The most important bit first:
There is our final donation, all transferred over to LOROS via muchloved.com. This LINK takes you straight to our donation. And yes, we did make the €5,000 mark, but the donation had to be made in GB£, so all of a sudden we are back to 4,000 😉. However, let me translate it all for you: We had a final amount of €5308,63, which I have topped up myself to €5,350. However, converted into GB£, that looked like a crooked amount, GB£4522.30, to be exact, and therefore I topped it up a bit more so that we got to a nice fiver on the last digit.
GB£4525 converts to €5353.19 or to US$5320.34 or AU$7741.66 or CA$6946.49
Once again, an amazing result of our community effort to raise funds for charity instead of individual gifts for Richard. Incredible, but the fundraiser has broken previous records. Some of it is easily explainable in that we are now not only auctioning stuff on eBay but also offered items for sale on Etsy. Double-whammy. We had 34 auctions on eBay that generated a net result of €2200,15. The Etsy sale had 130 items on offer (not all of which were sold) and created a net profit of €1846,26. However, we also had a huge amount of monetary donations this year, which really blew our proceeds out of the water. I received 74 individual Paypal donations to the tune of €2029,28. Some donors donated several times, there were donations from makers and donors of items, and there were extra donations from fans who had missed out on an item in the auctions or sale and nevertheless gifted their budget to the fundraiser.
I cannot thank you *all* enough for your participation and generosity.
However, I would also like to repeat my thanks to all buyers on Etsy, as well as all bidders on eBay. And I really mean *all* bidders, including those who did not have to cough up in the end. You may have lost out on the item, but you contributed to the final prices.
Thank you for opening your hearts – and your wallets!
Lastly, a big thank you to all Etsy buyers, especially considering that there were a couple of hick-up’s in my organisation this year. (I inadvertantly left 3 items out completely and I wrongly labelled some items in the second batch of the fixed-price sale. To my embarrassment I had to disappoint several buyers and refund their purchase. My sincere apologies for that.) Nonetheless you shopped very generously, and I was delighted to see the enthusiastic support for my fellow crafty fans!
Thank you for shopping for a good cause!
Thirdly, once again a massive thank you to the donors of fan items and crafted gems without whose contributions our auctions and sale would be a sad and sorry affair. My thanks (in no particular order) go to Poppy, Janee, Susanna, ZedEffEye, Celeste, Graza, Paula, Esther, Kate, Pamela, Suzanne, Louisa, Anne, Ani, Ilaria, Jen, Violet and Armidreamer. Additional thanks for items already donated for previous fundraisers but still in my stash go to Rachel, Young and Stacey.
Thank you for donating beloved items and ingenious crafty gems!
Lastly, thank you to all who followed the fundraiser here, on other blogs and on social media. Your comments, RTs, posts and replies are a huge help in spreading the word – not just of the fundraiser but of LOROS. It’s a contribution that you can’t put a price on.
Thank you for your help.
Talking of “putting a price on” – it is impossible to put a price on the joy we experience when we watch Richard’s work or the admiration we feel for him. However, I believe that our fundraiser proceeds are an indication how much we appreciate Richard and his work. Add to that the many wonderful individual donations made by his fans on their own (outside of this fundraiser), and it is safe to say that Richard really makes the world a little bit better 😉. However modest he may be about it all, it is to his credit that he inspires so much love and generosity.
Happy Birthday, Richard!
So, here’s to 51, Richard! Half a century + 1 is the new 30. (At least that is what I tell myself on birthday…) Over the last year since the milestone birthday, you have showed no signs of slowing down, much to the joy of your fans. I can’t wait to see you as the action priest and doing damage as an obsessed lover, and I look forward to hearing you narrate your own crime novel. For the next year I hope you have arrived at a place where you can enjoy letting go, letting loose, letting be, and letting it all hang out. Best of luck with all your projects – visual, audio and production-wise. May only thrilling scripts pass your desk, and may every encounter be a good one. Happy birthday and much love, Sonja ❤️
Last word: I do have the accounts ready for you, but have decided to get this post out now and write a separate post with the accounts tomorrow. I am sure you are already impatient to know our final proceeds, so dreary numbers must wait…
Edit: Added direct link to our donation
Guylty Pleasure 
Thank you for your hard work and devotion, it makes the difference 💕
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It’s all worth it 🙂
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Brilliant. Well done again Sonja, you’re such a star. I owe you much more in the way of comments and you will hear from me properly soon! Xxxxx
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Many thanks, Helen. And no pressure – we all have lives that must be lived 😉
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Wow, that is amazing! Thanks to all donors, bidders, buyers, signal boosters, enthusiasts and thanks to YOU, Sonja!
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An absolute pleasure – and could not be done without all the people you mentioned there ❤️
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Thank you once again for all your hard work; and to all the donators and purchasers.
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It’s a pleasure. Many thanks back to you!
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While I was not able to contribute as much this year as in the past, it is still always a good feeling to be a part of this endeavor year after year. Thank you for all your hard work and thanks to our guy for being such a huge inspiration to all of us.
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Every contribution counts, no matter whether big or small. Thank you for supporting the fundraisers for so many years! x
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Fabuloso! I’ve already updated FB fan pages with the great news. And this morning Richard tweeted his thanks. But I don’t know if he’d seen the fundRAiser donation yet. If he was pleased then, I can only imagine how over the moon he will be when he sees your message. 😁
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Great, thanks for passing on the good news. What did FB say?
And yes, I noticed Richard’s “blanket thanks”. And later on he actually sent his thanks to us, too. I’m sure he’s pleased 🙂
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I think the many of us who have got likes from Richard for our Twitter birthday messages this year are rather stunned – it’s certainly the first time I’ve ever had one from him. Lovely surprise. He must have spent ages going through them all.
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Absolutely a first. And quite a (time) commitment for RA. It’s really nice that he acknowledged the well-wishes!
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Ah, bless me for not replying to his tweet and keeping my record of being unacknowledged by the man himself intact. 😂
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😂 Well, same here (apart from flying under the radar. That dream is over 😉), especially since I am still & stubbornly not following him 😬.
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I have no way of knowing how many members of the two fb groups I belong to actually contributed, but I’m hoping my efforts helped a bit. Any PR is good PR, right? Thanks again for bringing the fandom together to accomplish such a Herculean task.
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I’m sure they did. And whether anyone got in on the donation action or not, doesn’t matter. Spreading the word and raising awareness is valuable in itself. Many thanks for that.
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Fantastic amount, fantastic fun, fantastic Guylty for making it happen, thank you.
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I’m thrilled we overtook our previous records again (not counting last year, of course. Nothing will ever top that, unless I create 75 listings 😱). Many thanks to you, too.
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For his 75th? I’ll fly in to lend in-person admin support.
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😂 I think at that point I will definitely need some help from your sprightly self. Lugging 75+ parcels to the PO on a zimmer frame would probably otherwise take several hours…
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We‘ll get one of those mobility scooters maybe. 😂
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Perfect. Either with a big basket on the handlebar – or a trailer to pull behind. Do mobility scooters also come with a side-car? 😂
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Oh, that would be perfect.
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Apparently, these are our options…
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*pruuuuuust* Ich lach mich schlapp. Oh goodness, that is fantastic. Well, I look forward to our outing in that nifty little black side-car number in 2046. Mark the date!
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Is gebongt ✅
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The birthday wishes for Richard are beautiful, Sonja. Let them come true.
I’m over the moon right now, for a long time, nothing has given me as much joy as to be here with you all. It’s a fantastic feeling. Thanks to you all and to you, Sonja.
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That is so nice to read, Graza. For me, that is a big part of the fundraisers – creating a shared experience for us all. It brings people together, and that is priceless. xx
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Unbelievable total!! I’m sure every penny will be put to very good use by the wonderful people at LOROS! I’m sure Richard and all his family will be thrilled!
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Brilliant numbers, right? I have to admit that it gives me a thrill when I finally press the “transfer donation” button on the charity site. The cause makes it very special indeed, and it is such a bonus to do it for a cause that Richard and his family appreciate.
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It’s just a brilliant thing. 👏
I sort of don’t know what to say really. Except the fandom is great, very kind and generous. Yay for all of us. 😁 🥰
Special thanks has to go to you though, Sonja. After all your generosity in organising and doing all the admin you go and top up the donation too. You’re amazing. 😁
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Ah, what an amazing result. You’re so generous to round up twice!! Notator mention all your hard work BTS.
I’m thrilled to have been part of this again. Always a joy. 😘😘
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Hehe, my donation just makes sure that I don’t subtract too much from the Etsy sales.
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Wonderful! i am sure this year Loros will be even happier about the contribution than ever, will make a real difference! And you are wonderful for all the top ups! ❤
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