Do you want to help me out? Help Skepticon. They’ve hit a major last-minute roadblock, and they need our help — now.

Skepticon is one of the most incredible and inspiring events in the atheist/ skeptical calendar. Organized at a grass-roots level by a student organization, it has become one of the largest and most exciting conferences we have… and it is, and has always been, entirely free of charge. It’s important to the organizers that the conference be accessible, to students and working-class folks and others who don’t have the funds to attend expensive conferences. If folks can work out the travel and the lodging — and the Skepticon organizers work hard to help people work out the travel and lodging — they can attend this conference. Skepticon is, and has always been, entirely funded by donations and fundraising.

And they need our help — now — to keep it going forward this year.

Here’s a letter about all this from Skepticon organizer Lauren Lane.

Dear Internet, Let me start by first saying that I love ALL of your faces. I do. So, as you may have heard, Skepticon is happening soon and I am so excited! WOOO! But, here’s the thing. There’s a catch. I know, I know–there is always a catch, but this one is pretty important. Skepticon is in a bit of a tough spot. This year, we had to secure a bigger venue, and that means that it’s more expensive to put on. If I had all the money in the world, I would put on Skepticon for free every year, but sadly (both for me and the world) that is not the case. We need donations to keep Skepticon running, especially now as we are faced with a larger obstacle than we had originally thought. Every time I express my worry about Skepticon’s financial situation, I am faced with comments about we ‘should just start charging.’ I won’t lie to you all, doing that would make things much easier financially. If everyone who came to Skepticon gave us $5, we would easily be able to fund ourselves. But we won’t start doing that. Ever. As far as I am concerned, as long as all of you continue to believe in and support us, then we are willing to put in the work to make this event free to attend. We want any and everyone who can make it out to Springfield freaking’ Missouri to be able to be here with us. We want you here. We want this event to happen. We need your help. Hearts and kisses, Lauren

Now, as many of my readers know, I recently did a fundraiser here on this blog, to help cover my expenses while I recover from cancer surgery. As readers also may know, I stopped that fundraiser about a day after it started, even though word about the fundraiser was still being spread and donations were still coming in, since I’d already raised all the money I needed and then some.

So if you heard about the “help Greta get through her cancer surgery” fundraiser after I’d already asked people to stop making donations… and you still feel motivated to help out? Please help me, by helping Skepticon.

I was supposed to speak at Skepticon 5. My cancer surgery threw a monkey wrench into that plan, although we’re hoping that I’m well enough by November 9 to get me Skyped in. But even though I can’t be there in person, my heart and my non-existent soul will be there all weekend. This event means the world to me — and it means the world to hundreds of people who are attending, or who have attended in the past, or who hope to attend in the future.

Ingrid and I just donated $100.00 to keep Skepticon going. Please chip in what you can. Thanks.