Help Shawn Powers Family

Your cash donations here on ChipIn have raised $8,500 for the Powers family so far. Our goal was $10,000 by January 31 and instead, in just a mere 24 hours we're almost there.

Why $10k many are asking? Simply a "reach for the stars" goal. Can we donate more to the Powers family? OF COURSE. But first things first, lets all pat ourselves on the backs when we hit that $10k goal. That's mighty impressive.

The money you have donated has been dropped in to Shawn's PayPal account in real time, and he has reported already going out and buying replacement winter coats (snowing and 25 degrees tomorrow) for the family thanks to you all. Just having that money available as things like this come up in the next several weeks makes a tragic event a little, tiny bit more tolerable. And frankly, just knowing such a huge community is behind you has got to be a comforting feeling for the Powers family.

A virtual beer on me to everyone who has made this happen. :)

A lot of folks are writing in asking about immediate needs for the Powers family. Shawn has let us know that his local community and church have stepped in to provide them with shelter for the upcoming days, as well as basic food and clothing. While devastating beyond words, please have comfort in knowing that they have shelter and community around them as support this first, tragic evening.

Please donate now to help the Powers family get back on their feet. Every small donation helps tremendously.

Shawn and Donna have three amazing girls, all "tweens" in age. We can all only imagine how shocking this must be for them. We're trying to gather some material items to send to them -- some creature comforts, if you will. If you have any old iPods, digital cameras, toys for tweens, netbooks, you name it, please consider donating them to Shawn's girls. Shawn's Linux Journal family will collect and ship the items to the Powers family as items come in. Email carlie@linuxjournal.com if you have any items such as these you'd like to donate.

We can't thank everyone in the community enough for their kindness today. I know we all wish we could do more . If you can't donate cash or other items, please know that just by spreading the word of this site you are providing tremendous support.

We've set this ChipIn account to drop directly in to Shawn's personal PayPal account, so rest assured any money you send will get to Shawn's family immediately.

Erratum to earlier post: Shawn is with the Indian River school district, which is located in Indian River, Michigan.

Everyone's beloved, crazy, big-hearted Linux Journal editor and Indian Lakes school district system administrator Shawn Powers, has lost his family home today to a fire. We have limited data about the extent of damages at this time, but can report that all people (his amazing wife, Donna and three girls) are all ok. Unfortunately his animals were all lost in the fire.

We'll report more as we hear it, but in the meanwhile wanted to set up a fund to help the Powers' family get back on their feet as quickly as possible. Please, if you can, every dollar will help. Computer equipment donations, we know, would also be greatly appreciated and the folks at Linux Journal will help coordinate any equipment donations (e-mail publisher Carlie Fairchild, carlie@linuxjournal.com for details).

And in the meanwhile... all the thoughts, prayers and best wishes to the Powers family.