Help Keep an Inspirational Message Alive

Three days ago I wrote a post about my cousin, Ryan Gillis, a drug-addict-turned-inspiration who recently passed away in a car accident, and you all responded in a huge way. Not only did my usual blog followers drop by to give their condolences, but over 14,000 people showed up in total on that one day, coming from all over in search of information on Ryan. I also watched the visitor stats for Ryan’s “Love Life” video skyrocket, and I have to say that I couldn’t have been more thankful to see that Ryan’s message is being spread even in the wake of his death.

Today, because you’ve all been so wonderful and supportive, I want to share a couple of plans that are going on in Ryan’s name that some of you may wish to support.

First, Ryan’s family has opened a fund to raise money to help further some of Ryan’s loves in life. Ryan had been sponsoring a sweet little girl in Africa, so some of the money will go to continuing her sponsorship. Additional funds will be donated to N.A, A.A families, Yoga Halifax and Yellow Dog Studios, which were all so important to Ryan. There is no minimum amount on a donation, so if you’re interested you can donate whatever you want. Click the photo of Ryan and his sweet little angel below to go to the donation page:

If you can’t donate you may wish to participate in a video tribute to Ryan’s memory. Jay LeFrense, Ryan’s friend and professional videographer, is heading the project. He’s looking for as many people as possible to take a short video of themselves (just a few seconds) saying “Love Life” and telling where you’re from. (So, for instance, I would say, “Love Life, from Cape Breton”.) The videos will be collected by Jay from now until approximately Sunday, September 1st, and will be combined together to show just how far Ryan’s message has spread. If you’d like to take part in this video tribute, please upload your videos to the following Dropbox: http://dbinbox.com/lovelife

Finally, if you can’t donate and you don’t feel comfortable being part of the video, I ask simply for this: please share Ryan’s message. The video below – the same one I shared on Wednesday – was made so that he could share his story with the world and show people that no matter how far you fall, it’s always possible to climb back up again. So please share this video in whichever way you can so that the world can see it, and always remember: “LOVE LIFE!”