<div><strong>There U Glow year 5 is underway babes.</strong>
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<div>The more help we get from you the stronger and more effective our vision will directly be, year by year. We are years in. We make a huge impact locally. It's the real deal. We do 90%. You make the last 10%.
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<div>In essence, There U Glow is a popular all femme and queer founded, centered and run annual 5-day open air pop-up camp at the Portland regional burning man event. It is also a thriving generator of open source technical information of a far better caliber by and for self-proclaimed "non-technical" folks and artists. All of that is documented and free online. It is also deeply hooked into the local Portland community and has plans to integrate further into other local physical space. It does all this while remaining grassroots, community run and funded, radical and flexible for its members and the public.
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<div>✨The Pitch (current context and situation):✨
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<div>This is our fifth year of existence, and fourth year of running our physical space. This is a tenuous time for us. Even visions as popular and vital as ours tend to feel increasing weight as they reach the size and age we are at. We need to balance the health and well-being of our team, community and efforts. We need to be able to take feedback and stay flexible, even when it's not fun, all without the stability of a more established endeavor.
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<div>We are also taking on heavy political and mental weight from current cultural shifts. We consistently push against massive, unrecognized technical gatekeeping embedded over generations and work to shelter and assist vulnerable and unfairly suppressed folks inside and outside of our camp.
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<div>Our reputation has put us square in the middle of being asked to rise to a horrifying political situation for all of our women (cis and trans), queer, poor, disabled folk, and more interested in and inside of tech and engineering. I think if you are here and reading this, you get it. We're here for it. We're built for it. And also, it is a *lot* .
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<div>So, we appreciate any financial ease we can get! We'll keep at what we do no matter what, but this is your chance to amplify those dreams exponentially.
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<div>↪️ For more information and resources visit www.thereuglow.club
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<div><strong>✨Where this money will go:✨</strong>
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<div>Thanks for getting through that heavy context! Now we can share some of what we are excited about fundraising for this year.
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<div><strong>Partnerships!</strong> We are partnering with <a href="https://www.starfestival.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Tauraro</a>, a PDX local Queer, Trans, Black, Indigenous,  People of Color nonprofit, to bring five new folks into the camp who would not otherwise attend this event. We also have a group of deaf campers this year, two of whom are new. All of these new folks will be speaking, engaging in workshops, both showing their expertise and gaining experience. They also need funds to attend.
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<div><strong>Better Workshop Space:</strong> We have been called to make a better and better environment for folks, experienced and nervous, to step into and have the tools they need to solder, learn and create. We need better lighting, soldering irons, power supplies, solder stands, and more.
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<div><strong>Supplies and Tools:</strong> We are always adding to our general supplies and tools, in large part because we give a lot away freely to encourage creativity and inclusion. This includes lots of LEDs in various form factors, components, batteries, small tools, printed zines, documentation, new lockpicks every year and new practice locks, and more!
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<div><strong>Infrastructure:</strong> We are physically increasing in size this year, and again losing some infrastructure support we've been leaning on, which means new pop-up tents, folding tables, chairs, generator rental, back-of-house kitchen and comforts (this is fully off grid for five days remember) and some smaller stuff. 
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<div><strong>Sustainable Activities:</strong> Last year we added (and attempted to add) several new activities to the camp. This included: displaying video of femmes &amp; queers building projects in the evenings, running a 3D printer off grid to teach folks how to engage in this skill in real-time, and moving our soldering workshop time to a drop-in format. 
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<div>This year we are continuing those and adding a new art piece (a giant rainbow guillotine covered in LEDs!), talks based on deaf inclusive technology, and whatever else we are called to do in the coming months. 
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<div>Activities like these take years to perfect and make truly functional. We need financial assistance to continue that process.
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<div><strong>Swag: </strong>We give away a lot of swag, including multiple sticker designs, beautiful art PCB badges and beginner soldering kits. We design this swag and provide it in large amounts in order to bring in diverse people who could use a lovely, no-expectations gift to help them feel curious, loved and included in technical space.
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<div><strong>We Pay Our Campers:</strong> Highly unusually for what we do, we try to pay ourselves for the time and effort we put into this vision, even a little. If a camper wants to make art, or create infrastructure support for the camp, or anything else material or effort-wise, we pay for it to the best of our ability. Our ability to do this comes directly from this fundraising.
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<div>↪️ For more context on what we get up to, check the About Us below and at the <a href="https://www.thereuglow.club" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">There U Glow website</a>.
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<div><strong>✨About Us:✨</strong>
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<div>There U Glow is a rare women, trans, femme &amp; queer led technical educational space. We specialize in helping folks with their busted glowing/technical needs. We do this by enticing folks into our orbit through the magic of glowing, rainbow LED lights and what it takes to run them.
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<div>There U Glow heavily centers and focuses on self-described “non-technical” and traditionally marginalized folks. We also fight to raise technical women and queer folks up as the unparalleled experts and precious individuals they are, (without giving them more work to do along the way).
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<div>We teach people of all ages, but specifically focus on femmes and queers ages ~20 and up. We know that we are fighting generational and cultural pipeline problems these days, not fostering technical interests in childhood.
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<div>Forged in the welcoming sandbox of Oregon’s Regional Burning Man Event, SOAK, There U Glow first emerged as a dynamic theme camp and has since transcended boundaries, evolving into a popular annual experience and a trailblazing online knowledge hub. There U Glow has also made a significant mark on it’s local Portland Oregon maker and artist communities. Though we change shape flexibly to accommodate everything we balance, we don’t plan to stop anytime soon.
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<div>We provide intentionally low-pressure, curious space, like a learn-to-lockpick lounge, workbenches, soldering stations, presentation space, a take-something-leave-something hardware/craft scrap swap, educational zines and swag swap space, and more.
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<div>We have activities like an "Intro to LEDs for Artists and Non-Technical Babes" workshop, a beginners soldering workshop with custom PCB art badges (circuit boards designed by There U Glow), and interesting educational, colorful custom decor for every wall.
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<div>This structure and dream expands beyond our physical pop-up camp experience. We have a camp Discord server that we are slowly rolling out to community, a new website we continue to expand with links to open source resources, and our physical resources and supplies are used in other educational spaces throughout the year.
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<div>↪️ For more context on what we get up to and access to a lot of our open source resources, check out our website at www.thereuglow.club
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<div><strong>✨Sliding Scale Guidelines:✨</strong>
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<div>If you are unsure of how much to contribute, PLEASE don't feel undue guilt and pressure. There's more then enough of that flying around right now. To mitigate stress, feel free to review the sliding scale below for some guidelines on where you may fit into this fundraising:
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<div>IF YOU:
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<div>- Frequently stress about meeting basic needs and don’t always achieve them
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<div>- Have debt that sometimes prevents you from meeting basic needs
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<div>- Rent lower-end or have unstable housing
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<div>- Do not have a car or have limited access
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<div>- Are unemployed or underemployed
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<div>- Qualify for government assistance
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<div>- Have no access to savings
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<div>- Rarely buy new
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<div>- Cannot afford vacation or time off
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<div>PLEASE DO NOT FEEL ANY PRESSURE TO GIVE
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<div>IF YOU:
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<div>- Stress about meeting your basic needs but still meet them
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<div>- Have debt but it does not prohibit attainment of basic needs
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<div>- Own or lease a car
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<div>- Are employed
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<div>- Have access to healthcare
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<div>- Have some expendable income
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<div>- Are able to buy new and still thrift
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<div>- Can take vacations and time off annually or every few years
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<div>PLEASE ONLY GIVE IF IT FEELS COMFORTABLE, IN A COMFORTABLE AMOUNT
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<div>IF YOU:
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<div>- Can comfortably meet all of your basic needs and assist your loved ones
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<div>- Have some debt but it is not a large stress
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<div>- Own property or rent higher-end
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<div>- Own or lease a car
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<div>- Are employed or do not need to work to meet your needs
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<div>- Have access to savings that brings security
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<div>- Have expendable income (might mean you can afford coffee or drinks, go to moves or concerts, buy new clothes, books, etc regularly)
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<div>- Can take vacations and time off regularly
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<div>PLEASE CONSIDER GIVING GENEROUSLY TO OFFSET OTHERS, AND TO MAKE A SIGNIFICANT IMPACT ON THE SUCCESS OF THIS CAMPAIGN AND ME
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<div>Sliding scale and full credit from <a href="https://www.rootedheart.ca/blog/2018/3/17/accessibility-sliding-scale-pricing-and-energy-exchange" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">here</a>. 
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Anonymous

Colleen Sinsky

Valarai E Marsh

Jason Coon

Kris Mongene

Jessica Carroll

Charles Stanhope

Guy Dupont

Liz McFarland

There U Glow's Excellent Electronics Camp Fundraiser '26 ✨

Just $638$640$639$638$637$636 to go! Make an impact.

There U Glow's Excellent Electronics Camp Fundraiser '26 ✨

Just $638 to go!
Make an impact.