We are done with both gold shows. U[ at the GPAA show in Seattle,Tom says it was fantastic! New members, lots of interest and the GPAA was extremely generous in giving AMRA the raffle to host up there. Thank you GPAA!
We had another exceptional day at the ICMJ show in Placerville. We had two men who drove all the way from Salt Lake City UT just to talk to us in person. We had people come all the way from Northern Idaho just to join AMRA and talk about the problems with the USFS up there.
We had two folks today who wrote a $1,000 personal check to us because they believe in our message and to quote Ed, “you are people of integrity and that is why we are doing this donation”. We’d like to thank the Burchard’s for the generous donation…..and then they fought us when we tried to give them a nice care package of shirts and hats. It is those kind of people AMRA is humbled by. Thank you
We gave WMA, Western Mining Alliance another check today for their legal bills (which we made a dent in, but they still have a long way to go to pay them off). Please, if you can, send a few bucks their way. They are one of AMRA’s closest partners in the legal fight.
We’d send money to our buddy Brandon Rinehart, but his bill is currently at a zero balance. AMRA is the largest financial contributor to Brandon’s defense fund by far with WMA being the second largest financial contributor. We have given Brandon and Lauren our word that his family will not be burdened with this legal bill, no matter what happens. We will keep our word, just like we did with the two men who were cited in Fresno county who we not just represented and had their case dismissed, but paid the entire $20,000+ legal bill ourselves.
It is because of your donations we can do all these wonderful things. A humble thank you from all of us.
We are going to set up for our outing next weekend on Friday and directions will follow shortly. We will have brightly colored signs with AMRA and arrows on them to guide you all the way from Coulterville to the claims.
We are looking for a few volunteers for each day, Saturday and Sunday to basically sell raffle tickets for the TONS of prizes we have for this outing. If you’d like to volunteer, please respond to this post and we’ll work out the details with you. We’d like to free up some of the AMRA staff to work with new miners on how to read creeks, where to dig and so they may actually get out and dig themselves. Remember folks, we don’t get paid for this so if we find $50 in gold ourselves….we get pretty excited too!
Lastly, we all need to thank the AMRA staff for this tireless devotion to this cause. Tom Mitchell is driving two days just to get home, then heading immediately to the outing this weekend. Connie and Jere were in Portland last week, Placerville this week, and the outing next week. Jim Hamilton even flew from Phoenix to help at this show……..on his own dime. No kidding. It is people like this which make up AMRA. I’m more than proud to say they are my friends. Thank you Tom, Mike, Jim, Jere, Connie, and the volunteers in both states who worked their butts off for AMRA.
Let us know if you can volunteer next weekend, and if not, come out and have fun. You don’t need to be a member, it is open to everyone both days and is completely free. Free meaning free.
The small mining community is uniting and it is a beautiful thing…………….
Shannon