If you live on the East Coast, we don’t have to tell you it was a hard winter! It seemed as if the entire month of February disappeared behind a cloak of snow and ice.  And with that cloaking maneuver disappeared many of the visitors who typically make a weekend trek out to KPC.  Here in the Washington area, we experienced at least two weekends during which getting down the road to the grocery store was an epic journey!

That adds up to fewer donations than usual from our always generous visitors, along with higher electrical bills, as the temperatures plummeted and stayed unusually low.

So we’re having a telethon! The idea is to raise the money we need, provide some Dharma food for thought, and have some fun. You’re invited to tune in: Friday, April 9, at 8 p.m. (That’s EDT, USA.) We’ll be broadcasting on UStream.

Friends out West, in Hawaii, and in Australia and the Phillipines (we know you’re out there!), please join us.  (And, who knows, we may still be on the air to greet our friends in Europe when you get up in the morning.)

This fund-raising project has a history.  Last year, when we were faced with a similar situation, we called the sangha together to discuss what to do.  At the request of several members who couldn’t be there, we opened the meeting up to a conference call.

Early in the course of the meeting, one long-time member announced, “Okay, I’m going to start the ball rolling. Here’s my $100.” Then a member called in from home to pledge. At that point, someone else (who happened to have the microphone) started to improvise a National Public Radio-type pledge-week scenario.  (“And that number in Poolesville, Maryland, is . . . .”) It went on from there, and we had a good time!

Of course, it was entirely spontaneous.  Frankly, we are nervous about doing a premeditated telethon.   So please help us! Write in, call in, add your energy!  It’s even more important than your dollars!