement about these til they are done. I did a search for Porsche clocks and there weren't any but some 9.99 walmart clock with a Porsche sticker on the face for reg price $ 180.00 on sale for $ 119.00 or something!

Just a note here about permission to sell stuff on the site. We may want to do something different this time like post it in the classified and have a post pointing to it in the general forum.

I'm worried that others may take their causes to the general forum thinking it's ok to bring anything there. Some may be just as worthy. but we need to put our heads together to make this work without turning it into a free for all. No? If it occurres to much it will loose it's luster.

Rick has a solid point. maybe we can even set up an extra website and then divert a little traffic over there for this, to keep it kinda off-site? that way 914-directly related content is kept on site, and if someone in the future wants to do an equally worthy cause, they don't see it as open season?

I also think there is probably some source or entity that helps fathers who are in this type of situation and would be able to offer more then just simple financial assistance. I would think this type of scenario does happen quite a bit.... and an entity like that would have much more data.

Sorry for my absence. I was out of town at a BBQ at my new place Making friends with my fellow residents. Good times.

I appreciate the thinking on issues. This is why I asked here and did not jump the gun. Raffling off several items is a cool idea. I can look into an off world site to host. I know a few people. It is correct that there are several people in similar situations and this could get out of hand if there was not some structure to follow.

How can we keep this kind of thing from snowballing? How should we conduct this? I have a potential off-world site through RJMII as he is taking over my tranz gig and this could also serve to point people to his site. Win win.

I'll support anything because Dr Evil does... that's just the way I roll.

Divorce is a tough one - BTDT as the "kid". I was hoping to keep the 914 angels more into cars and builds and such, but I'm not one to back down to a challenge either... Raising money these days will be a challenge.

I'm in to help...

but i have a little extra sympathy on this one for some reason.

I will try to find a group today that may have a lot more info on this type of endeavor.

Thanks guys. This need not be an official "Angels" thing, but we all seem to have the right mind set. I think I will contact the admins and talk to them about involving the World and how best they see going about it since it is their work that will wrangle the hoards. I will be talking in generalities and not out Troy until such time as he feels it necessary. I can be the front man and make it know that I decided to take this on and others volunteered so that the others suffering personal issues will not feel slighted (hopefully). We can not take on the war, but we can pick out battles.

a few links that might help. since you've talked to him directly, offline, feel free to pass these on:

http://www.fathersrights.org/
http://deltabravo.net/
http://www.fathersrightsinc.com/
http://ChildrensJustice.org

there was also some interesting stuff on the wiki:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fathers'_rights_movement

I don't know how much of the information can be used in his specific area, but maybe this can help him get in touch with others in his situation, and find out what strategies and aid is available

Some good positive input here. I have a friend and former employee that has been married three times. The first two times he ended up battling for his kids. First a daughter with the first wife then two more boys with the second one. Now he has three more with the third wife and is near poverty. Through all the court proceeding, acusations, and financial hardship he never missed a beat at work or with his daughter and her care or his two boys and their care. He is a good guy and a good dad. I always said if I ever won the lottery I would set him up. Guys really are behind the eightball when it comes to kids and rights. It's just the way it is.

I think there is something we can do here. I doubt we can raise money like we have in the past but any gift we can present will not go unnoticed or unappreciated.

Lets work on this carefully and behind the scenes for now. As soon as you said you were thinking about an off site web page I thought of Jim. He has some really trying medical issues also. This could be healing for him to be involved in also.

Anywho... My DSL has been down for 4 days. So I needed to catch up and vent.

Well, I can not seem to reconcile the fact that there are many in need and that there may be issues with officially adopting this issue. As such, I think an independent approach would be best and less messy. I intend to build and sell the tranny from the rebuild video. I have noted such in the thread about this issue found here: http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showtopic=102001

I welcome you all to sell things for the cause, but there are no expectations or ill will should you choose not to. These situations are sticky in that they are unfortunately not rare and we will never know all of the details. I trust based on locals that back Troy up, particularly Mr. 242 who is a great guy.

I am reminded of Brad's bailout and dont want that kind of thing to happen again.

This is a tough issue. I think if some of the guys that posted support comments in the forum were sent pm's they may be a direct source for a contribution. I sent him a pm.

Got a good core to build today Maybe I will sell it at Hershey? I probably wont have it working by then.