It’s been an incredible month of August. We hit the $2500 mark on August 11 and crossed $3000 on August 16. Now here we are on August 28, sitting at exactly $4000 raised for great organizations and causes.

Scissors, glitter paper, glue, a gigantic junk wax collection, great organizations, and generous collectors like you–that’s the magic formula that made it happen! (And as an added bonus, I am nearing Platinum status at Jo-Ann’s.)

As I always do, I’ll share a breakdown of contributions to date.

August was the first month that I largely focused my efforts on a single organization, the Shoeless Joe Jackson Museum in Greenville, South Carolina. The result was not only 27 different donations but 13 new memberships! With luck, many of these memberships will renew over the years as collectors recognize the importance of membership to the big plans the Museum has in store, or simply grow out of their shirts!

Special thanks to executive director Dan Wallach for his support and the great extras he provided for my Member Packs. I also want to thank my friend, neighbor, and fellow Chicago SABR member @phitter72 for contributing the insert cards that I’m told some collectors liked even more than my glitter cards!

Looking ahead, September will be dedicated to the GOAT as Heavy J Studios focuses on the Josh Gibson Foundation. If you’re familiar with the legendary catcher but not the organization, here is a bit on what great-grandson Sean and the Foundation are doing.

I’m not quite ready to share some big news related to September, but for now I’ll just say my friend, Atlanta-based artist Scott Hodges, figures prominently in the mix on this one. Stay tuned.

Looking even further ahead, I’m working on lining up some things for October with the Dave Parker Foundation, either officially or unofficially.

The Cobra with his Heavy J Studios card

When things were barely getting started, I jotted down a figure of $25,000. It absolutely seemed crazy at the time, but it gets less and less crazy every week. Thanks to everyone who’s been part of the effort.