50th Birthday Party Details

Though my birth was 11:09 am on August 20, 1972, the birthday party will be at 4pm on August 20, 2022.

August 20, 1972

The place will be at First Congregational Church, 1000 S Cooper Street, Memphis, TN 38104

(you can also GPS 973 Blythe Street, Memphis, TN 38104, for parking).

BRING NO GIFTS!  I literally have NO ROOM for anything; but I do ask that you please DONATE to the FOOD MINISTRY at First Congo which feeds many, many people in need.  I can't accept any gifts as I have no room at all anymore.  To see other charities that I support CLICK HERE.

There will be a sketchbook and art supplies for sketches, drawings, fun messages, 

Bring your good times, bring some food if you can.  

About 5:15 p.m., Muley the Mule and Friends will share a special presentation, and maybe some special guests.

EVERYONE IS INVITED!  I love my friends - the greatest gift a fella can ask for - and look forward to you being there with me as I end half a century on this planet and start the next 50 years.

Charities that I Support

Birthday or holiday, people are generous and wonderful.  But, everyone knows me: I love my friends, which I consider my greatest gifts of all-time!  I just want to be around people I love that care about me, and I'm going to have a happy birthday, a Merry Christmas, or whatever.

That's also to say: Please don't buy me anything.  I literally have a ton of stuff already.

What I would like for you to do is consider one of the charitable options below in order to celebrate anything with me, and help some much needed organizations.  Check back, I'll be adding others.

First, the church I attend is First Congo.  They have TONS of ministries that help so many people.  The ministry that first sticks out in my heart is the food ministry.  As of this writing, there are around 500 people that come to lunch each week seeking food.  We also buy about $700+ food to go with the Memphis Food Bank and MIFA supplemental foods along with a food pantry to shop in and clothes closet.  Help feed others, because your money goes a long way here!  CLICK HERE to support.

Muley has been the Official Spokes-Mule for the Ronald McDonald House of Memphis for a few years, and that's because we support the House that Love Built, housing 50+ children that are being treated at St. Jude Children's Hospital and their families (so families aren't torn apart).  The living conditions are clean, and the kids are surrounded by loving staff and volunteers, and they get to have great events that will let them share time with each other.  This communication between kids and parents going through the same thing is very beneficial to all of them.  CLICK HERE to support.

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.  What can I say that you don't already know? CLICK HERE to support them.

Patreon: MAW Productions.  These are my dearest friends and folks with whom I've worked for around 20 years on graphic novels and more.  This Patreon account helps the whole family keep the artwork and books going.  CLICK HERE to support them.

My pup Bebe had to go through a long bout of cancer treatment and is doing great today.  Part of the help came from the Live Like Roo organization!  Please find it in your heart to donate something to help other pets in need: https://www.livelikeroo.org/donate/

There are a few other organizations that educate and entertain.  Here is a list that I'd like for you to use:
Memphis Zoo and Aquarium
Woodruff-Fontaine House Museum
Youth Villages
Elmwood Cemetery
National Civil Rights Museum
Save the Massac Theater
Center for Puppetry Arts
Yellow Feather Fund
Give Kids the World
Make A Wish
Charles M. Schulz Museum

If helping kids is your leaning:
OSO MINISTRIES
Another charity that I support is overseas, and it's because I constantly get real updates, personalized notes and letters, and photos of things like receipts and the purchased goods. OSO (Orphan Serves Orphans) Ministries is operated by Kasiita Frank who was orphaned and lived on the streets after running away from an abusive uncle.  He went to a church and now serves as what we would call a missionary.  I've watched him build a house for the kids, feed the kids, raise the kids, educate the kids.  He's also recently been able to afford a post office box so you can write the kids: (Kid Name, ICO Kasiita Frank, PO Box 8726, Kampala Uganda) (you can also send clothes, etc., to this address).
Meet the kids by CLICKING HERE.
Their needs at present: Food is a constant need (he mainly serves Posho (a cornmeal mixture eaten like a dough) and Beans (a $200/week expense), Windows for the new house (roughly $500 at this writing), Bore hole for fresh water well (for the orphanage, but also for his community), plus he hopes to make the orphanage self-sustainable by adding solar panels, buying more land to build a farm for vegetables, fruit trees, and animals.  School supplies are needed twice a year at $40/child, and he hopes to build a school room separate from the orphanage.
CLICK HERE to donate.
Kasiita says, "Caring for children who have ended up alone due to poverty, abandonment or death is so close to my heart. That's why i look for support for children so that i can offer a safe environment where they can learn about how special they are in God's eyes."

Clothes and shoes are always welcome.

School supplies in hand!

Kasiita teaching the kids, something nobody did for him at that age.

House, still in construction, was dedicated with a little party.

Personal letter from Isma.

August 20, 2014 - Birthday #42

My birthday has come along again, which is always a good thing.  Whatever wrinkles I get, and whatever gray hair I may achieve (amid the hair that may still be left), I welcome it.

Years ago, a local radio DJ, Tim Spencer, was complaining on the air about his birthday coming up.  I wondered why?  I mean, the alternative isn't such a good plan.  It seems kind of boring!  So, days later he mentioned me on the air as he read a sympathy card that I mailed him stating, "A reminder that the alternative sucks. Happy Birthday!"  And he agreed.

And birthdays are just that: celebration of life.  Usually with cakes, presents, cards.  I don't need presents.  If you're reading this then you're likely already a gift to me.  If you want to doodle something on copy paper and give that to me, I'll take it.  The gifts created by hand mean more to me than anything else I could be given.  Even more important to me than money, because hand-made, or hand-drawn, is a part of someone and who they are, and that is a great gift.

I can say that the best birthday I ever had was surrounded by tons of my friends and co-workers at Isaac Hayes' restaurant back in the early 2000's.  My friend Di Anne Price was performing on the stage, tickling the ivories, and I was gifted by the presence of so many beautiful, wonderful people.

I posted on Facebook once that: Friends are the best gifts people can give of themselves, and that you can allow yourself to be given.

That is truer as each year goes by.  I make many new friends and am glad to welcome them into my life!  Interesting people, fun people, creative people.  I don't know or hang out with a single person who isn't special in some way.  With that, I am completely blessed.

Sunday morning, August 17, my mom, during conversation, is the first person this year to say, "Happy Birthday," and that is fantastic to me because I am 100%, and without a shadow of a doubt, a mama's boy.  I love my little mama!  She's a nut, so I come by it naturally.

My second surprise, for real, today has been my friends singing Happy Birthday to me over cake and pizza (had I known, I would have skipped stopping by Taco Hell).  I usually notice or catch on, but this was pulled off seamlessly, ha ha.  I had no clue.

So, what will this birthday week have in store for me?  What will the next year?  I don't know.  I do know that as long as I can have my friends be as big a part of my life as they have always been then it will be another great, fun, happy  year for me.

I am truly blessed.

I end this post with a neat picture I found tonight:
August 1976, somewhere between Holly Springs, MS and Gatlinburg, TN.  My parents were taking me to the mountains and we stopped off at this visitor center where there was a teepee and Big Bird and Cookie Monster.  I'm looking through things tonight, and I find the following photo.  Somewhere, there is a photo of me chasing Cookie Monster around as I laugh my butt off because he was scared of the puppet I had of himself.  And this, as you can tell, is a fun photo to me because I was star-struck!  I have always loved Big Bird, even if it wasn't the real one but, as the guy told me and I recall to this day, "I'm his cousin!"