Anybody who has been in roller derby for awhile knows the story of Windy City skater Tequila Mockingbird, who suffered the most serious injury to date in flat-track derby during a August 2007 home bout -- a fractured cervical vertebra as a result of a freak pileup. As a result of the injury, Tequila lost much of the use of her limbs and has been mostly wheelchair-bound -- but through physical therapy and a hell of a lot of perseverance, has slowly been able to regain some of the lost function.
Earlier this year, the organizers of RollerCon 2008 in Las Vegas held a benefit raffle to help Tequila with her considerable medical costs, and approximately $12,000 was raised in raffle tickets and donations. However, three-quarters of the prizes from the raffle were never claimed ... which means there's quite a bit of awesome derby stuff still available ... just in time for the holidays ... and DNN is helping Rollercon auction it off to you to further help Tequila.
Besides, you know your derby wife needs bearings! Make your gift count double this season by letting your purchase price go directly to this awesome cause.
Full list of Tequila Mockingbird benefit auction items
As of Wednesday night, only the first few items are up, but there are many, many more coming over the next couple days -- keep checking back. A note on prices: all auctions are starting with a minimum bid of $9.99 and a shipping cost of at least $5. In many cases, the actual cost of shipping will be less -- we'll add whatever's left over to the Tequila fund (not to be confused with the small-t tequila fund). It's a great cause, so don't fret over a few bucks!
UPDATE: continuing to add more items today, including full skate sets, another RollerCon 2009 MVP pass, many many sets of wheels, a gift bag from Loretta "Li'l Iodine" Behrens, and just so much more. Thousands of dollars worth of stuff at auction here. Go shop!
For a little more with Tequila, here's Moose's interview from RollerCon 2008 Day Five (the "walking dead" day):
We love ya Tequila! All the
We love ya Tequila! All the best to you...we think of you often. Derby isnt the same w/out you out on the rink.
another easy way to support tequila + derby
Hey I hope this isn't considered a thread-jack, but the Gotham Girls have today kicked off a parallel campaign -- and this one is especially great for people who like to help for free!
The New York radio station 101.9 WRXP (stream at 1019rxp.com) is putting up a whopping $10,000 in an on-line voting program for a big January donation. This is a great opportunity for Gotham Girls Roller Derby to dramatically expand community outreach programs in 2009.
If GGRD wins the on-line poll, the league will be earmarking much of that money toward development of additional workshops and skating opportunities for kids all around New York City, plus a healthy chunk toward the Tahirah Johnson Trust, benefitting the rehabilitation of Tequila Mockingbird.
All the details are at
http://www.gothamgirlsrollerderby.com/charityvote/
You can vote every day from now until January 30 ... so be a hero and sign up for the daily reminder e-mail list so that you remember to do it! If there's anything the derby community at large is extremely good it, it's firing off free opinions in on-line polls :-)
Thanks much + happy holidays! -- Hambone, GGRD