Podcast Interview Boosts GoFundMe

Today My go fund me was showcased on a podcast with Zach Day winner of the voice and it went really well and considering this young man is a rock star in the making, he's as down to earth a beautiful person as I've ever met!

I thought you'd enjoy reading about KENECT'S planned with Zach... today we decided to do a brief into why I'm going my GOFUNDME, outline the procedure plans and since I'm also going to be a long-term involved ongoing resident here and the community interest in my dental project has piqued Zach's interest in following my progress in his Podcasts as my procedure moves along.... that means national exposure for Smile, so I was a little relieved today that I didn't have to explain the power point presentation I was ready to give him as fact-checking backup for the conversation..... Conventional wisdom is suggestion is I send everything to you that we THINK we understand, so that no misinformation is related publicly about your business.... I know you said explaining procedures isn't your fortè, but my next Podcast with Zach will be filmed AFTER the first part of my procedure, & because each video podcast I'll be doing with him is 45 minutes, he'll spend time I necessary To highlight my procedure and let go fund me so that the Spotify audience is up to date on a KENECT resident/ story.... Kickin'the Teeth GoFundMe,

AND since you met Zach already, maybe you'd consider participating? It would help validated my ongoing GOFUNDME, bring more Phoenix-focused businesses into Zach's local work and lend real substance toa complicated medical-dental procedure. We'll

also have Zach's promotion of our "Docu-Dentureé", because my team from ASU and Cronkite School of Journalism will be able with Zach's approval, to edit cuts of the Spotify videos.

I hope you continue to be involved in ths entire project add it moves along and Please share on your social media for me...I know it's probably eating up time that…. So on months like that I can add an extra $50 and send $285. I tell you all this to reiterate how deeply vested I am no matter how long this takes so please don’t give up on me.

I was afraid when we spoke the other day about the PCP surgery approval that you were going to scratch the whole thing.

When I was your age they weren’t looking at my arms, they were gazing upon my “charms”!

It’s so funny, when a new Resident meets me, , I’m perceived to be just a busy little old lady…. But I hope I’m forced to be reckoned with for a few more years to come!

But

“

UPDATE: "Police news story"

Luckily the police were NOT called to an event was held last night, July 13 around 7 pm on the 8th floor BACKYARD of the 23-story KENECT Phoenix building, located in the heart of downtown Phoenix and adjacent to various ASU educational facilities and campus buildings.

The Phoenix police HAD ALREADY been called earlier that morning to the KENECT Phoenix building's 12th floor to wake JK, the Guest of Honor of the Kickin'the Teeth GOFUNDME Launch Party.

JK's KENECTALES KREW, led by legal eagle Lexie Callahan, were notified JK had suffered a seizure earlier that morning and then when they were unable to contact their "Geriatric Geronimo" by phone text or door pounding, they called Phoenix Police.

After the police arrived, the KENECTALES KREW was asked to wait downstairs at the concierge desk while the police went up to the 12th floor to check on JK's welfare.

After a short time up on 12, the police then contacted Lexi and asked if she would please come up to the 12th floor without explaining why.

“ I was terrified,“ Lexi later explained, “I was sure I would get up to the 12th floor because the police had found JK dead. But when I arrive, the police pointed to this sign JK has on her door which days "do not disturb writer at work" and they told me they were afraid to just open her door and go in... It sounds funny now, but it wasn’t when it happened."

Lexi held her breath and listened as the police went into JK‘s apartment, “And then I heard her say 'Who are you?' and I thought thank God she’s not dead!"

Lexi, then we on to explain when she went in to talk to JK, she then worried JK had suffered a stroke.

"She looked straight at me and asked who I was?!" Lexi said.

It is hoped that when JK‘s dental Issues are resolved the seizures will also be corrected.

Not surprisingly JK went on to recover quite quickly and prepare for the Kickin' the Teeth launch party.

The Dr./dentist who is going to be doing all of the dental surgical work on JK was in attendance with his wife and introduced to the people who were going to support JK in her dental endeavors.

The Loose Canon band Play great music despite 101° heat at 9 PM. DJ Damien orchestrated all of the evenings presentation of music and Miss Jamie Alexander the owner is an events provided libations.

Play great music despite 101° heat at 9 PM. DJ Damien orchestrated all of the evenings presentation of music and Ms. Jamme Alexander , owner of ZEN EVENTS, provided libations.

Although

In addition, Brandon Andrew, personal assistant and organizational wingman for JK since facilitating JK's January move to downtown KENECT Phoenix, was instrumental in pulling the evening together, worked the grill, made certain foods was correctly presented and as usual operated backstage while making everything frontstage look so easy and organized. Plus, somehow he was able to watch out for and over JK.

JK explained she wanted the GOFUNDME launch party to be IN her building, and OF her building, but not FROM her building.

She said: “I thought if I gave everyone the tools with which to upload my GoFundMe to their social media and spread the information as far as they possibly could, with hope that action would serve me far more than asking the people in the building in which I live for money....I mean how cheesy would that be?"

The rumor is fun was head by all and including direct contributions, $2000 had been raised so far and all donations are going directly to JK's personal account with Smile Dental Clinic on West Thomas Road.

When donations reach a certain level, Dr. Harsini will be able to begin his first stage of work on JK's dental l situation. Until then, temporarily regluing and reseating the broken and loose bridges will help.

Swanson's Chicken& Dumplings will do there rest.

The Phoenix Police suggest JK rethink the sign outside her apartment.

-30- (if you write for a living you know what "that" means!)

This is supposed to be a little story about why I’m doing the GoFundMe but first I think I should tell you why I’m NOT doing the GoFundMe and it has nothing to do with (1): cosmetics (2: vanity or (3): having a beautiful smile. I don’t deny having cosmetics lots of them, and I must confess, I might be a little vain, and truthfully, I like having an engaging smile, (most of which is photoshopped) even if I had no teeth because I love to smile…. 

 It’s automatically a part who I am. I’m a happy person every day not every single hour of every day but if you know me, you know it’s true. I am a happy person.

I’d love to show you a picture of why I’m doing this GoFundMe, but in addition to finding discussions uncomfortable when the topics of religion sex and politics are brought into the room, I find it uncomfortable to let you inside my mouth.

 It’s not a pretty place. It’s messy. It’s got lots of holes in it. Part of the procedure underway involves removing the remaining teeth in my mouth, and there are 11 of them. Over the past two years I’ve had serious infections in my gums with abscesses and swelling of my face, and infections that dangerously close to your brain and heart are frightening. Lately it's been surmised that the onset of my non-epileptic seizures can be dated to the severity of my dental problems, including the access infections.

None of my teeth are alive and none of them are healthy and most of them could fall out with a little coaching. 

I started this Go fund me so I can stay alive and stay engaged, stay healthy stay involved stay relevant stay strong and perhaps have the strength and ability to reach back out to you in another 18 months and say “I’ll stand with you” no matter what your go fund me is for. 

I try to stay busy, be useful, helpful and encouraging in my community but it’s difficult without using my mouth. 

I’ve been invited to showcase my career(just let me know as well as create a writing class to engage the residents of this community in a creative endeavor), here at KENECT/Phoenix, a downtown high-rise populated largely by Arizona State University, students and Young downtown professionals as well as temporary, corporate and medical lodgers.

Downtown Phoenix sounds classy (and it is),but I’m here because it’s inexpensive compared to where I have been living since selling my home in 2019!

Senior living isn’t for me. I have tried every available, senior living concept. I’ve belong in might But I’m here because it’s inexpensive compared to where I have been living since selling my home in 2019 senior living isn’t for me.

  I belong in my little 363 square-foot studio surrounded by young people.

If you enjoy eating, be part of my mouth going forward and Tonight at almost 76 years of age, I lay here reading and re-writing this GoFundMe story which was written last night NOT BY ME, but by theGoFundMe CHAT/AI platform after I had entered my information around midnight, scared to death I was actually starting this whole process, in essence, pulling the trigger!

But today that story didn’t sound like Kathy, someone told me with a chuckle.(“YOU wrote THAT?”) So I’m polishing.

And today, when Dr. Eddie Harsini of Smile Dental Clinic took the impressions for my future teeth, reality did a hard “re-set”.

Sergio, the staff-smile-sculptor, had to ré-cement the entire bridge back into place, oíne that my daughter had given me in 2019 and we all prayed it didn’t pull back out with the impression material!

If anyone is reading this now, who read the first version of this, and you know me, you also KNOW I would never write about myself in such glowing terms; I’m basically a city girl in blue jeans, some inexpensive makeup and great clothes my daughter once bought for me that still fit!

Bone loss, weight loss and bad oral health must’ve been what happened before London Bridge fell down!

It is true that I’m in better health today than when I turned 50 in 1998, the year before my health took a severe 8-years-long downward spiral, post surgically.

And yet because of my oral and dental health, I stand to lose all of the progress I’ve made since I took back my health by learning to manage and live with my illnesses, recovering from multiple surgeries, beginning to walk and live independently again. I had been doing so well that my primary care physician jokingly asked me if I was related to Benjamin Button, commenting that I was one of the only patients he had ever watched age in reverse.

Since bringing me on as a patient in 2014 Doctor Lewis watched me lose well over 80 pounds, recover from multiple surgeries, learn to walk independently again and all while living alone. All of my doctors knew it wasn’t easy. It’s just that my major character flaw is making it all look so easy; a survival technique I’m certain. In the end, you’re alone even if you pretend you are not.

Yet there are Chapters of our lives that we read and reread with reluctance, when we realize life has been like high-speed rail, ripping past us without fair warning that we’d never have chances for “do-overs”, stripping away memories, time- tossing out family members and friends hundreds and sometimes thousands of miles away, and sometimes we didn't realize the train even left the station with our kids on it, before they were gone forever!

Then we make young, ignorant financial choices, for example walking away from property and savings and investments because we think it’s the only way to leave a relationship or marriage. Decades later someone, maybe your child, asks you why the other person has money and you don’t. If you’ve gained one shred of wisdom since the train left the station, you won’t answer that question.

But you also won’t question your original decision. Love, Grace, loss, giving and receiving, the wheel of life turns relentlessly.

My life’s tapestry is woven with threads of dedication and service to community and civic involvement which are intermingled with all those personal train rides, and “station decisions”, ie., where do I exit, and when does my involvement become a guiding light that ignites a fiery passion within me.

Over nearly five decades since leaving our parental home in Hamilton, Ohio, throughout my career as an investigative journalist, reporter, staff writer, editor, photographer, I’ve utilized my communication skills in the corporate media world, as a public speaker, with experience scripting television, radio, and cable television, advertising and production .

During my “Lois Lane” type cub reporter day’s in my Midwestern hometown of Hamilton OH., my civic involvement, began at United Way, where I trained and guided parents through the emotional hurdles of nurturing children with cerebral palsy.

” Time off “ having my own two children didn’t dim my activist desires, even when someone thought removing access to a vehicle would slow me down. Dead of winter I had my toddler bundled up and stuffed cozily next to my snow-suited baby, bundled up in a stroller and the three of us braved icy winds crossing the Main Street Bridge to get to Catholic Charities where I began working with my contact in Butler County Family Court to organize counseling services for struggling parents.

When I describe icy winds, I loved every minute of it! My adult children may carry memories of what they wish I had been doing for them instead of for others. Yet I somehow thought, albeit mistakenly, that cutting my teeth on the experience of working with One Way Farm’s most difficult cases, lending a hand to young “barely adults” venturing out of the family services & the court system, into independence would enrich my parental understanding. I warned my children that as a parent I came with no warranty or guarantee, and with questionable shelf-life.

I guess it’s really true that “life” Is what happens to you while you’re busy making plans!

Yet I fervently maintain that my path blessed me with an education in compassion and empathy which stirred me to unwavering action whenever I saw a need.

As a Red Cross disaster caseworker, I stood shoulder to shoulder with those weathering unimaginable challenges after losing their entire towns or cities to either tornado damages or flooding, and by providing comfort and support in their darkest hours I grew to understand that my darkest hours are really only dim compared to theirs. I remember climbing down from a National Guard transport when we arrived in Xenia, Ohio the night tornadoes devastated that town and after the soldiers electrified the night’s destruction, I sat down in the middle of what had been a neighborhood street and cried.

There is loss and then there’s grave, nearly unbearable loss, and given the opportunity you learn to appreciate the difference.

Through training in Citizen Police Academy’s on delicate matters like domestic violence negotiation and rape crisis interventions, I carry those lessons heavy in my heart. to this day, especially now living in the midst of a college-age campus population.

Then I recall standing in a private Flagstaff Medical Center emergency room cubicle behind a curtain, while a rape kit was being administered to the 17-year-old Native American teenager whose hand I held, and I am embarrassed by the knowledge are far worthier situations than mine with my teeth. I’m also concerned that anyone considering a donation understand that cosmetics plays absolutely no role in my story, it’s purely mechanics; eating, chewing, swallowing without choking, and building some fighting weight back up to stand strong and remain functional and relevant during whatever time I’m left blessed with.

During the years I was so ill I didn’t understand why I was still around, just taking up space, maybe I heard these words in a dream, but I heard the;; “ Kathy, maybe your body is finished, but your spirit still has work to do!” So after those words, I tried to remember that whatever work I had ever done, it wasn’t enough. Nothing escapes my attention, nothing ever has.

Addressing my Country’s lagging willingness to validate the sacrifices of Vietnam Veterans was another passion after I realized there were no Vietnam Vet’s in the July 4th parade in the late’70’s! After an initial financial commitment to organize those local Vets, when July 4 rolled around again and the Vets were all decked out on a flatbed in the parade, they beckoned and then pulled my kids and I up with them to ride the remaining parade route and I wonder now if my son who fought in Desert Storm remembers that! I’ll have to ask him next time we talk.

For over four decades, I delved into investigative journalism, unveiling truths that begged to be heard, fueling my aspiration to be a voice for the voiceless.

As a semi-retired journalist and motivational speaker today, I strive to kindle hope and empowerment in those around me.

However, time has posed a new test to my resilience. The imminent loss of my teeth not only threatens my smile but also undermines my ability to communicate and speak for the voiceless.

I recall the years spent honing my communication skills with a visionary CEO who recognized my potential and nurtured my abilities.

From shaping me into the corporate spokesperson he needed to to navigate his company through tumultuous times, he instilled in me the power of words and expression.

The ability to weave stories through oration, painting vivid pictures with my words and expressions, is not just a skill; it's an intrinsic part of who I am.

To lose this ability is akin to losing a limb for those who return from war – a profound loss of identity and purpose.

My fervent desire is to continue living my life with passion and purpose , serving, sharing, and connecting.

I will see to that your generosity not only restores my smile, preserve my health enabling me to walk through the next few chapters of my life with energy, strength, dignity and a renewed sense of purpose.

I invite you to join me on this journey of resilience and rejuvenation.

My most sincere prayer is that I will be able to repay the kindness and compassion that you show long after my ability to speak, is restored.

With your support and the grace of God, the universe, and whoever else is in charge out there, I hope to give back tenfold what has been graciously given to me.

This goFundMe, is something I began reluctantly at first because I’ve been through enough surgeries to know what having the remaining teeth in my mouth pulled out is going to be like. But the ongoing and recurring infections from those teeth are jeopardizing my health.

I’ve been through so many recoveries. I am not daunted by task. It’s the promise of having more opportunities ahead of me and knowing I’m up to the task that makes me throw my hat in the ring and say I’m ready to do this. I’m ready for all of it!