Heating for Kate

It's winter, and Kate and her family are without heating. Kate is a positive member of the Castle fandom, who keeps spirits lifted with her upbeat, joyous tweets. With her home's heating out of action, we want to help her family raise the $2000 needed to fix the problem and stay warm. The organizers of the Castle Contest are asking for your help. Donate a dollar, tell your friends, help us spread the word, and help us raise $2000 quickly so that Kate's family can stay warm this winter.

A message from Kate:

"So, bear with me as I’m not particularly good at this ‘asking for help’ thing – but my amazing friends at the Castle Contest have offered to do an amazing thing for me and I’d like to explain why.

Sunday afternoon, we came home to our carbon monoxide detector alerting us to the presence of dangerous gas in the house. We got everyone out – including all 5 cats (I have 3 foster kittens) and went to a hotel. The technician came the next day and told us that the levels of CO detected were lethal, and we needed to replace our furnace immediately. Until it is replaced, we cannot use the heat in our home.

More than anything I’m glad we’re all okay, but now we have a huge problem. The furnace is going to cost near $2,000 – money that none of us have. I am on disability and living on a fixed income, I have no way of coming up with the needed funds. None of the assistance programs I checked with are able to help us. So we were stuck – unable to fix the problem and unable to keep warm in the meantime.

Through an incredible act of kindness, a stranger provided me tonight with enough firewood to heat the house using our wood burning stove for a week or so. But the larger problem remains – we need to fix the furnace. When the kind folks at the Castle Contest learned of our predicament, they contacted me and asked my permission to set up a campaign to help my family raise the needed funds to get our heat working again. Hard as it is for me to ask for or accept help, this is my family and if I need to set aside my pride to take care of them, I will.

Please do not feel obligated to give – honestly the knowledge that people care has already turned my entire attitude around – but if there’s anything you can spare, even a little bit, every bit will help. You are all AMAZING and I am lucky to be part of such a tremendous group of people – thank you all from the bottom of my heart."

You can find us at @castlecontest and Kate at @MyRandomness03
Let's gather together and help spread a little cheer - and warmth - this holiday season.  Every cent will help.