On June 27, long-time supporters of Wireman Comics gathered to celebrate our successful cross-1/2 country trip. Attendants got to see some of the videos not published on the web (for privacy reasons) because they detailed the stories of individual kids and how Wireman has affected them.

We heard about a 4th grader in Chicago who could not recognize some of the letters in the alphabet. When asked how Wireman compared to other books in his school library or in his reader, he made a gesture with his hand to indicate that the other books were so-so. “But when I saw Wireman, I just wanted to read it over and over again.”

15 year old, Juan, a struggling reader in Youngstown, Ohio, likes Wireman because it feels so familiar to his life in South Youngstown. “Kids get bullied all the time. There are shootings for no reason. It’s gang-related and there’s nothing you can do about it. But I feel like…if people read Wireman, it could change all that…there are people in Wireman who are working to protect kids…it could save somebody’s life.”

So many people helped make the evening a success. E. Miles Wilson and Ray and Kristin Abraham hosted the evening at the Johnson Center for Philanthropy at Grand Valley State University.

San Chez restaurant donated wine and pintxos! Here, General Manager Cindy Schneider and Food and Beverage Manager, Dan Schneider, set up.

Lively conversations went on about how Wireman could continue. Pictured here are long-time Wireman supporters, Cary Okoro, Brent Smith and Terri McElwee. Morgan Doane (with back to the camera) organized the dinner, which was kindly donated by our supper club from stirthepotgr.

My mom and dad drove over from the east side of the state to be part of the celebration. Here, Dad and I greet Bert Bleke.

Jan Bleke and Molly Corriveau, who has provided art direction for Wireman from the beginning, get ready to eat!

After a great meal, we settled down to brainstorming ways to keep Wireman going. In a half hour, we’d raised $3,000 for the Indiegogo Campaign. Here Ray and I celebrate hitting our 30% mark!

Not pictured, but celebrated for their contributions, are Cang Du, our Wireman artist, who explained how Wireman encouraged him in his reading as a recent immigrant from Vietnam; Max Gilles, who launched the Indiegogo campaign and received tips from Kelly LeCoy of UptownKitchen on crowdfunding; and Melissa Koski, who was behind the camera.

Thank you so much, everyone!