The Best Supporters
Here at B4CK we have regularly request monetary donations, used binders, and volunteer hours. We put out the requests pretty often and I have been really encouraged lately. I want to share with you about the amazing things that have gone on this month!
First of all, I want to share with you about a young person named Perci. Perci’s mom found us on a Parents of Transgender kids Facebook Group one of the times that we were putting out a call out for binders. Diane (their mom) and Perci sent in some binders as donations, but Perci also included some bracelets that they make in the packet they sent to us. Perci has an Etsy shop where they make adorable little bracelets that celebrate gender, sexuality and pride by using beads to make pride flags. You can check out their amazing shop here 🙂 We unpacked that envelope on Facebook Live and I had so many people reach out, asking about the bracelets they sent, that we got back in touch and made sure they got an Etsy page set up!
https://www.etsy.com/shop/rayofsunshinebiperci
But bracelets isn’t the only amazing thing Perci does! In January we put out a request for volunteers and we had a handful of people show interest. Of the 4 or 5 folks who said they wanted to volunteer, didn’t pan out, one of the adults did some great work — and then Perci volunteered! Over the course of the next 6 weeks, Perci wrote some great material for us, made a list of influencers to contact about support, researched a list of companies to request for donations from, and was generally an awesome person all around. The time and effort they invested made it possible to get SO MUCH DONE!!!
Perci is 18 and uses they/them pronouns. They also run their own organization focused on getting rid of the stigma around LGBTQ+ rights. You can check out their organization here:
Seriously — the coolest young person!
The second amazing thing to happen this last few weeks was a sale at Underworks – which is a medical supplier who makes chest binders (among other things). While a half binder (like the one below, left) is usually $19.99 plus $5 shipping, there was some clearance happening that had what they claimed to be “irregular.” I looked at them, read about them, looked for imperfections – found nothing to be really wrong with them, and began to order them. Full length binders (shown below, right) for $9.99. I ordered a handful and then put out a shout out on Facebook that if anyone wanted to contribute so we could get some extras on hand, now would be the time to do it since they were only $10 each. It was 8:45 pm on a Wednesday night (the most random time EVER).
It started with a handful of responses – “Sure! i’ll buy 3!” followed by a donation of $30. “Put me down for 2!” and $20 sent over. Within an hour, we had $200. Within 3 hours it was $400. By the next morning, it was $600, and it was $850 before it was all done. With every intention of buying 85 binders, I ordered every last binder I could get my hands on that was discounted. 45 binders later, they were entirely sold out and I had crashed their web page. The following Monday, a 17lb box arrived on my porch stuffed with binders for our waiting list — and there’s still enough left over for about 20 more individual orders once we ran through the bulk set we have just gotten.
It’s a beautiful moment when you put out a message and start having donations pour in from all over the world. People I didn’t know, had never met, didn’t have mutual friends with — complete strangers began donating and it was really and truly beautiful.