Pennies in Protest

Richmond, together we managed to raise just over $14,000 for local charities as a result of the Westboro Baptist Church's visit to our fair city.

Here's how it breaks down:

$11,944 collected directly by Pennies in Protest will be split among the four targets of the WBC protests here last Tuesday.
--$2986 for the Holocaust Museum
--$2986 for the Jewish Community Center
--$2986 for the Jerusalem Connection
--$2986 for the Hermitage High School Gay-Straight Student Alliance. The GSA has asked that half their money go to ROSMY--the Richmond Organization for Sexual Minority Youth ($1493), a quarter go to the GSA ($746) and a quarter will go to another charity of their choice, tbd othis week.

In addition to the nearly $12,000 in direct donations made to Pennies in Protest, more than $1115 was made inour name to local charities including those mentioned above, the Fan Free Clinic, Richmond Friends, and Equality Virginia. The Virginia Interfaith Center also raised $1036 in their Phelps-a-Thon for the Holocaust Museum.

All told, Richmond raised more than $14,000 for local groups as a result of the WBC visit.

For those of you who are new to our site and want to know what we're about, please scroll down and read previous entries. The press release is a good starting point.

We are closing out Pennies in Protest for Richmond at 5:00 today, so please give by then if you haven't already. We will tally the totals, write our checks to the organizations targeted by WBC, and early next week, we'll write a thank you note to the WBC.

So far:

Online donations: $11,246

Cash donations: $520

Phelps-A-Thon donations from Va Interfaith Center: $1036

Direct donations to other local orgs made in the PiP effort: $800 and counting

But as a local Jewish leader told us yesterday, while the money is amazing and wonderful, what's even better is knowing that a community stood united to reject hate and discrimination.

The Facebook page continues to have the latest updates, but wanted to check into say that Pennies in Protest has collected $9764 in online and cash donations.

We had planned to close this collection tomorrow, but have been asked by the interfaith community to keep it open until this Friday so that they have a chance to circulate it among their congregations. We also encourage people to donate directly to the local charity of your choice, just let... us know so we can keep a tally. And once again, thank you!

We have a new URL that directs here: PenniesinProtest.com

We're up over $7000 in donations.

Lots of local and national media are covering this, and the Facebook page is the best place to get updates. http://tinyurl.com/Pennies-in-Protest-FB-Page

Thanks to all from Richmond and across the country who are helping make this a success!! We are doing it!!

We've collected $4300 (widget to right is not updating and does not include about $300 in cash that has been promised), and another $300 in donations made directly to organizations in our name, or rather, in WBC's name. That translates to more than $1000 and counting for each organization that is being targeted by WBC tomorrow.

Our Facebook page is being updated far more frequently than this site, so please check in there, even if you are not a member of Facebook: http://tinyurl.com/Pennies-in-Protest-FB-Page

This should give you a good idea of what we're about, but the Chip In website is requiring that we split this between two entries. Here's the first half.





â??Pennies in Protestâ?? Raises Money for Local Jewish and LGBT Organizations



Richmond, VA (February 26, 2010) In response to the upcoming protests by the Westboro Baptist Church in Richmond, Virginia, a local group called Pennies in Protest is calling all Richmonders to donate money to the targets of the anti-gay and anti-Jew protests.



Westboro Baptist Church (WBC), based in Topeka, Kansas, is an anti-gay church known for picketing funerals of AIDS victims, stomping on American flags, and protesting gay and Jewish organizations around the country.



On its website, WBC has announced its plans to protest at four locations in Richmond: The Virginia Holocaust Museum, the University of Richmond Hillel organization at the Jewish Community Center, the Jerusalem Connection, and Hermitage High School because the school allowed the creation of a gay student group.



A local group called Pennies In Protest has started collecting money for every minute that WBC is protesting Richmond organizations. Founded by Richmonders Patience Salgado (aka www.kindnessgirl.com), Jessica Lucia, Sara Heifetz, and Sarah Allen-Short, the group hopes to turn the WBCâ??s protests into something beneficial for the targets of the hate attacks. The Richmond group got the idea from a synagogue in Manhattan that raised more than $10,000 for charity during a recent visit from WBC.

"There is so much debate in the community about whether to counter-protest this group or just ignore them,â?? said Sarah Allen-Short, the spokesperson for Pennies in Protest. â??What better way to turn their mission of hate into a mission of love than to ensure their very presence results in donations to the organizations that they wish to harm. We have raised $4500 from nearly 150 people in just two full days. We are overwhelmed by the response from people of every race, religion, sexuality, and age.â??





Pennies in Protest has set up a Facebook page (http://tinyurl.com/Pennies-in-Protest-FB-Page) and a website to collect donations (http://tinyurl.com/Pennies-In-Protest) but encourages Richmonders to give any way they feel comfortable, including giving directly to the organizations impacted by Tuesdayâ??s protests. Money collected on the Pennies In Protest donation page will be split evenly between The Virginia Holocaust Museum, The Weinstein Jewish Community Center, the Jerusalem Connection, and the Hermitage High School Gay-Straight Student Alliance (GSA).



For more information, please visit Pennies in Protest on the web at http://tinyurl.com/Pennies-In-Protest or contact Sarah Allen-Short, sarah dot allenshort at gmail dot com.

The window to the right is not updating properly at the moment, so just an update to let you know that as of 2:12 on Saturday, we have collected $2500!

Some people are having trouble with Paypal and want to mail a check, which is fine.

Wanted to acknowledge a few donations that won't show up on this website because they're being made in cash:

Thanks to Rev. David and Jeanne Knight for their generous contribution of $150.

Thanks to Kathleen Caldwell for her contribution of $50.

Thanks to 5 year old Ruby for her contribution of $3

A lot of people are wondering what to do to protest the Westboro Baptist Church visit to Richmond this coming Tuesday. Read more about the protest and the Westboro Baptist Church here: http://www2.timesdispatch.com/rtd/news/local/article/HATE261_20100225-232802/326975/

Debates about how to handle this visit are flying: should we kill them with kindness? Should we make signs? Have a dance party? Engage them in a dialogue? Shoud we do nothing at all and hope the lack of attention discourages them? Even the targets of their protests disagree on the best course of action.

A synagogue in Manhattan hit upon a brilliant idea: use the WBC visit as an excuse to raise money for the very organizations they are protesting:

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2009/06/22/2009-06-22_manhattan_synagogue_makes_money_off_of_westboro_baptist_church_protest.html

So, we're going to be copycats.

Please pledge $1 or $.10 (or even $.01 if that's all you can afford) for every minute that WBC is protesting organizations in Richmond. It will be like the charity walks we did as kids where all our friends and family members gave us $1 for every mile we walked. Only we'll be using WBC's presence to benefit the organizations they hate the most. It's genius!

WBC will be at the Holocaust Museum for 30 minutes, ay the U of R Hillel (@ the JCC for 30 minutes), at the Jerusalem Foundation for 30 minutes, and at Hermitage High School (protesting their gay student union) for 30 minutes.

That's a total of 120 minutes in Richmond.

$.01 per minute = $1.20 (anyone can afford that!)

$.10 per minute = $12.00

$.25 per minute = $30.00

$.50 per minute = $60.00

$1.00 per minute = $120.00

$10.00 per minute = $1,200.00

Then at the end, when all the money is collected and distributed evenly among the four protest locations, we get to send WBC a thank you note for their attention to these important causes. We get to show them that their hate directly benefited these organizations.

What could be more fun than that?

If you want to promote this effort on Twitter, Facebook, or in an email to friends, you can use this URL, which will be directed to this page: http://tinyurl.com/Pennies-In-Protest

Please also become a fan of our Facebook page: http://tinyurl.com/Pennies-in-Protest-FB-Page