Today I made my 135th Kiva loan. I have loaned and reloaned my money in $25 increments so that I have made $3,500 in loans to 344 borrowers in 70 countries. I adore Kiva. I cannot say enough good things about it. So I want to try something new.

Most of you know that later this month is the 6th anniversary of Patrick’s death. Most of you also know that I try to do a fundraiser in his memory around this time, given that the dates of his passing and his birthday are so close together. Some of you know that I have been contemplating creating a non-profit in Patrick’s memory, but I haven’t quite figured out what I want it to do—but I’m getting closer.

In the meantime, for this year, I am asking for donations for Kiva loans to use in their “Health” category, to pay for other people’s medical expenses. You can do this in one of 2 ways:

1) Create or use your own Kiva account, join Patrick’s Peeps (https://www.kiva.org/team/patricks_peeps)and attribute a loan you make to the Team.

2) Make a donation directly to me that I will pool together with all donations received and use solely for loans attributed to Patrick’s Peeps. I have made a separate Patrick’s Peeps Kiva account just for this purpose that you can friend if you have your own account.

For those who are interested, I will provide monthly update posts here so that you can see who we helped and how the loans are doing. As funds are repaid, I will relend those funds to other borrowers. That way, your one-time donation will last for years and help many more people in the future.

If you are interested in making a donation, please email me at patricks.peeps@gmail.com to request my mailing address or Venmo account information. Thank you for helping me remember my son.