Cross-posted, per request, from Facebook via John Wrisley
Looking for some help. On June 19th, 2025, the home of Dave and Carrie Dolph was destroyed by fire.
While there were no injuries to them or their pets, the house has been deemed unsafe for occupancy.
The good news is, they own the land, and don’t have an overhanging mortgage.
The bad news is, they lived in a very old mobile home, and the insurance company is unlikely to provide enough money for the loss to get the old home removed, put in a new septic and slab, and replace the home. There may not even be enough money from the insurance to do any one of those things, let alone all of them.
Some of you may know Dave and Carrie from the Realms (Sir Callin of Folkestone, and Sir Tetch), some from online gaming (Rael and Bael Krieg (of New World), Spiritrend and Shadowrend (of Everquest) or Skyhoof and Spirithoof (of World of Warcraft)), Queens Gambit Game store, or any number of other geeky related pursuits. Dave may also be known to you through his prolific writing of RPG material for both 5E and ToRG. Or you may know them as family or relatives, or from their working professional lives.
Friends and family have urged them to start a GoFundMe to help get them into a home. Others suggested a charity drive of sorts, tapping into Carrie’s current profession. They are going to do both.
For the charity drive, the goal is to hold an online auction through Replay Sales and Service/Auction Ninja where the profits go to help the rebuild. We’re looking for any kind of small, shippable items (preferably smaller than a breadbox or under 30 pounds) and of a geeky nature (such as, but not limited to: comics, board games, collectors figurines, cups, decor, CCG stuff, books, small electronics, funky art, LARP clothing or props, etc) though really, any item may be suitable. Generally, the item would need to be worth at least $10 to make it a good candidate for auction. There are going to be at least 3 donation collection areas, one at the Replay Sales barn (Newmarket NH), one at Camelot (Berlin MA) (sponsored/overseen by Clockwork), and at Realms events or practices, sponsored/overseen by James Murphy (TAO)). The goal would be to gather up all the donations by July 19th, get them to the Replay barn and post them for the Auction (probably launching in mid August and ending a week or so later).
Dave and Carrie hope to launch both the auction and the GoFundMe at roughly the same time. The littlest they can come up with for an amount needed is $100,000 if they get another mobile home (not preferred), closer to $200,000 if they get a modular or similar home (better for the ecology, and also better for a host of other reasons). They are likely to need to take out a mortgage using the land as collateral.
How can you help?
*Spread the word. Cut and paste this notice, or a variation of it to your own contacts. The more people that know, the better the chances of reaching a goal or getting auction items. This can be spread through word of mouth, fliers, emails or social media. However you like, all of it is helpful.
*If you have collectibles or auction-potential items that you are willing to donate to the cause, please reach out to John Wrisley (email: johnwrisley@yahoo.com), James Murphy (email: Letheris@aol.com) or Clockwork to get directions and find a good time to drop them off.
James will be at “Divine Intervention 3”, the weekend of the 11-13 of July. as well as most upcoming events. He also usually attends Wednesday practice in Nashua NH, but for enough stuff (gas has to be worth it) He will hit any other practice to pick stuff up. Please reach out to him to arrange something.
*If you have money but not time or collectibles, keep an eye out for the upcoming GoFundMe.
Please share this to Realms folk from back in the day. You can call or text me at 603 553 1495, contact me through facebook or email Johnwrisley@yahoo.com
