My Nonprofit Reviews

My first experience dealing with the Hero Initiative was at Christmas in 2008 and it was, quite literally, life-changing. Homeless, jobless and under a burden of extreme debt because of it--they were willing to help me when no one else could or would. And it started with a simple e-mail asking for help, that took me excruciating hours to write. The staff was patient, thoughtful, thorough and quick in helping me, though, after they heard the story of my experience in the comic book industry they're serving and how it lead to that point in my life.

Through the next year and a half, to my surprise, the Hero Initiative helped me with it all. I was working again, free of debt and was even able to finally move back into an apartment by the end of that time. Most importantly, though, they helped give me a renewed sense of self and a reason to trust people again in an industry that's quick to turn the other way at another's misfortune.

There is one thing I didn't expect to happen, though, when I wrote that e-mail in 2008. That in the years that followed they'd plant the seed in me to also volunteer as much help as I can to such a great cause. I got to know Jim McLauchlin and the various Hero Initiative volunteers and, through them, other organizations like the Wounded Warrior Project. I became involved in helping other comic-industry peers and learned about the plight of many more, not known to the public-at-large. Some tragic. None ignored by the Hero Initiative. I couldn't think about doing anything less.

In an industry and a culture in our country that cultivates the ideals of "whatever it takes to get ahead" and "as long as I got mine..", it feels good to lend that helping hand as selflessly as the one handed to me, and Jim McLauchlin and the whole Hero Initiative organization deserve all the thanks for that.
Christopher Ivy