[This was the first email I sent to friends and family asking support.]
Hi everyone,
I hope this finds you and yours doing well. I’m writing to ask for your support on an interview project that I just launched today on Kickstarter - Fatherless by Suicide.
For those of you who don’t know – and that’s likely most of you – my father took his own life when I was three. His name was also Chris. He was 32 years old.
The story is complicated, but the autopsy yields the only hard facts I know - my took his life in his family’s home in Wichita, some 200 miles from my parent’s home.
His death isn’t the beginning of my story – that starts with my parents as high school sweethearts and respective heartthrobs; but, it is the part of my story that I haven’t shared much, nor allowed myself to explore.
After three decades of dancing around the topic of suicide and how my father’s suicide affects me, I’m planning to embrace my own story and invite other men who have lost their father to suicide to share their story and insights with me.
Frankly, I’m a whole mix of emotions that I rarely have – I'm scared, excited, nervous and damn curious. Though it is unique, uncomfortable territory for me, it’s exactly where I want to be. It is where I need to be. I’d like to have you in my corner.
If you’re interested in supporting me, here are some great ways:
1) Share this project. The only way this project will exist is if you help me meet similarly affected men and encourage them to participate. Please share this email and Kickstarter Invitation for Support far and wide, and if you know a man who also lost his father to suicide, please share this with him directly and invite him to be in touch.
2) Donate what you can. I got my first credit card this year and will ‘swipe to suffice’ my need to see this project through. However, your generosity will help me get the equipment I need and help cover my travel and expenses. I’m thrifty and will ensure your generosity is optimally leveraged.
3) Host me. I will be zigzagging across the United States on my motorcycle to meet and interview fellow collaborators from July thru October. If you or your friends or family would be interested in reducing my Motel 6 or RV camping experience, please be in touch.
Thanks for any support and generosity you can invest to help me and this project.
Wishing a happy Fathers Day weekend to all you great papas out there - and those who are no longer with us.
Hugs,
Chris