Hi, this is Rush and I'm raising funds to bring our friend Justin home. If you're here, you most likely know who Justin is and what he's been going through. If you don't know, Justin is a hilarious comedian but also a sweet soul. When I started comedy a decade ago, he was the first person I met at Comedy Bar. He was also one of the only comedians with a car, and he'd drive all the comics to out of town gigs.

 

Fast forward to a couple of years ago, the pandemic hit a lot of us pretty hard. In the case of Justin, he had to move back to live with family in Nova Scotia, and away from his support system in Toronto. His mental health has deteriorated (if you have him on Facebook, you'll see this is very public, with a lot of suicidal ideation).

 

A lot of us in Toronto have watched this progress and have felt very helpless, and didn't know how to assist. A few days ago my husband, Jeremy, came up with a plan while talking to Justin, and it feels like Justin is being more hopeful. We will fly him out of Nova Scotia to Toronto, set him up with a case worker, get him a job if he can do it, and get him an apartment in Toronto so that he can be around his support system again.

 

We have already had a wonderful donor offer to buy his plane ticket and an airline worker offer their discount code. We already have a job offer at a record store (and trying to line up some other options) and have found a link to a cheap apartment. This fundraiser is to try and generate some money for first and last month's rent, and expenses like groceries, and maybe a bike so he can have transportation to and from places.

 

I know we all care about Justin and hate to see what is happening to him, let's bring our boy home.