Project 1999 - A Testament to the Virtue of the Community / Thank You P99

Some may consider this a long read, but I hope you'll bare with me in it and read it's entirety...

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A little over a month ago, my world was flipped upside down. I logged off the green server August 25th and went to bed knowing the next morning I might have to make the decision to flee my home and home town from Hurricane Laura. I had been watching the forecasts religiously, as many of us who call the Gulf Coast our home do during hurricane season. I awoke the next morning to find out Laura had intensified and knew then there was no other choice but to leave.

Although it wasn't the original plan, my family and I ended up on the outskirts of Tulsa with my in-laws. The drive took a little over 10 hours, and the whole way there I had this sinking feeling that although we had prepared and packed for a potential extended time away, there may be nothing left to return to. Having first hand seen the power of a category 3 hurricane with Hurricane Rita in 2005, I could only imagine what devastation would be left with an even stronger storm.

The next day (about 12 hours after the storm made landfall), I started home alone to survey the damage and help any neighbors/friends I could. It was only a couple hours into the drive that I got a call from a friend saying my house didn't make it. While I still had most of 4 walls remaining, the entire roof had been ripped off from the ceiling joists up and the house had been picked up and moved about 15 feet. This wasn't a trailer or modular home - it was a fully framed house on concrete piers with a crawl space and was anchored. Needless to say, the next several hours of driving back alone was a roller coaster of emotions. Later on (a couple weeks), my insurance would confirm what I had already known - my home was a total loss and not salvageable.

A couple days after the storm, I reached out to Jeptha to advise that I was likely going to be on an extended leave for an uncertain amount of time because of the circumstances. What happened next absolutely blew me away...

As some of you may have seen, Jeptha organized a gofundme campaign on my behalf. I would have never in a million years imagined a community based on a 20 year old game would respond the way it did. When I first found out about it, the campaign had been shared amongst our guild (Kingdom) and nearly $2000 had been raised within only a few days of the storm for my family and I. The next week, the campaign was shared on one of the P99 Facebook pages and others from outside Kingdom also contributed. In total, over $3000 was raised to help my family and I get through what I pray is the roughest times of our lives.

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I cannot say thank you enough to each and every one of you who donated. It's extremely hard to put into words just how much it means to my family and I.

In Kingdom, one of our philosophies is "People before Pixels" - and I believe this is just one more thing they've done to prove they live by it. I love you guys and I can't wait to play with yall again, hopefully soon!

To everyone who donated, inside or outside of Kingdom - thank you from the bottom of my heart. Hopefully I'll get the chance to thank each of you individually in game. And thank you for being some an awesome community.

~Tiggo / Kalmya / Zydeko