I've told this story before, but it's certainly worthy of repeating. Years and years ago (OMG, I'm getting old), I worked for a software company that developed case management software for domestic violence agencies. It was the software they used for reporting on the demographics of the people they helped and the services they provided to those people. As many of the agencies were moving from paper-based data collection to the software, a fair amount of my time was spent manually entering that initial data for implementation.
Name after name. Age and gender identity and marital status and income and type of abuse and ... data point after data point. All of the data was exactly that - data. But if you look deep into data, you will nearly always find people.
I was typing codes and letters that represented people. Real people and what was, hopefully, the lowest point in their life. From cigarette burns to rape, a lot of different types of abuse were reduced to data points, but it was always about real people and what they had survived.
The kids in particular haunted me.
They haunted me so much that when a weird sort of internet happening flipped into my life years later, they were my first thought in terms of a way I could turn some weirdness into good. A few dollars were raised and sent to some kids living in a domestic violence center and that should have been it.
That would have been the end of it, but ... you. All of you.
All of you, for reasons I do not comprehend, also felt the weight of those data points. A few dollars sent to a domestic violence shelter somehow morphed into a few dozen toys and then a few hundred toys and basically this whole Christmas Crazy thing became an annual event because of you. Empathy and kindness are real and they have come together and created an event that has now completed 12 years of success.
TWELVE YEARS.
In this, the twelfth year, Christmas Crazy hit a milestone. We passed the $100,000 mark. That's the total across all years, and it is truly the craziest of crazy facts because ... you. All of you. Thank you.
We've created over $100k worth of magic.
So as you're settling into a quiet holiday at home this year and maybe frustrated with some of what 2020 has brought our way, remember that over the years, dozens and dozens of kids have had a little better holiday because of magic that you all have spun out of thin air. You did it again this year. I'll update the sidebar with the final FINAL total in a few days, but you passed $10,000.
Amazing.
All of you.
This is about 2/3 of this year's total, by the way. COVID being what it is, I didn't have an opportunity to have everything in one place at one time for a photo. So we went with a "least contact and fewest people possible" sort of model that left us with one early chance at a photo. You did good, internet.
(If you're watching your Amazon orders and see that a Christmas Crazy item hasn't yet been delivered, do not lose sleep over it. It happens every single year and every single year I make sure those things still make it to the right people. It's worth noting that Center for Victims keeps a few items each year for a "birthday closet" so that any kids celebrating a birthday while living in the shelter will have a better birthday. Delayed orders can help keep that closet stocked.)