Robin has posted some exciting updates and details on her GoFundMe page, including this tantalizing photo of some salves she is preparing:
She has set up an Etsy shop which will open for business on July 4! I believe that if you “follow” the Etsy page, you will be notified when products are ready for purchase. So exciting! (For those not familiar with the Robin Soap saga, here is the original story and here is my ridiculous contribution to her fundraiser.)
LOOK WHAT YOU DID!
About 24 hours after I first posted about Robin’s GoFundMe campaign, she is fully funded. She can now get started buying supplies and equipment to make and sell lovely, lovely goat milk soap to support her family. This is amazing. This is wonderful. And I don’t mean to sound smug, but this is utterly predictable, because I knew you guys were this generous! People have been donating, sharing, and offering prayers and encouragement for Robin nonstop. So, so great. From the bottom of my heart, thank you for helping my friend.
Robin is over the moon, and can’t wait to start ordering supplies. She has been working on setting up her kitchen and figuring out where everything will go. Now would n’t it be nice if she had a little more wiggle room while she’s getting started? The $3,000 is for supplies and equipment. Anything over and above that amount will go to food, rent, and utility bills, which are still constant worries for Robin and her family.
So, I may have accidentally announced last night that, if Robin’s fund reaches $4,000, I will post a video of myself singing “Let It Go” from Frozen. People seemed kinda enthusiastic about the idea, so I went ahead and listened to “Let It Go” for the first time, because I’ve been wrapped in a miraculous hermetically sealed cocoon of Let It Go Unawareness so far.
And you know what? FINE, I’ll sing it. It’s a stupid song, and has too many notes, but I suppose you all have to work your time off purgatory somehow.
So if you haven’t donated, please consider it! If you haven’t shared Robin’s page on Facebook or Twitter or what have you, please share! If you, for some penitential reason, want to hear and see me singing this sucky little song which is exactly the kind of music I hate the most and am entirely unsuited to perform, then spread the word! We can do this (don’t you dare).
This weekend, my friend Robin Broun of Kentucky launched a GoFundMe campaign. Her goal is to raise $3,000 to buy supplies for a soap-making business in her home, so she can support her family.
I know there are fundraising pleas allllll the time. I’m not going to try to guilt you into supporting this one (although if you could take a minute and share the page on Facebook, Twitter, or elsewhere, that would be wonderful). The soap is gorgeous and luscious in its own right, allergen-free and lovingly crafted. Take a look at this picture:
Is it weird that I want to eat this soap? Fine, so it’s weird.
I just want to tell you a bit more about Robin.
You have seen movies where a girl grows up and gets dealt one bad hand after another — but she keeps struggling? And where she grows up and has children of her own, and wants a different life for her kids — and keeps getting knocked back down? But she keeps struggling? And where malicious and cold-hearted people seem to hound her at every turn, and no matter how much personal sacrifice and humiliation she goes through, she picks herself up and tries again the next day? And she keep struggling?
This is Robin. She has a number of medical problems which make it impossible for her to work outside the home — but she can’t quite qualify for disability services, because she appears healthy enough to work. She wants to work. She just can’t, right now — not outside her home. She has no car, she often has no phone minutes, and, probably worst of all, she feels like people are constantly judging her and blaming her for her desperate situation. She is afraid that people will think this is just a lark or a hobby she wants to diddle around with.
It’s not. In fact, it could be a life-changing project, something that could lift her out of a truly desperate situation, into self-sufficiency and stability.
Right now, she suffers from constant and severe panic and anxiety. She is selling off her furniture — not nick-nacks, but things like her couch and TV — to make rent. She is working steadily on patching together a more stable means of income, but anyone who’s tried to navigate the social services system — especially with no car and an unreliable phone — knows that these things take time, and sometimes leave you high and dry. She works so hard to keep her family together and to give her kids a stable and dignified life, but she just has so very little to work with.
Robin is very proud of her eight years of Army service. She is very proud of her lovely daughters. She has eleven years of experience making this cold-process goat milk soap. This soap making venture is sensible and achievable. She explains the process, the ingredients, the benefits of goat milk soap, and lists the items she needs to buy to get started on her page.
So I am asking you to donate if you possibly can — even five or ten dollars (although more would be superb!). And whether you donate or not, please share this post, or share her page directly wherever you can.
Robin Broun Handmade Goat Milk Soap! Spread the word!
And please, of your kindness, say a prayer for Robin’s success and peace of mind. Thank you, my friends.
