Urgent Plea For Help

Greetings from Tapestry Institute!

I know that you care about Tapestry's mission and work of reconnecting people with the earth. We need your help. As you may know, the last two years have been quite tumultuous for Tapestry. The catastrophic wildfire, coupled with the loss of our ranch in Nebraska and relocation to New Mexico, could easily have spelled the end of our organization. Instead, it provided a powerful impetus for our work.

Since relocating to New Mexico, we have been working on the following projects:
-- A book about wildfire, written from within Indigenous worldview, that both shares our experience in Nebraska and provides individuals with important information about wildfire;
-- The Digital Library of Indigenous Science Resources (www.dlisr.org) has begun to get a site redesign, and we are seeking partners and supporters to expand the database of resources;
-- The Voice of the Horse Project is moving forward as we have begun to analyze the results of the horse-human relationship survey and to finish our research for the book, which will include information from the Voice of the Horse Conference (held in summer 2007). In addition, Dawn Adams, Ph.D., and Joanne L. Belasco, Esq., have written several articles for publication in major equine magazines concerning our research into the horse-human relationship;
-- Carol L. Francisco, Ph.D., has begun exciting research on the different ways we know about and experience spirituality;
-- Carol has been photographing nature in New Mexico and using the photographs to create complex digital collages; and
-- We have redesigned our website (www.tapestryinstitute.org), making it easier for first-time visitors to navigate, while retaining vital information on such topics as ways of knowing, Indigenous worldview, Indigenous science, and tornadoes.

While all of this work is very exciting, we have encountered two unexpected - and unrelated - hurdles that we cannot get over without your help:
-- We must move to a new location in New Mexico by August 31; and
-- One of our computers and our external hard drive have both crashed. We already replaced one computer earlier this year and need to have the other one up and running so that we can submit grant applications to support our work.

To overcome these hurdles, all we need to raise is $7000. We know these are difficult financial times, and we would not ask for donations now if we did not absolutely need them to keep our work alive. We have not put out a call for donations since our relocation, but now we are pressed to the mat and must ask for help. All we need are 70 people who make a $100.00 donation; or 100 people who make a $70.00 donation; or 1000 people who make a $7.00 donation. Can you help us with a donation? Any amount that you can send to us will help us reach our goal by August 31. Can you ask your colleagues, friends, and family to help? Ask 10 of them for $10 each, and you have $100 right there! All donations are tax-deductible. Because of the urgency of our need, we are asking people to make donations via Paypal, if they are able. Just go to www.paypal.com and enter the email address jo@tapestryinstitute.org as the recipient. You will receive a receipt within a day of your donation. If you'd like to send a check or money order, please make it out to "Tapestry Institute," and send it to Tapestry Institute, Hc 34 Box 2c, Sapello, NM 87745. Please feel free to send this email to anyone whom you think might be able to help us out right now.

Thank you for any amount of money that you can donate to us, and thank you for spreading the word of our need. We would not be able to weather the storms that have buffeted us lately if it were not for the wonderful support of people like you!