Custom Commissions T-Shirt Designer

Welcome to my Fundraising Site! I bet you thought this was just an average apparel, mugs and more store! Well, I fooled you. I do have an actual page for donations that you can see here.

If you’ve ever wondered how it feels to park your website on the corner of the web and beg… here’s how it feels:

When you receive a donation it feels like a mixture of many emotions: relief, thankfulness, incredible love for the donator, and a heavy, gigantic dose of immense, debilitating, lead-like feeling of guilt. I feel like this every single time someone helps me in any way. I experience this feeling a lot, because I have an incredible amount of kind, giving, helpful family and friends. Every single one of them has made me feel like this at one time or another—and I love them beyond measure. I am lucky to have so many friends who care about me, love me and they have done SO MUCH for me. I hate that I’m in a position which necessitates I take these donations. Without them, I could very well be that guy standing on the corner of the street with his cardboard sign.

So… why am I making t-shirt and donation pages and why are people sending me money?

I was diagnosed in my early 30s with de novo stage IV breast cancer in June of 2016.

A little more than a year before my diagnosis, my divorce was finalized. I was still in the midst of trying to pick up the pieces financially. I was learning how to go from being a stay-at-home-mom (my daughter, Sheridon, is now nearly 12 years old!) while I photographed weddings on the weekends to really trying to hustle and working as hard as I could to create more income, which I so desperately needed. And then… cancer happened.

After my cancer diagnosis I felt sadness, desperation, depression, fears of death, guilt, and finally—“Ok…now it’s time to work on truly living, enjoying, and experiencing the moments I have left!” But… “how am I going to afford to stay alive?” Well I’ll tell you how… I couldn’t afford cancer then and I still can’t today. But I’m still trying. My husband and I brain-storm new ways every day to make more money. It is difficult because there is so much *less time* available now that I have countless doctor’s appointments to attend and I need more sleep than ever before. We do as much for our current business as we possibly can, while still trying to find new ways to make up the thousands of dollars extra a year we now have to produce with due to this terrible diagnosis.

I have learned what it’s like to have so many bill collectors calling my phone that I no longer answer unidentified callers. I now know what it’s like to call into customer service and have them immediately begin speaking to me in a condescending voice because I am behind on my payments. Sometimes their voices soften when I answer the question “Why haven’t you been paying this bill?” And sometimes they don’t soften. I know how it feels to worry that the appearance of anything “new” in your life could seem to others like you are potentially squandering what little money you have left…. I’ve learned how it feels to have a personal need to justify expenditures to friends because you want to make sure they know you are not spending frivolously.

Check out these shocking comments made by former insurance company employees.

We live in a country where not only are insurance costs astronomical, but insurance companies also have actual policies in place specifically to take advantage of patients so companies can make larger profits and pay LESS on their client’s behalf! Click through the 4 screenshots I’ve included for actual comments by former insurance agents admitting what they were forced to do. We live in a country where an accident, or a sudden medical catastrophe, can completely bankrupt a person during a time when they’re already contending with so many stresses related to their health.

It is an awful feeling to know you can’t possibly make the amount of NEW income your diagnosis requires.

Which brings me back to my earlier point about crowdfunding websites. I hate them. I hate crowdfunding sites because they have become a basic necessity for today’s world. They have become a BAND-AID for true health care reform that we so desperately need! We need something revolutionary.

Have you ever LOOKED at how many medical campaigns there are out there? NerdWallet reported that $930 million of the $2 billion raised on GoFundMe goes towards medical fundraising. Bloomberg reported that almost half of the $800 million raised on YouCaring, another crowdfunding site, went towards medical expenses. These are just TWO crowdfunding sites. There are also private sites like mine and BILLIONS more donated to the countless non-profit organizations that give grants to medical patients in need. That is at the very minimum over $2 BILLION DOLLARS worth of desperation. That is nearly $2 BILLION dollars worth of medical patients in often dire circumstances experiencing the very same heavy, gigantic dose of immense, debilitating, lead-like feeling of guilt that I am all too familiar with.

American citizens have already shown they’re willing to contribute to health care costs for their friends and family. Imagine if the donations were combined with the total cost we are all paying for health insurance. This is at least the beginning of making a large dent in the potential costs.

Make no mistake about it. We are all gambling with our health. Most Americans are just one terrible diagnosis… one accident away from total financial devastation. We can easily put this out of our minds because that’s human nature, but it is a looming and very real danger for everyone.

In a great nation like the United States, health care should be a RIGHT.

Too many aspects of our health industry are designed to take advantage of the sick and dying in disgusting ways, just for PROFITS. This is what happens when corporations have control of life or death situations. What more valuable commodity could they possibly have in their hands? LIFE! If your mother needed a pill that cost $300/month but it kept her alive—how much would you be willing to pay? The headlines show insurance companies making record profits, all the while raising costs to consumers. They shrug their shoulders, cash their checks and we go on creating GoFundMes, YouCaring pages, and more in desperation to go on LIVING.

SO, dear reader—that is why I’m selling t-shirts. In desperation. As yet one more income source to do as much as I possibly can to recoup some of the costs and pay my bills so I can go on LIVING.

If you’ve made it this far and you want to learn more about myself, my husband, my daughter and our three dogs, please head over to our YouTube channel and watch some of our videos! Below are a few of my favorites.