ciao, bella!!!

Toward the end of last year, I deleted my Kickstarter account.

It had been years since I'd spent any time on that site, so I ditched it.

Today, I opened a new account on Kickstarter... to help JinHi.

She has written an autobiographical play about her life with cancer, and the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland, has accepted it at that prestigious event.

Wow.

She has an entourage who will travel with her: stage manager, producers, light tech, sound tech, prop master, director, wardrobe mistress, and all the others who help bring this creation to life on stage.

This won't be the first time I've helped to send a production across the Atlantic Ocean, but that time was well over a decade ago.

Here's the difference: I know JinHi Soucy Rand.

I've supported fundraisers for her benefit before.

The first time was for the very first 24-Hour Play Festival here in Savannah, a fundraiser promoted by her one-and-only brother, Chris Soucy.

I treated that as a birthday gift to myself, as it was in May (of 2011).

The next time was also promoted by her brother and was that same summer, as a way to bring new folks to the fledgling Muse Arts Warehouse performance space that JinHi created for this seaport and its artist community.

The third time was in 2015 and was also to raise funds for that space, with artists contributing their creations as repayment for the lives JinHi had enriched.

Now, it's all about JinHi.

The kickstarter campaign, started by Erin Muller, has a big ask of $15,000.

Erin created a special funding opportunity just for me: Pen Pals Plus.

That's because I wanted to get a postcard from Scotland, but also wanted a ticket to the premiere of the show here in Savannah next month.

Like magic, Erin made that opportunity happen!

So far, I am the first to make that choice.

Sure, a postcard for $77 sounds a bit steep... but it's for my bday68... and it's doing the traveling for me, to benefit my friend.

That's worth every penny.