Christine I had the pleasure and honor of being apart of a world wide outpouring for my partner in surveying at the City of Lawton. It became know as the Michael Porter Fund. Micheal has a disease that is non-curable and will someday need a liver transplant. He is one of the finest men that I have ever known. A devout Christian, non-smoker and non-drinker. My respect grew day by day after I became employed at the city and watched Micheal take care of his mother who had alzheimers. He sacrificed everything to take care of her daily until she had deterioated to the point where it was a danger to her and him by leaving her alone at any point. Burners on the stove with an empty pot and those sorts of things that would have eventually led to some serious consequence. During that time he was diagnosed with his disease and he really started to deteriorate himself. The stress of both was immense. Adding to this stress was the qualifications needed to get on the transplant list. He already lived the lifestyle that they required but they also needed an account with $60,000 in it to fund just his after transplant drugs. Maintenance drugs I suppose they are called. I recall an old science fiction story called the "Cold Calculations". That is what Micheal was involved in with the doctors. They want to do transplants on those that will get the most benefit from them and with the best chance of long term survival after the transplant. Part of that is the financing portion. Micheal needed to raise $60,000 so we started what I thought would be a good start by having some people donate items that others on the POB bid on. This soon blossomed into much, much more with noted authors donating works, Topcon the manufacture donating a base station and many other generous donations. And some were uniquely personal gifts. Afghans hand knitted or birch wood baskets made as they did hundreds of years ago. It was the most amazing thing that I have ever been a part off and in about 6 months time Michaels account with the National Foundation for Transplants had grown to over $60,000. What does this all have to so with surveying? Well, Everthing. We are seen as having the reputation for being stubborn, opinionated and often just downright onery. The Michael Porter fund showed the side that every surveyor that I have ever met has within him. The giving side and the caring for a brother in need. And this was not surveyors that worked with Micheal or that even knew him. This was a world wide effort by the entire fraternity of surveyors. It was very special time and I hope the others got as much enjoyment as I did from watching or participating in the auctions over those months. And several contributed a huge amount of time and effort and I will never be able to thank them enough. But for me. Michael will get a shot at a liver when his time comes. And Surveyors can feel that were a huge part of that process. Micheal is a pretty private person but I could see him improving both in health and in attitude as the auctions went on and I think he was surprised by the outpouring of compassion and help by people that he had never met. Deral