Celebrating and Appreciating Karl Wenninger
Donation protected
WE ARE HAVING A PARTY FOR KARL! (It is so sad that he won't be able to be there....) Sunday, April 28, 2024, Shapeshifter Labs performing arts space, 837 Union Street in Brooklyn. A live performance of his Wake Up Call band will begin at 8:30pm. For those who knew Karl or even were just remotely acquainted with him, please plan to come at 7:00pm for food, collaborative art, and sharing of memories.
- The whole community is invited to the performance of Karl's original jazz music at 8:30pm, free and open to the public. No RSVP needed, just show up at Shapeshifter in Brooklyn at 8:30pm on 4/28!
HOWEVER: If you are coming for the friendship celebrations that begin at 7pm, or if you want to join the livestream for all or part of the evening, PLEASE RSVP FOR THE PARTY HERE!
EVERYONE IS INVITED TO ALL PARTS OF THIS EVENT, NO DONATION IS REQUIRED FOR ANYTHING, THOUGH ALL CONTRIBUTIONS ARE GRATEFULLY APPRECIATED!
Karl Wenninger passed away quite suddenly and shockingly on March 27, 2024, and it is still being revealed all the communities that he was involved in and the ways that he was giving back. We have discovered that he structured his life so that he was working just enough to cover his expenses, and the rest of his time was devoted to volunteering in his community in Brooklyn. You can read more about the extent of this involvement and the full scope of his efforts on his tribute page at https://karlwenninger.muchloved.com, but here's the essential list:
- Nurture BK Compost - weekly volunteer since 2000
- Caton Migration Garden - helped establish the garden in 2021 and had helped to maintain it since then
- Q Gardens - showed up every week for the midweek pile turning, a key role that they were often short to fill
- NYCMesh - running cables up buildings to put in internet for neighborhoods in need
- Sean Casey Animal Rescue - taking dogs for walks to keep them happy and healthy
- Park Slope Food Coop
- The Village House Pantry and Flatbush Friendly Fridge - working as point person for provisions every Thursday with their food distribution at the corner of Parkside and Rogers Aves
- Jalsa Indian/Pakistani restaurant which does food distribution, Karl was involved in toy drives and other community projects
- Tutoring for elementary school kids - not sure if this was happening at time of his passing, but he was involved with this for several years, such as Gracie a 4th grader who he was helping with reading and math in 2021
- NEW! I just found out about NY Cares - Karl was working with them since 2019 and had contributed a total of 132 service hours over 45 projects!!!!!!!! He had signed up this year to help people do his taxes, and he also did music stuff including guitar lessons, and food distribution during the pandemic.
He also had recently started a (thankfully paid) gig teaching free classes in sound engineering through the Brooklyn Public Library (how cool is that!??). And, he was the (again, thankfully paid) sound engineer for a podcast called Sleep With Me (also cool, and also a community-based role).
His sister Lisa is incurring unexpected expenses in tending to all the complexities of bringing closure to a life, including travel (multiple trips), care for her dogs while away, loss of income (Lisa is self employed), and the expenses of cremation.
Lisa is actively planning a community celebration as memorial which will be held at Shapeshifter Labs in Brooklyn on April 28th and is open to all. We want to celebrate Karl right! Karl taught us lessons in giving by the way he quietly lived his life, and has brought so many together in recognition of who he was and what he valued. This is a teaching moment for sure, as we have discovered the depth of his service (and he would have scoffed, if he heard someone say that). He was just doing his thing -- and "his thing" just happened to involve circles and circles of selflessness.
(4/7/24: New expense just identified: Lisa needs to buy a seat for the guitars to get them home, because as we know, United Breaks Guitars. Yes, literally, the solution that United has to their incompetence is to make me buy a seat. OK, no problem, that means I won't be traveling home alone after the memorial!)
So this fundraiser is to cover the costs of putting Karl's affairs to rest, and also to put on a big ol' party to show him how loved he is. There will be music (his music), and food, and art, and more music (Karl's music), and many many tears but also laughter. It will be a community event, focused on art, did I mention music, and bringing people together to honor him, and to allow us to inspire each other through his example.
There are also the costs of caring for Karl's amazing dog Rockit, which thanks to Karl's incredible community, have been minimal so far (though he does go through bags of kibble quickly!). We have identified a wonderful family who is already in love with Rockit. Before sending Rockit on his next adventure in melting hearts, there is one more vet visit to get his vaccinations up to date, which Lisa wants to cover on Karl's behalf.
The funding goal for this project will cover all of the above immediate expenses. And, do we have ideas! There are many more plans for use of funds received in Karl's name, in order to share his gifts and his giving with Brooklyn, both directly and indirectly. Those plans will be shared here as they are firmed up, provided that we get indications that there will be funding to support them. If we blow through that fundraising target, we will blow the roof off of what we can do in Karl's name.
"Karl W is a legend" is what his friend Drew said, and it's true. Let's make sure that legend lives on.
He didn't let us admire him when he was with us. He can't stop us from doing so now.
Let's go big, people. The more we gather here, the bigger it will be. Karl deserves nothing less. He loved us all so much.
Organizer
Lisa Wenninger
Organizer
Brooklyn, NY