CERF

I don't know how many of the readers of this blog know about CERF, the Craft Emergency Relief Fund, but I thought that for those of you who want to do something for someone who needs help, it might be something you could handle even if you cannot do much else.

CERF helps artists who need help because of natural disasters, fires, thefts, illnesses...really anything that destroys their lives and/or art. It also works to provide education and advancement for artisans/crafters on an ongoing basis.

Right now, the focus is on aid to Katrina victims. Most of the people CERF is trying to help are professional artists and artisans who not only lost their homes, but lost their livelihoods as well and cannot currently rebuild because they don't have the materials. CERF is contacting local guilds and artists, seeing what people need, and has set up boards on their website for people to contact others with requests for -- and offers of -- help.

Through the boards on the CERF site, I've sent glass to glass artists, beads and tools to jewelers. Anything you have that you aren't using will be appreciated. Another thing that's particularly useful to folks is to find places that will sell their work -- the galleries many of them had their things in were destroyed, the shows they had planned to sell at are no longer going to happen -- so if you know people who are interested in working with artists, that information is really helpful.

There's a guy on the CERF boards at the moment who's acting as a "tool warehouse" for all the tools people are sending. If no one posts that they need what you have right now (and remember a lot of these people cannot even get onto the CERF board at the moment...it will be some time before they can), you can send him tools. He will pay the shipping to send them on to whoever requests them. Anything left over after a suitable period of time will be auctioned on ebay with the proceeds going to CERF.

So...another way to help for those who want to do so.