All things must end, and the time has come to officially wrap up the Random Acts challenge coin fundraiser. It’s been a long project, much longer than originally intended. Phase I launched a little less than two years ago, a delayed delivery on a promise we made to Fringe fans almost two years before that – before we lost Aimee. This project was always about remembrance: of the things we accomplished as a fandom, of the losses we suffered, and of the bonds that will always remain. In spite of some lengthy delays, I think this fundraiser has honored them all. Aimee especially would have loved Random Acts, and I know she’d be very proud of the final result.

Which, without further nostalgia, is:

Final Project total: $2,800.00.
Full Project Run time: 12/30/2014 – 11/23/2016.

Since it’s been a while and the project had to be parsed out into a few different phases, here’s a short refresher for those of us who don’t remember that far back:

Initial run (Phase I): An incredible $2,010.00 raised! Concluded 02/24/15.

Wait List orders: $375.54 raised! Exactly enough to fund one final printing. Random Acts was very generous with their trust in allowing me to hang onto this for several months before launching Phase II.

Phase II (silver this time): Another $600.00 raised! Initial donation made 01/11/16. And that was the last report…

Since then, I’ve been even more involved with CSTS, and I have to admit this year got away from me a little bit. Coin sales also dropped to almost zero, with only a couple of orders all year after the initial rush. With everything else going on, it was easy to let this linger on the back burner until things slowed down. Now that they have, I’ve officially wrapped up the project with a final donation of $190.00. Here’s the rundown for all of Phase II, for anyone interested in the details:

Income:
$375.54 Wait List sales
$892.50 Phase II gross sales
$245.95 charged for shipping
$118.26 sponsorships and donations
_______________________________
$1632.25

Expenses and donations:
$50.64 PayPal fees
$375.00 coin order
$376.08 shipping
$40.53 shipping supplies
$600.00 Random Acts donation 01/11/16
$190.00 FINAL Random Acts donation 11/23/16
___________________________
$1632.25

As you can see, we lost some money on shipping this time around. New policy (or simply a new cashier) wouldn’t allow the same shipping method used the first time, and we got hit pretty hard on international postage for Phase II. I covered as much as I could, but couldn’t afford the entire shortfall. My sincere apologies for the mistake, to Random Acts and to all of you.

But I still think we did very well! Once again, I’m proud and humbled to be part of this amazingly generous fandom. This officially concludes the Random Acts challenge coin project. However, there are still a few coins left. If anyone else would like to order, please drop me a line at fringenuity@gmail.com and I’ll be happy to help you. Any future sales will be donated immediately to Random Acts, no more waiting around.  😉

You can contribute to Random Acts at any time through independent donation, or get help making the world a kinder place with a project of your very own. Or, for the weird, the brave, and the ever-so-slightly insane – consider participating in Gishwhes in 2017. I promise you’ll be glad you did. Where else can you play underwater egg yolk ping-pong* for a good cause?

And for the Firefly fans out there, if you’ve never heard of Can’t Stop the Serenity, please check it out! CSTS hosts screenings of Serenity for another awesome cause in cities across the world each year – come misbehave with us! Both these fandoms have done the impossible, but I think it’s the good works that make us mighty.

As always, thank you so much for your support!

*I couldn’t find our actual submission, so here are some others for your edification. For the record, ping pong tables FLOAT.