Carole Giorgio Auction

Thank you for visiting the Carole Giorgio Auction. This Auction was held to benefit one of my fellow Xena bards and fiction authors, Carole Giorgio whose daughter, Nicole, is battling brain cancer. Not only is this an emotional struggle but a financial one as well. 

You can read her story by clicking HERE. 

I'm pleased to say that we all raised more than $11,000 for Carole at a time when she needs it most. My heartfelt thanks goes out to all the help we've received - the donors, the bidders, the promotional hands and MaryD for her overworked server<G>. We'd also like to thank those of you that sent in your monetary donations or purchased Carole's book - every little bit helped.  I know many of you wrote about your own battle with cancer or those of a loved ones battle. Although I didn't have time to reply while running the auction as I would've liked, let me take the time to thank you for sharing your stories with us. We too wish you the best of everything and appreciate your kind and supportive words.

This site will soon be moving to it's old home at http://carolegiorgio.tripod.com on Dec. 26th so you may still make donations or purchase Carole's books until the end of January. 

Sincerely,

CN Winters, Proud to be a Xenite<G>

Now here's a few words from Carole herself:

Hello to Everyone:

I’m sitting here in front of my monitor with my fingers on the keyboard, and although words are spinning around in my brain, they don’t seem to want to come out in full sentences. Words like Thanks . . . Wow . . . Family . . . Friends . . . Goodness . . . Generous . . . Unbelievable . . . Heartfelt and . . . Overwhelmed.

Perhaps the word that jumps out the most is overwhelmed, yet that shouldn’t be a surprise to me or to anyone reading this message. The people of the Xenaverse have always overwhelmed me when it comes to generosity, goodness, helpfulness, and giving a sense of family to all who open their hearts, minds, and arms to receive it.

The cross section from which all the donated items were received still gives me goose bumps. I marvel at all of the people, many of whom I shall probably never meet in person, who have given so freely to my family and me. There was such a variety of items to bid on including: the written word from many, many bards; drawings from talented artists; music and video CDs from the computer literate among us, autographed pictures given directly from Xena actors themselves as well as items given up for auction by fans who had most likely purchased them as collectibles for themselves. There were many specialty items that came from as varied a realm as we all come from: Xenites, readers, bards, artists, crafts people, a new publisher, and even one of the producers/writers of Xena whose initials are SS <g>. In addition to donated items, I received many monetary donations.

Then commenced the bidding! I could fill the page with the words “Thank You,” but for some reason they don’t seem to say enough. I know you’re sitting there thinking––Two words would never be enough for a bard. Bards always need to embellish, change, stretch, overcompensate, and elaborate on what is already perfect. Well, you’re right! But I could write an essay on the way my heart felt when the auction first went into existence and what I felt when CN Winters and Karyn Carrico told me they were going to handle the entire project for me. I could tell about how my heart skipped a beat when the site went up and how it fluttered as I watched object after object being added to the pages. Tears fill my eyes, as I type this even now, when I think of how loving and giving you all are to someone whom you may or may not even know, but whose plight has touched you somewhere in your humanity. You have all responded far beyond what I would have anticipated, but knowing what a great group of people you all are, I suppose I shouldn’t be at all surprised. But, here I am rambling again . . . I’m a member of the Xenaverse, I should know better (grin).

Perhaps it is time to just fall back on those two familiar words that, in actuality, can encompass everything that is in my heart. So, with a lump in my throat (that is hard to convey across the Internet), and with a heart bursting with gratitude, I want to stand and applaud all of you. Then I want to reach out and touch each and every one of you with my heartfelt . . . THANK YOU!