Thank you from the Arlen family

Dear friends and strangers who have yet to become friends,

When we arrived at R00tz Asylum, the kids’ electronic badges which we had volunteered to design and assemble were not complete. We needed to produce about 50 more badges. We knew we had some to make but we did not anticipate so many to be damaged or broken beyond repair in transit. With help, we pulled together people to pick and place parts, solder, run for dinner, run for more extension cords and tweezers and many other tasks.

To the best of my ability I’d like to thank those who spent many hours helping out: Jason, Wil, Dirk, Emily and Jessica from Parallax, Matt and Chesley, Alex who voluntold Matt and Chesley, Darth Null, Dave, Heather, the 2 engineers who Heather recruited, Wil again because he kicks so much ass he deserves to be mentioned twice… I know I’m forgetting several names, but not faces. Thank you for your time when you could have chosen so many other things to do.

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Re: the Myrcurial Scholarship Fund

Wil Knoll had this idea a few weeks ago to acknowledge Jamie for his commitment to the hacker community. We kicked around some thoughts about a gift or a token of some sort and then the scholarship part came into play. We had about $750 among the 6 or 7 of us.

When we announced the scholarship program at Hacker Pyramid Saturday night, we had no idea if it would catch fire. If memory serves, we had just over $2000 in the bucket in an hour of collections. We have verbal commitments of another $2500 that I’m aware of and other in kind donations that will help defray the cost of getting fledgling hackers to Las Vegas every summer for a week. There will be a donations link on this website once we get the legal stuff in place.

Thank you Wil (that’s now thrice) for inspiring the program and thanks to everyone who has already contributed. It will be very interesting to see how this whole thing evolves.

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I’ve attended many security and hacker conferences over the last 5 years. I’m not one of you but married to one of you. I have witnessed the outpouring of support and been completely gobsmacked when one of your own has needed a lift. From fundraising after a house fire to donating airline miles to get someone home in an emergency to defraying the cost of untimely funerals, this community gathers together to do the right thing. Our family has volunteered many hours and dollars to pitch in when we could and sometimes when we really couldn’t.

During DefCon 21 my family needed that same support. At this moment I would like to personally acknowledge those with boots on the ground (in no particular order):  Alex Hutton, David Mortman, Jack Daniel, Wendy Nather, Jayson Street, Amber Baldet, Elizabeth Martin, Jason Kendall, Brandon Knight, Chris Blow, Michael Ortega, Banasidhe, Wil Knoll (now thanked four times if you’re the counting type), Martin McKeay, Heidi Potter, Gillis Jones and Tim Krabec.

For those who weren’t in attendance and checked in to see if remote help was needed: Dave Lewis, Martin Fisher, Edgar Rojas, Ben Sapiro and Matt Johansen.

You surrounded and protected us. Your generosity and love will always be remembered. I hope you never need it but we will be there for you too. I do not know what I ever did in this life to deserve all of you but I thank the universe that our paths continue to cross. Thank you from the bottom of my ever grateful heart.

xoxox

Jackie aka @securityintern aka Jamie’s wife aka Mrs Hacker Pyramid aka Jillian’s Mom

As well as Jillian, Amelia, Andrew and Heather aka Jamie’s Mom

p.s. If I have forgotten you, I sincerely apologize. I did my best to remember.