Our beloved friend and brother Hal Walker has inspired so many people with his music and his generous heart. He built the vibrant music program at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Kent, Ohio. He’s brought music to thousands of children through his school programs. He’s delighted millions online with world instruments like the khaen and banakula.  Few of these people knew that Hal has been living with a chronic illness since 1992, when he experienced the sudden onset of ME/CFS. The long name is myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome. As Hal puts it, ME/CFS is a poorly named, poorly researched, barely diagnosable, largely invisible, and debilitating illness. Through most of those 30 years, Hal’s symptoms were manageable. He coped with chronic pain. He found ways to work around the severe weakness and other symptoms that followed school appearances, his church work, and performances. Recently, he focused on creating short Tiktok and Instagram videos and limiting his live performances.  As Hal often noted, ruefully, he looked healthy in public—if you saw him light up a room with his music, you might never know Hal was sick. But the day after a performance, and most Mondays after a busy day at church, Hal would be virtually bedridden. In the second half of 2021, things became much worse. Hal had always known that people with severe cases of ME/CFS can become unable to stand unassisted, to get restful sleep, or even to eat solid food. Many lose their ability to work, or to live independently. It’s been heart-breaking for his family and friends to see that happen to Hal this year. He has experienced severely intensified symptoms that have made him housebound, mostly bedridden and unable to care for himself. Like many ME/CFS sufferers, he rarely gets any restful sleep. He can’t earn a living and he can’t play music for more than a few minutes. All Hal wants to do, most hours of the day and night, is to work on music, to delight in it, to learn it, to practice it, perform it, teach it, share it, entertain with it, inspire with it. He has often expressed joy and gratitude that he could earn a living through music. His whole house is devoted to it. One room has nothing but a baby grand piano. The back porch is stacked with boxes of harmonicas and of banakulas for school children. The home office that adjoins his bedroom is crowded with mics, keyboards, and editing equipment.  And so this is a particularly devastating loss for him. Hal is not alone. The hashtag for ME/CFS is #millionsmissing. These are the people whose active lives were cut off at the knees by this brutally disabling disease. Closer to home, Hal has received the loving support of his partner, his family, friends and church community. However, the emotional and physical support is no longer enough. Hal has always been frugal, but his savings are dwindling and he currently has no reliable source of income. In addition to the necessities of life—heating oil, groceries, and so on—Hal is facing new expenses, including a 24-hour home health aide and treatment for symptoms of his illness, including severe tinnitus— a loud ringing in his ears that often prevents him from resting or even thinking clearly. We’re hoping to raise enough money to provide Hal with at least a year of financial stability, along with the home-healthcare and medical treatments he needs. Meanwhile, Hal will be able to apply for disability benefits and perhaps to recover enough to begin earning some money again. Many people with ME/CFS recover at least some of their strength. Please help. Any donation can remove a measure of stress from Hal’s shoulders and bring him a step closer to security during what we all hope and pray is the worst, most devastating period in his illness. You know that Hal is a musician. He is also a bright light—a lanky, 6-ft.-2-inch, 55-year-old with a huge smile who used to love riding his scooter around Kent and tending his garden. He is a dad, a brother, a life partner, a friend, a generous soul who has quietly provided emotional and practical support to so many others over the years. He’s an inspiration. And now, he’s someone in need of all of our help.

Khaleb Clyde

KP Nomu

Sally Feinberg

Geoff Feinberg

jack manley

David Krantz

Alexandra Fussell

Anonymous

Joshua Warren

Lucas Rothman

Lukas Brünken

Jeannine Smith

Jacobo Fuentes

Ran Ding

Jimmy Tran

Paolo Bussola

Jack Amrhein

Hal Walker Needs Our Help

platform

Platform is iOS

Android

Adyen Google Pay Development Audience

$opt_dummy_attribute

English only

Deprecate Stripe Legacy

dyn_template_ids

Adyen V6 Bene Transfer & MyMoney Campaign Organizers - test01

Bene transfer V6 and AdyenV6MyMoney Campaign Organizers - production

OneTrust next-app audience

fundCountryCode

NextDoor Share Option Users

Fundraisers with Reactions feature capability

fundCurrencyCode

US + Non-charity COs Only

locale

fund country is US and user language is English

personId

comms-internal-person-ids

Enhanced Story Experience Users

Suggested Goal Experience Users

user language is English and fund country: US, AU, DK, FI, IE, NO, SE, CA, GB; 

Poster share - new funds eligible (newest 9/18)

Streaming widgets beta user

paymentProcessor

3DS payment method

user language is English and fundCountry: US, AU, DK, FI, IE, NO, SE, CA, GB; 

currencyCode

Money Box Donation List Prompt Experiment Audience

GoFundMe Employees

ipAddress

Mark Rieth IP Address

Version 9.2.0 and above

Fund is in English speaking country

desktop

Android v12.11.0 and above

Platform is Android

paymentMethodType

checkoutType

Payment method type group to be vaulted on success

admin pr kit prod

EUR Donation Upsell

Share Text generation Skip Fundraiser

(prod) new funds eligible for amp12 (UGC gallery)

fintrac_cad_idv_form_v2 audience

paymentProcessorAccountId

fallback mode accounts

proCampaignId

p2p legacy startfundraising page

AMP24 New Funds Only PROD (DO NOT MODIFY)

countryCode

charityId

UKCharities

Federated Search Internal Testing

route.pathname community

US Donation Upsell audience 

Auto Thanks Feature Audience

Supporter Comments Eligible Funds

International Only

fundId

braze fundraiser group 

Payment Identity Transfers ATO Risk Check (Targeted) - Production

Fundraiser Saved Payment Method Rate Limit Bypass (Production)

leaderboard-partner-id-audience-givepanel

Version 9.2.1 and above

AUD Donation Upsell audience

fundraiserCountryCode is US/EN

Active Fundraiser - Smart Default Cadence

DAF Internal

Vault on success card payment method

Platform is iOS v11.0.0 and above

Desktop users

Person ids

United States (US) users

allow yuno fundraisers for test

Mexico country code

Posters INTL

NPO Profile Opted-In

iOS at or above 12.4.0

non-US recurring donors

Canada Campaign Owner Group

Fundraiser Without Meta Link

Scheduler payment tester gorup

charityCommunityId

Charities allow to be claimed unclaimed (PRD)

Canada (CA) users

UC Tipping v20250115 International

pymk_production_xplr_fe_team

Android at or above 12.2.0

Profile photo entry point audience

smart goals (fundraiser/manage) on test01

Activity Tracking v1 Beta Testing

start gfm intl allowed locales

Platform is iOS v11.2.0 and above

NPO upsell education category

unclaimed charities

prod_ach_audience

AI Chatbot Audience

amp13 only new funds (prod) (anyword auto)

UC Flow Enabled (Prod)

Payment Identity Beneficiary Verification - Production

shared notification bell audience

Custom users

ach frontend audience

Android v11.0.0 and above

Users Receiving Payments Paused Notifications

smart goals test01

Manage Coach - US English Organizers Only + new funds only

Team EGG - IP Address list

NPO recommendations prod

Fundraiser Without Instagram Deep Link

Native 11.4.0 and above

UC Tipping v20250107

Users Receiving Braze KYC Validation Failed

Native 11.3.0 and above

ai_title_page

anyword

openai

control

manual_entry

userEmail

template_id

userId

fundUrl

isCharityCo

email

appVersion

shouldBucketIntoExperiment

partnerId

donationCadence

isActiveFundraiser

isPartner

isMobile

npoProfileOptIn

fundIsLinkedWithMeta

hasSessionDonation

categoryGroup

isCampaignOwner

fundHasInstagramDeepLink

Native 11.4.0 and higher

New funds eligible - Video Sharing (PROD)

GB Donation Upsell audience 

Auto Thanks V3 Rollout Audience

Thank you V3 testing whitelist

isRecurringFriendly

Is Recurring Friendly

Excluded funds - Video Sharing

NPO upsell animals category

NPO upsell disaster relief category

Logged In Users

CH Donation Upsell audience

Android v10.6.0 and above

NPO upsell essential needs category

NPO upsell medical category

userCurrencyCode

Localized Currency

NPO upsell cancer category

v11.5.0 and above

testAudience

pathname

Survicate

appVersion is at or above 12.8.0

Non-charity fund

isChallengeFundraiser

challenge-fundraisers

Payment Identity Launch Verification - Production

New funds eligible - Posters v2

CAD Donation Upsell Audience

Braze Email Tester

NPO Profile Opted-Out

iOS App Version

hasKnownDonors

PYMK has donors

iOS v12.3.0 and above

Hal Walker Needs Our Help

Still $42,536 to go. Help us build momentum.