Help Us Help Keith’s Family

You have seen me write here for the past three years now. During this time, I have promoted the conference, workshops, and shared my ideas. I have never asked you to participate in this kind of community effort. Hopefully, I’ve earned enough trust from you to ask you to give something back.

What’s Happened to Keith

Above is a picture of Keith Anderson, Julie (his wife), and their two daughters (Maddie and Cecily). Keith Anderson is one of the main organizers of Big Design Conference, IxDA Chapter Leader in Dallas, husband, father, metalhead, and more. On November 3, Keith was having chest pains and called an ambulance. His original diagnosis was Pancreatitis, which is inflammation of the pancreas. Complications have occurred since Keith was admitted to the hospital.

Right now, Keith is fighting a painful battle in the intensive care unit. He originally started at Baylor Hospital in Grapevine, Texas, but some complications led to a Care Flight trip to Methodist Dallas (which has the best pancreas doctors in the area. Keith’s original struggle with pancreatitis led to pneumonia and ended in surgery, where his gall bladder was removed and part of pancreas. Keith has been sedated and on a ventilator since Saturday, November 5th. Keith has also been on dialysis since November 14th.

Julie has been tirelessly by her husband’s side. With Keith being out of work for nearly a month now and a long recovery expected, the Anderson family needs our financial support. With no extended family, they have no one to turn to (except us).

How You Can Help

Here’s how you can help. Right now, I am looking at ways to divert money to help out Keith’s family. I am going to hold a workshop in January, where all the proceeds will go to Keith’s family. I’m asking if you could think about doing the same thing. At the very least, help us get the word out about Keith Anderson.

We have paid the December mortgage for them. We originally wanted to raise $2,000 for Keith and his family. We wanted to raise enough money to help pay for the Anderson’s mortgage for December. It was a modest goal. Pay for your house for one month. We were overwhelmed at the response! We collected $2,000 in less than 16 hours! So, we upped the effort to $10,000 (December 2011 through and July 2012 mortgages with some additional money to spare). We will keep this open until December 31st. Give what you can, even $5 means alot.

I know this is the worst possible time to ask for anything. But would you consider the following:

1. Giving whatever you can. (“Chip in” uses Pay Pal. It’s very easy to donate and secure.)
2. Spread the word. Please, please blog this, tweet this, re-tweet this.
3. Help find a donor (maybe a generous company or individual).
4. Go to Pray for Keith to Like and Tweet your support, too.

Click the above button called Chip-in to donate. We have Chip-in page called Team Keith: http://teamkeith.chipin.com/team-keith. You can also go there to donate.

NOTE:Chip-in uses Flash, so iPad users can go directly to PayPal to make a donation.

If you do not feel comfortable using Paypal or Chip-in, send me an email. Help us help Keith’s family.

Thanks for your help,
Brian, DFW-UPA, and Big Design Organizers