ramblin_rosie | For SPN friends who haven't heard...

Yesterday Jared asked for donations to St. Jude's Children's Hospital in lieu of gifts for the baby. The folks at WinchesterBros set up a fundraiser, which garnered over $3,700 in the first twelve hours. Jared said he cried out loud.
As of now, the total is steadily approaching $8,000. The mods have already raised the goal twice--first was $5k, then $10k, and now it's $20k. And that's not counting the toy drive that another fan has set up!

I'm really glad--and wholly unsurprised. Glad, of course, because I had a feeling Jared would rather have fans give to charity (the original purpose of

j2_nextgen, but I'm relieved other people are taking the lead on this) and because St. Jude's is a very worthy cause, but my lack of surprise isn't just due to the nature of this fandom. When Richard Hammond had his horrible wreck a few years back, someone in the Top Gear fandom found out that a) ambulance and Lifeflight agencies are wholly private in the UK and b) the Yorkshire Air Ambulance, which life-flighted Richard, was in need of a new helicopter. So that person set up a fundraiser--and the fans, if I remember right, contributed enough for both the helicopter and at least a year's maintenance.
And then there are fandom fundraisers like help_japan and help_haiti (to name only two), and fan-driven groups like Random Acts and Sanctuary Cares for Kids, not to mention instances when fans have banded together to help one of their own who has fallen on hard times.
Commentators often argue that there's no such thing as community on the Internet. I think this sort of outpouring proves them wrong. :)