FINAL final crowdfund draft??

SUPPORT  YOUR  LOCAL  ELDERCARE  ANARCHIST!

FACT:  I’m an unabashed eldercare anarchist out to revolutionize our culture’s woeful attitudes around aging. What I lack in official credentials, I more than make up for in the credibility of experience& the credence that a bold new better is possible. 

In less radical terms, I'm a Life Expansionist & General Instigator, an idea generator, a fresh approach incubator.  My goal - integrating elders, not isolating the old;  engaging, not distancing;  revving  'em up, rather than slowing them down.  Doing my best to spur people, organizations, government to invest more in big hearts than big business!  

Where most experts focus on the decline & decay aspects of aging, I spotlight the gifts & graces only available as we get up there in years.  I get to touch people’s lives with what I do.  It’s work that fuels me, keeps me going.  Individuals, couples, families – it’s my pleasure to help them walk life’s road with a lighter step.  Pretty awesome.

Whether tagging up for fun in their life care community ~or~ scooting off  to a cool jazz spot, heading out for a ramble & yum dining ~or~ staying in with a closed-captioned Danny Kaye comedy or Fred Astaire musical, I help older friends & clients get in sync with what my 90+ year old mother blogged -  “My feet drag somewhat and I move a lot more slowly than I did,  but most days my spirit soars,  making itself felt more and more.” 

I grew up with the concept of parenting, but the need for me to pick up childing skills took me by surprise.  As Mom wrote, her body headed south, she slowed down, had less energy.  We were blessed that her body didn’t hit the slow button until her mid-80s (she went to Australia at 85!).  But once she slowed, weboth had to learn new skills, to develop a different parent-child relationship.

New parents can turn to childcare gurus for guidance.  Bookstores devote huge sections to what to expect when you’re expecting, navigating babyhood, surviving toddlers tweens teens.  But what about older people & their loved ones looking for steps to ensure their older years really are golden?  Virtually nothing.  Plenty of publications on seeking endless  youth; precious few on pursuing the true purpose of aging.  Praise be, that's beginning to change.

Childing describes what we youngers can do to help ensure our older relatives, loved ones, neighbors have the space & resources to come into their aged own.  It starts with redirecting the general focus from chasing youth to pursuing purpose.  What has to be done to restore a semblance of sanity to our crazed culture, we need to begin by changing the general contempt & fear of old age back to appreciation & honoring.  

In many ways, the problem seems rooted in medical & research communities that typically marginalize aging, something they can't manage, treat or cure, always ending with death.  Small wonder geriatrics & related fields draw little attention & scant funding.   Perhaps that’s why so many innovative leaps in eldercare come from creatives –  dancers, musicians, artists; from the National Center for Creative Aging (NCCA), rather than the National Institutes of Health (NIH).   These inspired, creative souls are my role models & mentors.  They bring passion & innovative approaches to how we – from birth to death - grow older in America, use words like generativity rather than deleterious.  

The question now isn’t if our dismal culture around aging will ever change or even when, but HOW to rewire the way we look at & experience growing older.

A crucial factor is igniting conversations, thousands of them, talking to each other, across generations families communities, sharing what comes up – all of it, every bit – shifting our futile need to stave off aging into a fertile seeking of what only growing old elderly ancient can unfold.   Generating ideas, tossing our possibilities, letting the most appropriate person(s) pick it up & run.  Communication of every sort, at every level.  Unless those discussions start happening SOON, my Boomer generation will find itself in far worse shape than our parents, faced with the same decreased capacities & increased dependency PLUS self-loathing.

What do I bring to this revolution? 

• Lifelong experience with friends who lived “best practice,” full-throttle lives to their final days, many into their upper 80s & well into their 90s.
• The drive to inspire others to accept we’re never too young or too old, too weak or too frail, to live – as best as circumstances allow –  purpose-driven, productive lives.     
• Work that spans the full spectrum of ages, from toddlers to ancients, spreading the message we're never too young to start the journey of conscious eldering.
• A commitment to translate what I know & do into forms that families, friends & care partners can use.
• A seemingly endless wellspring of ideas for others to take & adapt & develop.
• An unquenchable curiosity about how to honor our elders – as ancient wisdom commands – that OUR days may be happier, more prosperous, more worth living.
• My blog, older2elder, supporting my Vision Statement - "I help engage, energize & empower people of all ages to move past just getting older & toward growing into elders, to experiencing what can be done only with great age, not in spite of."  (thegrannielistener.blogspot.com)

Which brings us to this request.  I feel like a Buddhist monk by the side of the road, begging bowl in hand!  My reality is that what calls out to be done outstrips my present income.  To attend the conferences & workshops, provide the levels of support that beckons, I need funding.  It's straightforward - how much I do over the next six months depends on how much I raise & that depends on whether & how much people value what I bring.  Over the next four weeks, I hope to raise $20,000 to tackle the following over the coming six months:

• Develop Values Vision Dreams – helping the aging, elderly & ancients connect to their current core values, compose a here & now vision statement, identify present-day dreams & ways to make them real.
• Create a template around Cyber Access for the Technically Timid (CATT) ~ connecting tech-challenged people with a HUMAN to help them fully utilize the wonders of the Digital Age without touching a keyboard
• Compose conversation starters to spark wide-ranging discussions on expansive aging, from first breath to last, that spread like wild fire.
• Form a multi-faith Nurturing a 5th Commandment Mindset discussion group, considering what it means to honor our parents, the elderly, so that OUR lives may prosper   
• Craft a local campaign around StoryCorps' Great Thanksgiving Listen 2016.
• Attend the Certified Senior Advisors Positive Aging Conference & the National Center for Creative Aging Conference/Leadership Exchange in D.C., Dr. Bill Thomas' Age of Disruption Tour in Pittsburgh, the Sage-ing International Biennial Conference in Colorado.
• Consultant & attorney fees re: viability of becoming a non-profit
• Purchase a reliable second "previously owned" – one with enough space for a wheel chair
• Secure copyright protection on a range of business names
• Upgrade computer skills & equipment 
• Draft rough outline for Badass Grandma, telling tales of my challenging & fabulous mother
• Additional monies would go toward attending additional conferences & workshops, taking online courses & seminars.   

As I write this request, am reminded of a great compliment from a young friend - "Aunt Deev, you put a human face on aging."  That touched my heart.  I see myself as helping move obstacles out of pathways; my young friend sees something more - the fiercely proud elderly aunt replacing surviving with thriving, the retired professor rebuilding a life, the grannie client with full freedom in her apartment, the artist whose life light was switched on by a drawing pencil, the family having someone to help them face the unexpected & unimaginable.  Joan Chittister talks about the elderly finding themselves at “that crossroad without a name.”  I help older friends realize it might not have a name, but it does have a purpose.

Cannot close without sharing my IMMENSE gratitude to the friends who’ve helped me get to where I am – without your loving support, I’d be all hopes & little action.  To all my Guardian& Earth Angels – thanks, thanks & more thanks.

I appreciate your consideration of my request.  Whether you can contribute funding toward my goal, send me words of encouragement, or simply hold my quest in your heart - thank you!

One last thought – contributing toward my work isn’t just an investment in my future.  It’s an investment in yours, too.

PERKS - all reflect someone's dream realized:

$10 – my ten favorite online postings by my late great, badass grandma mother, Katharine Reynolds Lockhart

$25 - above, plus 8 x 11” print of my sister, Mim’s, artwork paired with the quote “We are the music makers, we are the dreamers of dreams."
$50 –  above, plus  5 cards/envelopes featuring my John’s K-4 engine

$100 – above, plus Jonathan Rose’s just released cd, Clear Shining After Rain

$250 – above, plus bottle of Bill’s Best Barbeque Sauce

$500 – above, plus bag of Be Well Bakery & Cafe’s granola

$1000 – above, plus signed copy of Captain (Dean) Morey’s book, The Life and Times of Edgar G. Edgehill: January,  illustrated by Jency Cole Latta

$2500 -  above, plus a Cathlin Grace custom-designed crystal pendant

$5000 – above, plus one-of-a-kind Dream Journal decorated by Deev, with DIY instructions