Jason Sandford
Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.
Asheville artist Genie Maples has generously donated a beautiful painting to be raffled off at Friday night’s Spookyblogapalooza event. There’s been a lot said about the fun, food and drink we’ll be enjoying at the party. But the real reason you’ll want to attend is to help out your fellow man. It’s about your community, your neighbors, the people you see on the street every day.
I’ll stop there and let Genie tell you in her own words why it was important to her to make her gift of a painting:
The reason we sometimes don’t have compassion isn’t because “that couldn’t be me,” but because deep inside, something in us knows that it absolutely could, and we don’t want to know that.
I do know. I know that could be me. It would be nice to forget, but I try not to.
Because if it were me again feeling invisible, I would want someone to look right at me, see me, and help me.
The people who do the real work at AHOPE do that all the time. Every day. I don’t know how they got strong enough to do that. I’m strong, but not that strong, not yet.
But I can paint. So I painted this.
I’ll bet you can do something too. I’ll bet you have $5 you could use to buy a raffle ticket to help the people at AHOPE do what they do, which is provide a roof, counseling, and a solid place for people to put a foot so they can start moving forward. It works. 80% of people AHOPE gets into housing are still there 3 years later. That is a phenomenal result. It makes things better for all of us.
In fact, I’ll bet you have $20 or $50 or $100, or even more you could give.
If you give it by Friday, to me, I will give you raffle tickets, one for every $5. I’ll give the money to AHOPE, and you may get to take that painting home this weekend. It may remind you that you don’t ever have to be alone. Not really. That sometimes the way to not be alone is to have someone help you. And other times the way to not be alone is to help someone else.
There you have it. All the money raised at the event, through donations at the door and through the raffle, will go to the AHOPE shelter here in Asheville. You can buy raffle tickets from Genie. You can buy raffle tickets from me.
