Help Squirrel Send 100 Million Messages of Hope

Evan Wagoner-Lynch is organizing this fundraiser.

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My name is Evan Wagoner-Lynch, and I am a writer and artist on a mission to inspire hope and healing in the millions of young people who are struggling with their mental health.

I came to this mission amidst my own efforts to heal trauma from my childhood. In 2020, my healing experiences, my (very) active imagination, and my lifelong love of Mister Rogers came together in Squirrel Dialogues , a video series about mental health and healing. With the help of a thrift store puppet named Squirrel, I have now sent over 10 million messages of hope and healing to young adults all around North America and the world.

My audience has responded with over 10,000 comments, messages, and reply videos. I’m often moved to tears as I read and respond to their messages. They share their gratitude for Squirrel, and they also share their pain and despair. I know their pain is not unique—it mirrors our society’s ever-expanding mental health crisis.

And they also share how my work affects them. I continue to be astonished by the power of these little videos, and this little puppet. I encourage you to read the comments on any of my videos (particularly on TikTok ) to get a sense of Squirrel’s impact. Here are a few examples:

Your videos came when I was at one of the lowest parts of my life. Because of your videos, I was able to look internally and forgive myself. Keep it up

-@kar***

You saved my life once. They help me stay grounded, to see something beyond the void

-@ahr***

It may seem silly, but my inner child really feels like your squirrel puppet sees her, and hears her pain, in a way nobody else has before. You found a way to tap into emotions I didn’t realize existed inside me, and I feel like I know what direction I need to take my healing in for now. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for doing the work you do.

-Madison

A fan response to Squirrel’s most popular video, “Are you holding on to something,” 2022

1.9 million views and 3,700 comments on TikTok

There is a certain playfulness to the project, but I take this work very seriously. The stakes are very high in our society’s mental health crisis. We are losing people every day to “deaths of despair” (addiction, suicide, human-on-human violence).

And what I am learning from my audience is that my approach works. That using art to talk about the hardest things in life, using art to offer hope, and kindness...actually helps people to heal.

And, I believe that healing individuals helps to heal families, communities, and the world at large. This is the larger purpose of my mission: To help heal this world by helping individual human beings to heal.

So I have thrown myself into this mission, by quitting my day job, and pouring my savings into the project. And I plan to go back to school, to sharpen myself as an artist and healer.

I’ve done a lot with an old iPhone, an older puppet, and a small but generous network of micro-donors. But I’ve hit the limit of what I can offer with my limited finances and support network, and my limited knowledge. To better serve my audience I need to improve myself as an artist, and broaden my network of support.

I’ve created this fundraiser to take Squirrel Dialogues to the next level. Your support will help me in two ways:

1) I’m going back to school this fall, to Evergreen State College in Olympia, WA. I’ll be studying trauma, media, and education. I’ve received partial financial aid but I need to raise funds to cover two years of living expenses to complete my degree. Covering living expenses will allow me to devote my non-student time to Squirrel, instead of a part-time job.

2) If I can raise additional support, I can invest in the Squirrel Dialogues project: upgrading my equipment, hiring collaborators and helpers, and replacing my (very worn out) production vehicle. My dream is to expand Squirrel Dialogues into a variety show offering (imagine Sesame Street for adults…) My dream is to send out 100 million messages of hope and healing.

To accomplish this, more than anything I need people (like you). I’m hoping to gather at least 1,000 people to this cause.

You can support in so many ways: By supporting and sharing this fundraiser, by subscribing to my free newsletter and all my channels , by telling your Uncle Jerry who works at PBS…

And if you’re looking for the best way to truly sustain this work, becoming a monthly supporter on Patreon gives me a guaranteed monthly income I can rely on.

Much of what I need could be gifted, things like equipment, housing in Olympia, a vehicle, and connections to helpful people. If you have access to any of that, please message me directly .

And also we live in America so I’ve come up with fundraising goals:

$25,000 / 1,000 Patreon backers <--- GOAL FOR THIS FUNDRAISER

1 year at Evergreen, 1 year of Squirrel

$50,000 / 1,000 Patreon backers <--- STRETCH GOAL

2 years at Evergreen, 2 years of Squirrel

$50,000+ / 1,000+ Patreon backers <--- DREAM GOAL

Supercharging the Squirrel Dialogues project

Read on for more of the Squirrel Dialogues story:

The origins of Squirrel

My path to Squirrel Dialogues began 40 years ago, when I was a scared, sensitive little boy growing up in an emotionally abusive home. I survived by hiding in my own imagination, in elaborate worlds populated by my stuffed animals.

And each day I found comfort with the only safe father figure in my life, a kind and patient man named Fred Rogers. In his imaginative television Neighborhood, Mister Rogers gave me an essential ray of hope: He showed me that people, and life can be kind.

I had no way of knowing that the keys to my life’s mission would be in those painful early years.

In 2023, I find myself using my imagination to help others to heal. Like Fred Rogers, I use puppets, but my audience is not children. I speak to the adults among us who struggle (as I do) with their mental wellbeing, with anxiety, depression, addiction, and suicidal thoughts.

The star of the project is a thrift store puppet named Squirrel, who gently guides my viewers toward hope, kindness, and ultimately, self-acceptance. Each video is a meditative walk in the old growth forests of Orcas Island in the Pacific Northwest. Time slows down, as Squirrel, in his Boston-ish accent, models non-judgment and…

You know what? It’s better if you just experience it:

“What if you belong?” 2022

602,000 views on TikTok

Squirrel’s Mission

People often ask how Squirrel is so wise, and the honest answer is: Suffering. As a survivor of child abuse, my journey has often been so painful that I’ve not wanted to be here. But I’ve been helped along the way, by friends, therapists, and wise guides. I’ve received a lot of wisdom along the way, and I pass it on through the character of Squirrel.

The fact is, if I’d had a different life, I wouldn’t be Squirrel. I wouldn’t understand trauma in my bones. I wouldn’t understand the suffering of others. Because of my experiences, I’m very alive to the effects of trauma in me, and in my family, community, and world.

And through healing, I’ve come across an old piece of wisdom: That when a person heals, they are part of the healing of their family, their community, and their world.

So from all this, I found my mission:

To inspire hope and healing in people who are struggling with darkness. To guide those people toward a kinder, more loving relationship to themselves. With a trust that helping people to heal their self-relationship will help heal our relationships to each other and the planet.

I can think of no better use of my time than serving the healing of this world. So in the beginning of this year I made the leap of becoming a full-time artist.

Squirrel as gift

From the very start of this project, I have offered these videos in the spirit of gift.

I recognize that my own healing is a kind of gift—the product of the kindness of the world and the sheer dumb luck of my privileged position in this society. It feels right to pass the gift along. And also, I believe strongly that healing should be free. Because the people who need it most are the people who are least able to pay for it✊

I’ve also resisted monetizing the project with sponsored content and the like. I believe that doing so would harm the trust that I’ve built with my audience over the past three years. And that trust is priceless.

In the most important way, I am wealthy. Every day I am showered by the love of my audience. It comes in sweet comments, in heart emojis, in micro-donations. I have leaned on this love as I have struggled, during the course of this project, with my own mental health. And I have leaned on this love whenever I can’t see the way forward.

The truth is, I have struggled to support myself as a working artist. I’ve sought out grants, talent managers, organizational partners, expert advice, so far without success. I’ve worked part-time and seen my creative output drop by 50%. I’ve launched a Patreon, but I need at least 1,000 more backers to achieve sustainability (I have about 100).

I will never stop doing this work. But I’ve gone as far as I can with my own savings and my small community of backers.

I feel a pit in my stomach even contemplating stepping away from this work. So I’ve come to GoFundMe to ask my community (you) a question:

Do you want something like this in the world? Do you love anyone who needs what I have to offer? Do you want people like me working full-time to spread hope, healing, and self-love? Motivated not by selling, but by a desire to help others?

If you do, then I propose that we don’t wait, we don’t ask for permission, we simply start. To continue my mission, to grow it, I don’t need Netflix or TikTok to say OK, I just need a few thousand neighbors to help carry me. I’ve reached a lot of people with my savings and around 200 backers. Imagine what we could do with 2,000, or 20,000 of us.

Let’s make a whole lot of noise about love, let’s get the trees and neighborhoods shaking. Let’s heal, together.

Won’t you join us?

And a final word from a supporter:

I am living in the moment, when before I was always in my head trying to prevent making any error. You've freed me, and I know you gained this knowledge from others and I am grateful to them as well, but I want to honour you, because you may not believe it but you make a difference. You made a choice to share your knowledge with others that are hurting, and this is my way to support you, and if I were rich, I would give so much more.

The last two nights I've had good dreams. I can give my husband a hug and not feel halfway pulling away from him. Thank you, Evan, thank you and your little squirrel friend.

-Peggy