One of the SA industry’s own needs your help – You need to read this then do what’s right

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Every now and then, in amongst all the fun and frivolity of this wacky, zany, advertising thing we’re all a part of, we do a story asking for your help. Maybe it’s someone doing a bike ride for charity, running for a cause or even our very own Mayor Sputnik shaving his head to raise money. And for the most part, you guys do absolutely nothing. Zero. Zilch. Nada. And hey, who are we to judge? Maybe you do lots of really good things in lots of other ways, and that’s awesome, so we go along our merry way. But all that’s about to end.

Because today, we want you to dig deep, and actually donate some money. Not talk about it or think about. But do it. And not to some random cause, or even to us, but to one of our own who needs our help. Seriously, this is a chance to make a massive and radical difference in someone’s life.

You see, we were in the process of writing up this week’s stories when we indirectly heard about someone who needs some help and were asked if we’d consider doing a story on it. Of course we agreed. And the more we thought about it, the more we realised it needed to be our top story to make sure you didn’t miss it. Then we thought about it some more and decided it should be the only story to really make sure. And then, to do as much as we possibly could to make sure our plea doesn’t fall on deaf ears, we decided to do our best to offer you some ‘encouragement’.

Screen shot 2012-03-16 at 8.25.31 AM.jpgSimone Balestrin (left, with Josh) is a designer over at WOW! and her seven year old son Josh has severe Autism. He’s been given an amazing opportunity to receive stem cell treatment and it’s a major glimmer of hope for him. The only problem is, her boss Eddy is a tight arse bastard and doesn’t pay her nearly enough to be able to afford the $12,000 for Josh’s treatment over and above all the other therapies they already fork out for, and that’s where we come in.

The way we figure it, this newsletter goes out to over 1,000 AdTowners each week, and if every one of you donated $10 we’d be just about there. We’re kind of hoping at least half of you will donate something, and with any luck, some of you will even donate more than $10. No, we’re not kidding. After all, why wouldn’t you? Seriously, don’t ignore this. These guys need your help, and if instead of buying a sandwich or a beer or a glass of wine, you gave these guys a tenner, it could change Josh’s life.

Oh, and there’s one more kicker. The approval they have to raise money (which means your donation is tax deductible) ends on March 31, so if they don’t have the money by then it’s all over red rover.

So here’s our ‘encouragement’ – we do this AdTown thing for free. Almost none of you have ever paid a cent. And for the most part, we’re cool with that. We’ve considered encouraging or even blackmailing you into donating for us to keep doing what we’re doing, but we’ve resisted. Until now.

Here’s what we’re going to do now then: in the name of doing some good, we’re asking you to donate to this fantastic cause. If we raise at least $5,000 for Josh, AdTown goes on. If between all of us, we can’t find it in ourselves to kick in for this cause, then AdTown ends here. Simple as that. We’d like to think you’ll do this just because it’s the right thing to do, but we thought we’d give you a little extra incentive just in case.

So come on, let’s do this together. Please.

To find out more about the whole box and dice, you can either email Simone or visit the facebook site.

And to donate, just click here and go to the Rainbowland Autism Services logo with “Individual and Family Support’ as the title. When you enter your donation information, there is a button on the bottom labelled ‘Optional information”.  Click on ‘special message’ and you can specify here that the donation is for Josh. 

ARE YOU GOING TO HELP SIMONE AND JOSH, OR WHAT? VOTE HERE

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