Area 52 - WowStead

Saturday, November 21, 2009Forums » general chat » Area52 Donations

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Fiftytwo

<Area 52>
Windrunner

Area52 Donations | Tuesday, April 28, 2009 - 7:12 PM

As all of you know Area52 is a site that supplies free information, guides, support, and input to people to better their sites. This is not a paid or paying service and done completely during free time. However, Area52 does offer the chance for people who want to donate to the site to donate and show their appreciation and support. What most of you might not know is NONE of the money donated goes to me (Fiftytwo) for personal use. I send it ALL on to an organization or foundation that help make a difference in children's lives. These organizations will change over time depending on Holidays/Season, Events, etc., but all of them focus on helping children. They may include helping children with special disabilities, keep the arts in the school, going towards buying items that are for foundations or organizations, etc.

I will post here the Organization/Foundation that the present donations will be going to on this thread. I will post the date with them. The newest posting Organization/Foundation is the present one the donations will be going to.

Edited by Fiftytwo at April 28th, 2009 - 11:31 pm

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Fiftytwo

<Area 52>
Windrunner

Re: Area52 Donations | Tuesday, April 28, 2009 - 10:26 PM

***** April 2009 *****

Donations at this time will be given to The Center for Courageous Kids. This is "a unique Medical Camping Facility where children battling the most serious illnesses can attend, free of charge". Because the camp is free of charge for the campers and thewir families it relies greatly on donations. The camp has two types of events; a week long summer camp for the children with other children suffering from the same illness, and then a weekend long camp for the children and their parent(s) during the school year. This camp is "a camp for children with special medical needs in the Kentucky and Tennessee regions", however has had campers from 15 surrounding states. The children get to experience activities "from bowling to basketball, swimmming to singing, horseback riding to just horsin around, cooking, woodworking, beauty shop, fishing, painting, archery, campfire sing-alongs, stage performances, the climbing wall, new friends and good times..... ". This camp "welcomes children with over 54 various diagnoses," from Severe Food Allergy or Juvenile Arthritis to children with Cancer or HIV/AIDS. There are some personal reasons why I have chosen this camp to receive the donations along with the fact that children of so many diagnoses will benefit from the help.

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Therealkeith

<Horde Border Patrol>
Dragonmaw

Re: Area52 Donations | Sunday, May 3, 2009 - 4:29 AM

I think what you're doing with the donations is great. If only more people were as kind as you the world wouldn't seem like such a messed up place. Today I found someones phone outside of my work on the ground. I tryed calling 3 of the most recent missed calls to find out who the owner was so I could return it. No one had a clue who's phone it was, I even made the calls from my own personal phone so that the owner wouldn't be charged minutes or anything. I get a call 3 hours later from a number, I didn't answer it cause it'd be rude, they call two more times right after that. I assume it's someone looking for their phone, so I answer it the third time around. A man on the other end starts swearing at me, and giving me death threats before I could even studder out that I'd like to return to him his phone.

That's the world we live in lol.

If all of the money is donated to orginizations, how is the actuall hosting on the site payed for?

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Simsonite

Darkspear

Re: Area52 Donations | Sunday, May 3, 2009 - 6:31 AM

Hi,

Area52 is hosted thanks to wowstead and Jerdon kindly lets 52 have full subscription.

Also we are all happy to help out on wowstead and area52 however sorry that i havent been as active as usual but with my exams coming up and me starting WoW again i havent had as much time as usual to help out but i will try to help out more.

Simsonite

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Fiftytwo

<Area 52>
Windrunner

Re: Area52 Donations | Sunday, May 3, 2009 - 10:04 AM

Area52's subscription is paid for by the work I do on WowStead, which includes tech support, guide writing, skin/template development, testing, idea storming, etc. Jerdon wanted to pay me, but with WowStead just starting out I didn't want to take money that could be beneficial to WowStead, the Customers, and Jerdon. So we decided for the work I've done/do I would get the Subscription for it. So actually I don't get it for free, I just pay for it by different means. Now GroundZero is also Subscription, but it actually switches between the being subscription and not for designing purposes, but ShanKill Butchers, which is another testing site of mine, is not subscription.

If Jerdon outsourced for the skins it could run any where from $200 - $400 a skin. I started doing the skins because I always thought that even free site who didn't have anyone who could customize shouldn't have to deal with a 2nd rate site. Plus skins would be the very last thing on Jerdon's mind to get done. If it was outsourced then the bill would have to be footed somewhere; either higher costs for subscription or out of pocket from Jerdon. Now default skins/templates for public use on WowStead I do without charge. I do, however, do commissioned skins/templates for a cost for individual guilds every now and again, I charge because it takes away from my time that I work on WowStead, my school time, my own personal time, and time with my family.

I saw great potential in WowStead from what I was wanting in a guild site as well Jerdon's goals for WowStead. After several weeks of repeated questions I found that WowStead really needed a "help site" to not only help members figure out how to do things the site was designed for, but also things it wasn't or work arounds for things, which is easy considering the freedom Jerdon gives the sites. Also a better collection and better organization of said guides as many of those on the Main forums get bumped down and lost.

I have had several people ask me about being able to donate that's why I even put the donation up. I had never planned on pocketing the donations at all. That it would all go to help children in some way or another. Just this last week while talking to my cousin I found where I wanted it to go. The camp it will go to is a great camp. It helps children with all kinds of needs. It has a medical facility so children that need treatments like dialysis can still get their treatments, but still go to camp and have fun. They have an indoor pool with special wheelchairs that can be full submurged. Just a lot of things that makes the camp experience great for these kids.

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Therealkeith

<Horde Border Patrol>
Dragonmaw

Re: Area52 Donations | Monday, May 4, 2009 - 2:57 AM

That's awesome, my girlfriend is just finnishing up high school this year, 2 weeks left. She'll be going to college to be a nurse for special needs children to start, and move her way towards those kinds of groups.

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Fiftytwo

<Area 52>
Windrunner

Re: Area52 Donations | Saturday, October 31, 2009 - 8:51 PM

As I walk through the shiny new halls of Rossview elementary school I have to admit, I am glad my child attends this particular institution. She is the only girl in a preschool class designated for children of special needs. The teacher is brand new and a breath of fresh air. My daughter has benefited greatly from the interaction and education of the program.

However, I was surprised to find that these spirited children with amazing abilities who learn through play, discovery, and unconventional methods have absolutely no playground. While the rest of the mainstreamed students have a state of the art playground, my child and her classmates are provided just a small grassy patch of fenced in area at the corner of the building next to the dumpster with no play equipment. As I stood there watching the kids climb the fence because they had nothing else to hold their attention, I was reminded of a play yard you might find at a dog boarding kennel.

I understand that the school is new, that some of these kids are "runners," and it is not safe for them to be on an unbounded playground. However, is it fair to deny these special need children the ability to simply play outside?

If there is ever a hope of them going into the mainstream classroom and developing the social skills they need to do so, should they not be provided the same equipment as the mainstreamed students are?

I just feel that almost half way into the school year, this issue should have been addressed and resolved by now.

As a parent, taxpayer, and supporter of school fundraisers I have to wonder where my money is going and who, if anyone, dropped the ball here?

This is an article my cousin wrote about the school my niece (actually my 2nd cousin) goes to. There is a playground on the school property for children 5 and older. However, for children under the age of 5 they are given a fenced in field to play in. These children include children with and without special needs. The school is new and from what my cousin has told to me is wonderful. The staff and teachers are more then she could have asked for. There is just this one issue. At this age range, school isn’t all about what they learn academically, but the social aspect of dealing with their peers is just as important. The playground is where these children, get about 80%, if not 90%, of their unscripted social interaction with their peers during their school day. Rest of the time they are in a very structured, controlled, and scripted environment with their peers. Both are very needed in social learning of children. Most of these children are in the program to help them develop their social skills and social roles. On the playground they gain motor skills, learning how to play together, taking turns, helping each other, interacting in different unscripted situations, communicating, expanding their imagination, and so much more, which we don’t realize in the developement of social skills.

So any donations that Area52 gains will be dgoing towards helping these children get a playground. We are looking into several options for getting these children a playground.

http://www.leathersassociates.com/
http://www.toolboxforeducation.com/

The donation button is in the left nav of the main Area52 page.

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