Outland Armour Bus

Hey everyone!

We want to thank each and every one of you who has contributed so far. I broke down in tears today when I turned on my computer and saw how much money has already been raised. You guys are wonderful and we love each and every one of you!

Also, we've received messages from some people going to Steampunk World's Fair next week who are concerned that we might be canceling our appearance there in light of our losses in Nashville. We just want to reassure everyone that we WILL in fact be there, one way or another! And that's in no small part thanks to your contributions here.

We have decided that any money donated here will go directly to our fund to buy a new bus. Thanks to your generous contributions, we are well on our way to achieving that goal!

We look forward to seeing some of you at SPWF next week!

Thank you guys for everything!
~The Outlanders

First of all, I want to say thank you so so much to each and every person who has contacted us over the past few days saying that they want to help us out. We really appreciate the outpouring of support from all our friends in the steampunk community.

Unfortunately, things don't look very good at all right now. Here is the status report we received from the hotel today.

It seems now the authorities have condemned the hotel and we will not be allowed to go get our stuff out of the room. They have told us that at some point in the future, they will gathering personal items from the rooms and shipping them to their owners. But there is no telling how long that will take. (Or how much care the hotel staff will take with fragile items like the wing pack) All the vehicles in the hotel parking lot will be towed to a salvage lot, where the insurance adjusters will take a look at the cars and assess damage.

My Gatling gun arm and the radio wing pack are in the hotel room. Most of our other steampunk gear, including Steampunk Boba Fett, Steampunk Darth Vader, Steampunk Chewbacca, Craig's Dissonance Wave Sonification Rifle, Danny's steampunk vest plate for Captain Dantes, several boxes of product like goggles and headwings, a lightning pistol, lightning rifle, steampunk clothing items like bloomers and bustles, 2 boxes full of jewelry and accessories, among other things, is in who knows what condition inside the bus. In addition to the steampunk items, Lindsay's Lolita's -n- Cream product and my rawk + kandy product lines are also in the bus.

Some things in need of repair did not go with us to MTAC, and so they are safe. These include Danny's steam tank for Captain Dantes, the hand cannon, Adam's Argus Astronomic Rifle, and my Hand of Glory.

At the water's highest point, our bus was completely submerged. At this time, we cannot assess the actual damage to our things, but we can only assume that most, if not all of our items inside the bus, are now lost. All of our personal items in our hotel room are currently off-limits, and there is no telling how long it will be before we can get anything back from there.

We will also not be getting any FEMA assistance as we are not a registered company and the items that we have lost are either already covered by insurance (cars) or they were items that aren’t considered things necessary to survive (pretty much all of our gear).

So all that being said, we are far from being in a good position to attend our first ever Steampunk convention which is happening... 9 days from now.

As some others have already said, the things that we have lost are not simply pretty things and costumes; they are our business and our livelihood. It's going to take us a very long time to recover from this... and here we are right in the start of con season, with tons of events coming up this summer.

I've been directed by people who wish to help that I should set up this fund on ChipIn, so I have done so.

For any donations we receive, we want to be able to give something back to you guys. So!

- CONTEST AND PRIZES -

- For every donation of $10 or more, you will receive a 5" x 7" printof your choice, from any of the photos in our gallery here:http://outlandarmour.deviantart.com/gallery/

- The contributor who donates the most will receive a custom prop piece of your choice made by Outland Armour.

- The second most contributor will receive a custom modified pair of steampunk goggles.

- The third most contributor will receive a custom jewelry piece.

- Other contributors will be selected at random to receive other, smaller prizes.

Thank you everyone for your help in this effort!

And if you can't donate funds, we are very happy to accept junk like sheet brass, nuts and bolts, or anything else that could be used to build steampunk props. If you have something you would like to contribute, email me at Laura @OutlandArmour.com for the address.

Thank you all!
~Laura and The Outlanders