Typhoon "Haiyan" is "Yolanda" in Filipino

[warburger]

Dear MinimateMultiverse,

My name is Lex De La Torre and aside from being a member of MMMV since 2010, I'm also a member of the Pinoy Minimate Kolektors (PMK). I know that some non-Filipino members of MMMV are also members of the PMK Facebook Page (www.facebook.com/groups/pinoyminimateskolektors/ - feel free to join the group).

I guess everyone knows already the slew of calamities that have plagued our nation in recent months. Last October, the province of Bohol has been rocked by a 7.2 magnitude earthquake leaving 220 people dead. Two weeks ago, the strongest typhoon in history "Haiyan" (local name Yolanda) has hit several provinces in the Visayan region. As of presstime, a total of 4,000 lives have been lost, 1,600 people are still missing and 18,000 are injured. As the dust settles, the survivors now have to deal with the reality of having their homes and livelihoods destroyed, and their loved ones taken away from them.

If there ever was a light at the end of this tunnel, it's that the Filipino spirit has again been shown to be resilient and unwavering. Further, it touches my heart to see our nation be united in helping our fellow Filipinos (or Pinoys). Without tooting our own horn, PMK has done its share of assisting our brothers. Some PMKers have auctioned off their minimates with 100% of the proceeds going to the victims. Some members have readily offered their personal vehicles for transporting goods and relief packages. We have also forged partnerships with other local toy groups in providing necessities to the affected families. We have sorted, packaged and handled the logistics of distributing the relief packages. Myself, I have donated 100% of my ebay sales for the week to the victims. You can view all of these efforts in our facebook page.

I have been inspired to write this letter by Shane Aubrey's comment in our FB page wherein he asked what the multiverse can do to help. I have always known MMMV to be a community like no other. While we have found each other by our fondness for minimates, this forum has thrived because of the friendships forged and the kindness exhibited by the members towards each other.

On behalf of PMK, we are open to receiving any assistance you can provide. I want to say that we are open to donations in kind, as I have a US forwarding address. But the logistics (1-2 months shipping time, shipping expenses) would render those efforts inefficient. I humbly request that all assistance be in the form of cash, it's the most effective way of sending help. We are not forcing anyone to provide donations, just keeping us in your thoughts would be ok. But if you really some to spare and would like to help us out, our gratitude would be infinite.

Should anyone be interested in providing any amount, please let me know. I am open to receiving funds in my Paypal account. For full transparency, I will post in this thread the total amount received as well as our efforts in making sure the money is sent to the typhoon victims (deposit slip to local relief organizations, our own purchase of groceries, etc.).

Alternately, you can also directly send donations to several reputable charitable foundations/organizations. You may consult us on this matter.

As I've said, I have been a member of the 'verse since 2010. I've transacted with Rob (bhm) for the elusive Martian Manhunter minimate, and recently with Donny B, I am also a customer of Lukestoystore. I've bagged third place in the Zombie Apocalypse Short Story contest. This is my ebay account (comixlab, 100% feedback) and this is my FB page (www.facebook.com/alexis.delatorre.902?ref=tn_tnmn).

Thank you for your time, and long live the 'verse!

Sincerely,

warbuger (on behalf of PMK)

Squall

brucebanner

Doc_endo

jhambhitz369

SonGoku

intot

advocatepinoy

miniboy

earlyfrost

and others I may have failed to mention...

[hellpop]

I'm sure I'm not the only one to say that my thoughts over these last few days have been with those of you in the Philippines that have suffered through this terrible, terrible tragedy. I knew that we had a strong contingent of Filipino MMMVers, but I didn't realize it was quite so many. I hope and pray that all of you and your families are safe and sound. I have already donated to the Red Cross, and would welcome suggestions for any other charities that might be there on the ground with you all.

[Shanester]

These are our brothers and sisters. I encourage folks to help out if they can.

[Shanester]

Also, let me add that the Red Cross is a good way to help if you went that route. I was often asked after Hurricane Katrina, what org was most helpful to me and my family. The RC was everywhere and did a lot to help in many ways. They gave us food, helped me redirect mail, offered clothing and gave my children books to read.

[MisterPL]

I wish I could take every cent invested in the Agent 88 Kickstarter campaign and redirect it to this cause.

Stay strong, Filipinos. More help is coming.

[pk13]

I'm selling Minimate Mystery Grab Bags in an effort to raise money for the relief effort. Please post any questions or messages about the effort in the main thread here:

http://www.minimatemultiverse.com/index.php?showtopic=12583&p=291381

Here is a copy of the first post for those that are interested:

Hello everyone. In response to the devastating typhoon that struck the Philippines, and after clearing this with Shane, I am going to offer up some Minimate Grab Bags in an effort to raise money to be donated to the relief effort in the name of the MMMV. Here's how it works:

For $10 you will receive 10 Minimates. I can't guarantee which Minimates you'll receive. But you will get 10 loose/complete figures with no doubles. That's a dollar per unique figure so even if it isn't 10 super rare figures, it's still a pretty nice deal! I'm covering shipping, (1st class with tracking). And if you want more than one grab bag, I'll be happy to put together more than one for you.

I ask that anyone interested please send me a message to let me know that you would like to participate. I'll send you my PayPal address, (I am asking that all payments be sent as gifts so there won't be any loss of fees), then get your mailing address and have a 10 pack of plastic good times headed you way. Simple as that. Since I'm in the U.S. and will cover the cost of shipping, I do ask that I only mail within the U.S. If you don't have a U.S. mailing address but do have someone here that you trade with, I'll be happy to send your grab bag to them to send to you at a later date.

I will send all funds raised here to Shane to be donated in the name of MMMV. In the interest of transparency, I'll post the names of anyone that donates/buys a grab bag here in the first post. Then Shane will be able to take the total I send him and divide it by the number of people that participated. If you participate and don't see your name, make a post and it'll be out there for everyone to see. I just like to make sure everyone knows where every penny goes when donating and want things to be completely above board. Every cent of the $10 you pay will go directly to Shane and then on to those in need. And for those that haven't traded with me before, I'll be happy to provide references in the form of my feedback threads from other sites I've been involved with.

If you have thought about donating and have put if off, here's the perfect way to make it happen. Or maybe you like the thought of 10 random mystery figures showing up in your mailbox for the low low cost of $10. Maybe you've donated already but feel like giving more. No matter what the reason, everyone wins here.

Please contact me with any questions and I'll get back to you ASAP. Thank you to everyone that has donated to the relief effort in any way so far. And thank you in advance to anyone that decides to participate in this effort. Let's do some good in the name of the Multiverse!

[warburger]

Thanks for keeping us in your thoughts.

hellpop, thank you for already providing assistance.

Shane, thanks for inspiring PMK to start this thread.

MisterPL, we will be strong...stronger even brother, thank you so much.

pk13, the PMK community is touched by your generosity. What you are offering is a very great deal. I'm sure MMMVers will jump on this.

[Shanester]

PK13 can probably send the money directly to Warburger and I will work on doing some more in the way of some auctions or something. I am out of town for a few days, but I plan to get something going soon.

[pk13]

Just to post an update.... So far we have raised $100 in under a day to aid in the relief effort. As per suggestion, this money will be sent directly to warburger so it can be put to good use right away. I've been in contact with warburger and will send him the funds as soon as I hear back.

All grab bags that have been bought so far were shipped out today except for one person that has made arrangments to have it shipped at a later date. I still have figures and will run this until I run out of stuff to send. So if you're thinking about it, there are still grab bags with some good figures available.

I also want to say thank you to everyone that has particpated, be it through donations, posts, or words of encouragement. It's been a very cool experience seeing the kind of response that the Multiverse has had.

[warburger]

Thank you MMMV community and pk13 for this selfless act.

You are right, it's very cool seeing how MMMV responded to our plea for help. We hope to pay this forward someday.

The donation will come in at a very apt time as we have another relief operations this weekend, we will buy and package groceries and give it to the victims. I'll post pics here when I can.

Many thanks!

[pk13]

Another update.... I just sent the total raised so far. We pulled in $140 in just a little over a day! I still have figures left so anyone that wants to paticipate is more than welcome to.

I'd like to offer a very sincere thank you once again to everyone here.

[pk13]

Update for the day... I just sent the donations from today to warburger. We have pulled in $160 so far, which is pretty damn cool. I can probably put together 3-4 more grab bags if anyone else is interested. Thanks!

[brucebanner]

Hi MMMV,

In behalf of Pinoy Minimates Kolektors (PMK), We would like to extend our gratitude to all your help/donations; really appreciated guys! Kudos!

To pk13, thanks a lot brother!

Long live MMMV

- onengsales/PMK

[pk13]

Here is the final total update... After packing up the final grab bags, I'm happy to say that we raised $230 in aid for the victims of the typhoon. I'm pretty amazed by the kind words and enthusiasm that everyone has had. Thanks aren't even really enough for everyone involved. And that doesn't just extend to the people that directly donated. Everyone here at MMMV makes this a unique place to be. It's the environment created by everyone that allows an effort like this to even exist. So, thank you once again to EVERYONE here at the Multiverse! I feel like we did a pretty good job with this.

EDIT: We got one more... had to update the total!

EDIT #2: And add another... total updated!

Edited November 24, 2013 by pk13

[son_goku]

Dear MMMV family, Thank you for all the support you have extended to the typhoon Haiyan survivors. The help you gave would surely go a long way.

[warburger]

Hi MMMVers,

Thanks for all the support from all of us at PMK. Here are some pics of our relief operations.

The kid's name is Rax, he's the son of one founding PMK member, Gerard, who generously offered his personal vehicle for transporting groceries and relief packages. They just finished buying boxes of noodles which will be packaged with other relief items in the office of one our members as well, Dan.

I am in the middle sporting a PMK shirt, Gerard is to my left. Oneng (brucebanner in MMMV) is the other one. Along with other toy groups, we were able to pack 700+ relief packs which contain rice, water, noodles, sardines, biscuits, coffee, soap, shampoo, toothbrush, etc. We named our Project LETS VOLT IN, a slight to te battle cry of a famous anime TV series Voltes V.

Here's our assembly line, where the actual packing operations happen.

Thanks again to all of you, to Shane for allowing us to make this thread, to Shaun for generously selling his items and donating the proceeds to PMK, to all of Shaun's buyers, and to the entire MMMV community!

We will post more pics as they are available, will also include the receipts for transparency purposes.

[Squall]

Hey guys, thank you so much for the support. It means a lot.

[Shanester]

Wow, that is the coolest thing I have ever seen. Seriously, I am touched by your photos warburger.

[warburger]

My apologies for not getting back on this thread sooner.

Thanks Shane for appreciating, I have some more pics to upload, including the receipts of our purchases. We are forever grateful to the multiverse for its generosity.

For transparency's sake, we have received $230 from pk13 (Many thanks Shaun and to all his buyers and contributors). I was also surprised to receive $50 from groundhog7s (Thank you Joshua!).

This will help us a lot in our relief operations. From the bottom of our hearts, PMK sends its thanks to the 'Verse and all its members.

[warburger]

Hi Guys,

I am attaching the receipt for the first batch of groceries we bought for the Yolanda victims. Our group was delegated to buy noodles and soaps. After buying, we pooled it with other living essentials bought in by other toy groups. We packed them and distributed to the victims. Some of the pics of the operation are seen in my previous post. The receipt shows approximately half of the amount we have received from MMMV have been spent. I will post more as soon as I have the other receipts. We will use whatever amount is left in upcoming relief activities this weekend during the annual toyfair (or toycon if you will) and toy drives for the Young Yolanda victims next week.

In addition to the donations of Shaun and Joshua, I have received GBP 10 from Rad.

Thanks a lot to all!

PMK truly appreciates your generosity in helping us help our brothers.

I have mentioned the multiverse in my thank you post in my FB page. It's public so you should be able to view it. (https://www.facebook.com/alexis.delatorre.902?ref=tn_tnmn)

I will update everyone in the coming days.

Edited December 8, 2013 by warburger

[warburger]

[MisterPL]

How are things going over there?

[warburger]

I'm sorry if I can only provide updates now.

I'm happy to report that our donation drive was a success. Actually, scratch that, it still is since we are not stopping at Yolanda. We have established a foundation composed of niche toy collectors (we represent the minimate collecting community). The name of the foundation is LETS VOLT IN (from the battle cry of Voltes V) and this is our facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/groups/1441279186092001/?ref=ts&fref=ts). We will continue to provide assistance to people in need. After the Yolanda situation stabilized, more or less, we conducted toy drives to give to orphans and the young victims of the typhoon.

Right now, the Yolanda survivors do not prefer cash aids, they want jobs, and it's up to our Government to make sure that the local economy is jumpstarted to ensure that the survivors can start living again. I am part of a group (different from LETS VOLT IN) that is currently drafting a plan to do this in the the affected municipalities.

Your assistance is greatly appreciated and we are forever indebted to the verse. We still have excess cash from our individual donation drives and with your permission, I will inject it it some other humanitarian activities. Just last Saturday, I was part of a humanistic effort to bring a free medical clinic to one of the impoverished towns in the province of Rizal, we serviced over 500 residents. We were able to acquire the services of doctors for free and we were able to give free medicines.

All of these as well as the Pinoy Minimate Kolektors' charitable acts can be found in my FB page and the LETS VOLT IN page.

Once again, on behalf of the Filipino minimate collecting community, we thank you.

[Mattallica]

You Guys Rock!

[warburger]

But you provided our roll Matt.