Don't ever call me a Soccer Mom!

jocelyn2003:

please read the whole post below and reblog it or repost it elsewhere. then go ahead and spread the word actively after you do so: donate to NCIRE. learn more about veterans’ health and PTSD. check out JMwristbands. write a letter to a soldier. send a care package. make an impact in a way that i haven’t mentioned.

the internet is an awesome place for information. the world is an awesome place for action.

bold and italicized emphasis below is my own.

ncire:

Today we registered an account on tumblr primarily to thank the John Mayer fans who have donated to NCIRE in the wake of the cancellation of the Born and Raised Tour. We’re honored and grateful. 

We’ll post more about our projects later if this tumblr blog gets going, but as a super-short introduction- NCIRE is a community of researchers dedicated to finding better ways to understand, treat, and prevent health problems which impact veterans. 

In recent years, John Mayer has been a quiet and exceptional asset to our work. He has endured hours of power points, briefings, data analysis, and discussions of everything from innovations in mental health care to developments in brain imaging technologies. He comes to public events, meets with wounded warriors, well veterans, families, caregivers, policymakers and advocates. 

For the record,  John has never once brought a camera to any of this, or sent a press release afterwards. He has never left an event prior to signing every autograph for vets or family members or even for VA / NCIRE staff. He has been inquisitive, consistent, respectful and reliable. Always.

Currently, he is supporting a research-based portfolio of innovative projects at NCIRE aimed at smoothing the transition to civilian life for those who might struggle after deployments- it is called the Veterans Health And Integration Program.

The recurrent and highly unfortunate problems John is having with his voice are indeed a bummer. Obviously we were eager to get the awareness campaign in gear, fund-raise, friend-raise and so on. But we were also really eager to hear this record and see the band play it live - we’re fans too. We are sure that he is crestfallen about being unable to tour around the new music, and know how excited his whole team has been for 2012 - they’ve been gushing about the new album and related tour for months and months. 

Robin and I [have] been fortunate to meet some terrifically open-hearted and generous people from the JM world who have emailed asking how to help. Some are making a major impact - Brenda Sue and Kristy set up a wristband fundraising campaign, flew to SF for our annual conference, and organized a letter-writing campaign to deployed military personnel. Their contributions supported memberships to a contemporary fitness program for veterans.

This week, Jocelyn and others suggested that fellow fans donate to us in order to support John during his medical leave, and sure enough, we received a batch of donations.

Please know that every email of encouragement, every dollar donated and every mention in cyberspace is a huge boost. We’re really floored by all of this.

At the end of the day, consistent and continuing support from the civilian community will play a bigger role in the future of veterans health than NCIRE or John Mayer will. This generous support absolutely leads to a future where veterans are deeply cared for and understood by the civilians they serve, most of us never knowing what it is like to serve in places like Afghanistan, Iraq or Vietnam.

Thank you for joining us, and making it possible for us to innovate, develop and discover ways to advance veterans health. We are honored to be affiliated with John Mayer and his generous team. We are similarly honored to be affiliated with such thoughtful, creative and generous fans.

With appreciation,
gerard

~jocelyn

A really lovely way to help out. Sales of the charitable seats will not
Happen….but please consider a donation. PTSD is an epidemia amongst returning soldiers and many suicides has occurred in recent times. How sad.