My name is Peter Litster. I am 38 years old, a single father, and a long-time progressive social and environmental justice activist. I recently moved from Salt Lake City, Utah to Olympia, WA to pursue opportunities in my vocational field, and to complete my bachelors’ degree.
In the process, I consolidated my 38 years of life, education, work, activism, and fatherhood into one storage unit in Salt Lake City.
This storage contains decades-worth of my academic, vocational, artistic, and activist history, including original, raw video footage and archives of items from major historic events that I have participated in, and centrally organized, over many years.
In addition, it contains all vital documents for both me and my son (legal, medical, sentimental etc.), and all my consolidated capacity for home, office, shop, studio and library.
Unfortunately, this storage unit is in jeopardy. I need to raise $1,000 by no later than April 12th to both pay off my arrears and to secure storage for another 3 months while I recover from a recent job loss, and to help develop other existing employment opportunities.
Background
The storage company had been allowing me to go in arrears since November while I settled into a new job in a new location. I had obtained a salaried position with a caregiving agency, which afforded me the ability to provide for my family, cover my bases, and be of optimal service to my community.
But then I lost the job due to government clerical errors and bureaucratic delay in processing my activism-related legal record. Literally, after I’d been trained and was on the job for a week, I was tripped up by the FBI record of an arrest at an anti-war protest a decade ago. I had to be pulled off the job while it was reviewed, but was thoroughly cleared after 3 weeks of shuffling documents between law offices, state and federal agencies and the courts.
My actual record did not disqualify me from my position, but the bureaucratic delay in processing errors on it lost me my job. While I was under review, and despite my diligence in moving the process along, my employer had to replace me.
However, I have been able to cover all my subsistence bases, and am developing other opportunities, but I’m left with this one immediate obligation that exceeds my ability to cover it without asking for help.
I've had a great relationship with the management of the storage facility. They have been very generous in giving me leeway while I got set up in Olympia, WA, which I have done. However, the loss of this job is putting pressure on them, and they can't just let it go. I just got notice that they're soon going to have to start processing it for auction if I don't pay in full.
I posted an emergency appeal yesterday on Facebook, and was able to obtain a personal loan of $500.00 due to the sacrifice of a generous friend. This has secured me for another month, but it needs to be paid back post haste, as close to immediately as possible., and I need to raise another $90 to keep the unit open past April 13th. Beyond that, I am shooting to raise a cool $1,000 total to preserve the space for an additional 3 months while I recover my employment.
Please donate. It would be a tragedy for me, my family, and for posterity for all of this to be unnecessarily lost. $1,000 would get the job done, and would grease the wheels for future development, capacity building and sustainability.
Other Ways You Can Help
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