A Yurt Temple for Nita's Birthday! <3

Dearest Sangha Mates,

July 30th, 2020 is our beloved teacher Nita's birthday!
 In her honor, a few of us in the Year 5 sangha decided to put our heads and hearts  together to create a Surprise birthday present toward a wonderful cause.

As some of you may know, Nita, her partner Geoffrey and her family moved to property in Nevada City, which has become their permanent home. For many months (years?!) they have been looking forward to building a Temple in a freestanding Yurt on the land. Though the Casita, as Nita and Geoffrey call their cozy house, is very small, they have done a valiant job of setting up beautiful altars and continuing their deep practice, but many of Nita's sacred items and additional murthis have remained in storage.

 With the building of a dedicated Temple Yurt, Nita & Geoffrey will be able to unpack all of their sacred items, have much more space to do their practices with ease and grace, and create a permanent forest temple home devoted to Ma.

We know that Nita and Geoffrey have been quietly collecting funds for this purpose for months now. With this fact, and Nita's upcoming birthday in mind, we reached out directly to Geoffrey to check on the status of the fund. He said that they were 'very close'! ...and that Nita had just the other day said, "I wonder if we can get the yurt up by the fall". . .!

We welcome your participation, as much or as little as you can give to the cause.

As Nita (and Parvathi) have taught, it gives many boons to help or aid (financially or physically) in the construction of a temple for one's teacher in the Sri Vidya lineage. How fortunate that we get the opportunity in this lifetime to do so now. Geoffrey mentioned that they need only about $4,000 more dollars to get the Yurt and it's full foundation set up and fully realized.

With the two sanghas (totaling around an estimated 50 of us) the $4800 number can be reached easefully and gracefully! ( For example, if each makes a donation of between $50 and 200, (with an average of $96) we would reach the goal in no time. You are welcome to put more, or less depending on your individual circumstances and ability at this time. We are aware that times are financially tough right now for many, and we are sensitive to this fact. As Nita often says, "Let's not hold any tension around this" endeavor, and allow Ma to assist each of us to give what we can, knowing that SHE is organizing everything right here, right now.

In the goal listed above, you may have noticed we are raising $800 extra dollars (to cover the costs of the fundraising platform) and also to add a "cherry on top" an 'additional' gift for Nita that will make a huge difference in the quality of her life: the gift of "AC".

Geoffrey also mentioned that a gift of Air Conditioning for the home would be wonderful, as well - as Nita was "wilting in the heat." Nevada County summers can be well into the 100's. We set the number at $800, so that a few small AC units can be purchased as a temporary solution to the heat.

Nita and Geoffrey plan to have AC properly installed into the foundation of their home (at a cost of $6,000) - and any additional funds on top of the $4,800 raised in the birthday fund will go towards the installation of the permanent AC system - (we hear they are much quieter than the standalone or window units).

To that end, we have invited the Year 5 and Year 2 to all join in chipping in what we can toward the realization of our teacher having a Temple Yurt to Ma and some temporary AC units to withstand the hot, hot, hot Nevada County summers!

We plan to deliver the money in a SURPRISE zoom call for Nita on her Birthday on July 30th. We will deliver the check, with a card from the sangha's and a bouquet of flowers from Barbara's Garden. Save some space on your calendar for this zoom call in late July! If you'd like to join, please be sure to add a *current* email address with your donation, and we will provide more information about the exact details of this call.

It is a pleasure and an honor to support our teacher.
Thank you for your practice, for your consideration & for your contribution.

Jai Jai MA!

<3

PS: Questions? Please reach out to the organizers via Justine A. or directly to Barbara H. & Marcie G. in Year 5 :)

PPS: Why did we chose MightyCause?

* It allows for a much simpler way to collect & track & share money from a group of 50+.

*It is more secure than Paypal/Venmo.

*It allows us to keep the link private & not be made public to the entire internet. This is an important factor. Please kindly refrain from posting on your social or making this link public in any way. Sharing too far outside the two sanghas or Nita's circle is not encouraged at this time. 

*MightyCause has the lowest cost fee structure available. They ask for $.30 cents per donation and a 2.9% processing fee of total amount: this equals roughly $145. Other platforms like IndieGoGo, Paypal take between 5% to 8%. Quite fair at the end of the day.

<3
Thank you!