Who Am I?

Ainsley Jo Phillips from Anderson, Indiana USA

I've been with IYN even before its beginning, having first met Russell on January 15, 2007 at a discussion site called Duno.  Therefore, I've watched it grow from a field of dreams to where it is today--and it's still getting better and better!!!

When I was in better health (though my health was starting to deteriorate even at that time so that doing this was a challenge), I could be seen on a regular basis at places like Dollar General and Family Dollar buying  various items to be put into flat-rate, shirt-box-size mailing boxes to be sent to Russell for distribution to at least some of the near-4000 young people who are living outside in San Diego.  When I went there, to the post office, and to other places as well, I would pass out information sheets about IYN.

Near the end of May 24, 2009, I was taken to ER and was admitted to a room very early on May 25.  Diagnosis was lymphedema with a three-bug MRSA infection going on.  I was there for a little over a week with follow-up care given (initially) at home and (later) at the clinic.

This is an incurable-but-manageable condition, and I've made a considerable amount of progress in managing it.  However--as I'm still in the stage where I'm only wearing bandages instead of shoes--I'm not going in and out of stores these days, though I hope to be before the year is over.

However, I still manage to stay active in IYN as best as I can.  One way is to make a regular (pre-programmed) monthly donation.  I also still share information with people both online and in real life.  This is done in a number of ways with two of those being my chapter website and my IYN-themed blog.  Their names are listed below as clickable links...

Sugar Fork Creek Chapter of Madison County

My Helping Hand Journal

I hope that my words here will get across that there's something that nearly everybody can do when it comes to helping with our mission, so I'd like to encourage anybody who happens to read this message to check out our various websites and other examples of online presence and think of one or more ways that you might like to participate in our mission.  A countless number of young people in many parts of the third rock from the sun are counting on you!!!

Putting Things In Perspective Hoosier-Style

In order to understand more what it's like in Haiti, imagine the entire city of Indianapolis

plus some of the outlying areas

being reduced to ruins with countless people dead and/or injured.

That would pretty well describe the extent of the tragedy and damage over in Port-Au-Prince, the capital of Haiti.

In order to get a handle on the death toll (estimated as being anywhere from 70,000 to 250,000), imagine that--at the very least--all of the people living in Anderson are now dead, plus some from near-by communities as well.  Imagine that it could be possible that all of the people living in Madison County are now dead--and that there is death happening outside the boundaries of the county as well.

Imagine a death-toll so great that having proper funerals and burials

is seldom, if ever, an option--meaning that the alternative will be mass disposal of unidentified, rotting human remains...

Imagine surviving an earthquake that has taken place in Indianapolis and knowing that the help you needed to continue to survive is so close but yet so far away

--kept from you by a combination of traffic jams and fear that, by the time people got to you to help you, you will have gone stark-raving mad so that you would attack them (even if you were showing few if any signs of doing so).

Imagine being young--only a couple of years past your high school graduation--

and being shot in the back by trigger-happy police because they thought you were looting when you really weren't (And what if you WERE looking for food to eat from items that were going to go to waste if somebody didn't eat them?).  One more thing. . .How did those police ever find the time to shoot you when they were, just days ago, too busy to come and help you and others to get to a better location instead of just leaving you to fend for yourselves?

Imagine this--and please open up your heart and your pocketbook and give to these hurting people!

*A very special thanks to the many people whose photographs I found with a Google search and used to make the reality of Haiti after the earthquake hit home with more impact.