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How a Fundraiser Can Impact a Life by Alyssa Belder

How a Fundraiser Can Impact a Life by Alyssa Belder

 

Impact a life. How does one do that? If you asked me, it would be simple. On September 5th, 2015 a drunk driver going 45 miles per hour while I was crossing a crosswalk hit me. It left me with a traumatic brain injury, fractured skull, and a fractured pelvis. It left me with hundreds of thousands of dollars to pay for hospital and therapy bills as well. Luckily, my closest friend started a Go Fund Me page to help pay for these extreme bills. The fundraising goal was $5,000, but with the help of the sorority and university I had only joined two weeks prior, a whopping $13,000 + was raised to help me during the most difficult time period of my nineteen years of living. There wasn’t anything in this fundraiser for anyone but me, and people all over the world still involved themselves.

With this specific fundraiser the people who donated had no interest to receive anything in return. The only thing they yearned for was my relief in paying bills. Sometimes there is no need for the people donating to want to receive anything in return. In this specific situation the people only had me in their hearts. There were more than half of the names of people who donated that I had never even seen before. With a situation so disruptive, something in return was not what the donors wanted. One doesn’t always need to sell something to earn money for something meaningful. What this website uses to get the word out there is a link. They make it so anyone and everyone can share this link on any website. I saw my Go Fund Me link on Facebook, Twitter, and even Instagram. No one had to sell this link. They just had to take a few moments out of their day to post it on their page so many people could notice something appalling that happened to an innocent by stander.

This Go Fund Me page was not only shared by friends, family, or acquaintances. It was shared by my school, the University of Arizona, my sorority Sigma Kappa, as well as the other sororities and fraternities of my school. By these organizations getting the message out there it has been advertising them as well. Not that it was their only reason for doing so, by sharing my fundraising page it has given them an opportunity to promote their organization. With all the help from these people it has put them in the spotlight. It has given them positive publicity. It has given them a place in my heart.

The reason why this fundraiser has had such a significant effect on my life is due to my outrageous bills. The man who ran me over is underprivileged in the money department. With that said it seems as if I will be responsible for coming up with the majority of the funds to pay for my month’s worth of hospital bills. This includes the hospital room I occupied, medicine, x-rays, etc.

This whole experience has affected my life incredibly. I have missed out on my first semester of college. I was living in my dorm room for three weeks, bought books and supplies, and went through three weeks of my freshman year. Those three weeks have cost me money that I will not receive back. When I started to get my memory back I realized that I would have to come up with even more money for my education with those first few weeks taken away from me. Knowing that I at least have a small, but appreciative portion of my bills paid for was the only thing that has gotten me through this. Not only has this experience with Go Fund Me enriched me, but also them.

This experience has gone to prove how much good they can do for someone. It has benefitted my life. I was not the only one to be effected by this situation. My friends, family, and loved ones were also touched. It takes a great deal of stress off of them knowing that I will no longer have as much of a damper set on me. With all of this said, I believe it goes to show that fundraising companies like this one don’t always have the idea of wanting to gain money from fundraisers. They only strongly desire to help those in need.

They greatly helped me when I was in need…

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Contributed by Alyssa Belder

December 19, 2015