Over on the UDIC Facebook Group, Rustic Dragon has posted news of a tragedy that has befallen his girlfriend, who is currently in hospital recovering from an horrific accident. I won’t post any additional detail than that; if you have access to the UDIC group, you’ll be able to find the complete story there, and if not…well, let’s respect Rustic’s privacy, and give him the option of sharing additional detail here.

However, nice chap that he is, Rustic has set up this actually quite amusing emulation of Kickstarter to help finance a special “get well” gift of sorts.

Let’s Help Aleks!
(Shh! This is a secret! Do NOT tell Aleks about this or show her this site!)
Thankfully, Aleks is going to be okay. It looks like she’ll be in the hospital for at least five weeks. During that time and after, she’ll have to deal with:

• The frustration of making up a semester of school
• Intensely painful physical therapy
• Inability to eat solid food for weeks
• Weeks of missed work
• The difficult acceptance of the life-long physical ramifications of the accident.

Frankly, all of this sucks. Let’s all work together to give her something GOOD when she recovers. Let’s send Aleks to Hogwarts!

Hogwarts? What?

If you’re at this page, then you know Aleks and you also know that she’s a huge Harry Potter fan. The Wizarding World of Harry Potter is a life-sized, real world experience at Universal Studios in Florida and it’s a Mecca for any Harry Potter fan. I can think of no place Aleks would be more excited to visit than this place.

If you don’t know, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry is the fictional boarding school for young witches and wizards in the universe of Harry Potter. Once magically inclined children reach age 11, they receive a Welcome Letter in the mail from the current headmaster of Hogwarts inviting them to attend.

Strangely, Aleks’ letter never came…I’d like to fix that.

Not unlike a typical Kickstarter campaign, Rustic has defined several donation tiers for this effort, and the rewards associated therewith essentially allow you to increase how personal a contribution (and statement to Aleks) you would like to give. Click on through for a more complete explanation of everything.

I had the pleasure of meeting Rustic Dragon twice during a trip to Kentucky this summer, and on the first of those occasions I was also fortunate enough to meet up with Aleks. She is a very lovely girl, and it’s clear that she and Rustic have a great affection for each other. It really is a tragedy what has happened to her, nothing that was remotely her fault. Most of you probably don’t know her from the next person, but if you’d like to help a fellow Dragon through this trying time and help him be a right sweetheart, consider throwing a few dollars in the pot.