As many of you know, a fund-raising pledge was initiated by myArmoury.com member William Goodwin. I was a bit embarrassed by all this attention but tried my best to lighten up and accept all the generosity coming my way. Along the way I had to fight the strong urge to "give it all back" and, in some tiny way, caved a bit when I put forth the Win a Spyderco Endura Knife contest for the donors.

We put forth a goal of $920 US. It's this amount that would allow me to pay off the entire year's worth of site hosting. Reaching this goal will pay the annual sum and saves quite a bit of cash over paying quarterly/monthly/etc. The hosting bill isn't the only cost attributed to this site, but it was a giant thorn in my side this month since the bill was due.

Looking at the progress of the drive shows that we have now reached our pledge goal! We're there, people. You guys did it. The hosting bill is paid for.

And now it's time to tell you about something else I've done. Last week I had a conversation with a local business owner about this whole thing. I was expressing how pleased I was with the sense of community that has been built here and also my battles with guilt surrounding my weird issues about people giving to me and combining that with all the other, much stronger, causes this world has going on right now.

So to make a long story short, this anonymous business has offered to match the first $500 of donations if and when we meet our goal.

Well, the goal is met and so their matched donation of $500 will be sent to The American Red Cross for the Tsunami Relief Effort on behalf of the membership of myArmoury.com.

Now just to be clear: none of this new donation will take away from what myArmoury.com has received. Every dollar that the members have given will be used for the upkeep of the site, particularly the hosting needs. The $500 given to the Tsunami Relief Effort is additional money ponied up by a local business on our behalf.

I'm very happy to announce this and quite proud of what we've all made with this site. You guys are terrific and I hope this news is received well.

Thanks, people.

Cheers.

This is fantastic! Not only are we easing the financial burden on Nathan, but reader's efforts have led to a gift helping victims of the tsunami.

Thanks to Bill, and the others who donated.

Very cool.

:D

Wonderful news, Nathan !

I'm very proud of the myArmoury Nation ( to use a little Red Sox metaphor here :-)
Very well done, all ! Mac

This is excellent news!

A big "well done!" to everyone who donated and to everyone who makes this place what it is.

That's just frelling fantastic news!

So grateful to you all and to the support of this fine community.

Thanks also to the anonymous business for their support & the support to the relief effort.

Thanks & blessings to all, :D


Bill

I'm active (and have been active) in several Internet communities over the years, but none of them can beat myArmoury! This place is something special!

That donation to Tsunami relief is a great idea: We helped our little community and at the same time get to help people suffering from a tragic event. (Good Karma for us all ! )

Nathan and team,

That's absolutely wonderful news! Man I love this hobby and its community so much.

-JS

Great news! :)

Absolutely outstanding! I guess a few of you DID skip lunch. :)

Thank you, Nathan. Now, being a part of it, I am a good guy too. Quite a strange experience to me.

Russ, actually I didn't. I used my wife's credit in the local restaurant.

To be serious, thank all of you, guys, you are great! This is a really unique community.

Awesome!

Thanks once again Nathan! (and mystery business ;) )

Will the name or address of the business be shared so we can thank them for the effort they put forth on our behalf, or are they wishing to remain anonymous?

Ripples. Great stuff!

Well, at least Nathan knows the identity of the anonymous donor and can send work/traffic/attention his/her way as warranted.