Beth Murch - Circle of Community Care

My name is Christine Ball, and I’m fundraising for my dear friend Beth Murch.

Last year, your generous, loving support helped Beth get her writeable tablet and new glasses before she embarked on the journey of her Masters degree last September, and she rocked that first year! Straight A’s (no surprise!), and despite being disabled, having chronic pain, COVID, and navigating online/in-person classes during the pandemic, year one is complete! The gratitude for your support is more than you can imagine.

After year one, Beth knew she had to look after herself and tackled a lighter load this semester because there’s a lot of healing you need to do for yourself when you’re learning to help others heal.

We’re contacting Beth’s community again to help her through the last few semesters. Beth has always felt her degree is a community degree- she’s getting through it with the support of friends, family, and amazing supporters she doesn’t even know! Our community will be enriched by Beth’s knowledge, guidance, compassion and strength. She intends to devote her practice to providing perinatal mental health, supporting people with birth trauma who are going through reproductive experiences, and providing trans- and nonbinary-affirming reproductive care, as there is precious little of this care focus. She has always been a vocal and steadfast ally of the queer and 2SLGBTQ+ community, and with her degree, she is looking forward to offering even more support and services often lacking in this area. This is incredibly important work.

Having a lighter course load this semester means much less OSAP, and Beth still needs to get to class as she is back to in-person learning. Uber, cab fare etc., eat into the precious few dollars left while trying to survive on Ontario Disability. Beth knows that this degree and the job she’ll be able to enjoy after graduation is her ticket out of poverty, and she is fighting as hard as she can to ensure this comes true.

With this GoFundMe, we hope to raise travel money for Beth. She has a family member in Sarnia who is not well, and it would ease a lot of stress to know that she can travel to support her family and spend time with them (without having to choose between buying a train ticket or buying groceries).

Your fabulous donations will give Beth the breathing room to know that she can buy food, get to class, support her loved ones, put her mental and physical energy into getting this “community degree” done, and then bring her dream to life. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your time and donations- we know things are not easy for many of us, and if you cannot donate but can help spread the campaign, that is so appreciated and will be a big help!

Thank you for helping Beth’s dream come true!