Farewell Gift for Chris Zebo of MIT Salsa Club

[Alicia Zhou]

Hello MIT Salsa Clubbers,

As most of you have heard, Chris is leaving Boston for good at the end
of August to embark on a 3-month road trip around the United States.
We are all really sad to see him go, but we also want to wish him the
best of luck for the future, wherever his trip may take him. In order
to give him a proper send off before he leaves, a few of us in the
club are organizing a farewell/thank you gift for Chris to show him
how much we appreciate all that he's done for us over the years.

Chris co-founded the MIT Salsa Club almost 4 years ago and has poured
his heart and soul into it, making it the thriving, wonderful
community that it is today. Over this time, he has single-handedly
organized and taught almost every salsa lesson, and he’s organized
dozens of parties and benefits for the salsa community and for Greater
Boston.

And what's even more amazing…is that he has always done it for free.
He has never received a penny for the lessons he’s taught at MIT Salsa
Club, neither from us or from MIT. As he has said to me and to others
so many times, Chris always firmly believed that "all art should be
free," that “we should all share what we love with others,” and that
“you shouldn’t have to pay a penny to be a part of any community.”

Every Monday and Tuesday night over the years, in the dark cold of
winter, in the sweaty Morss Hall summers-- you always knew you could
count on hearing great salsa music blaring over the speakers and
seeing a hundred people--all crowded into a circle--twisting
themselves into pretzels to learn Chris's latest salsa moves. We have
all made new friendships because of him, and we’ve shared great
memories together; and we owe a lot of that to him.

Now that he's closing this chapter in his life and leaving Boston, it
would be great for us to show him our appreciation for all that he has
given us.

We are collecting money so that we can give him a check for a going
away present. We will be giving it to him at his final lesson on
Tuesday, August 11--in less than 3 weeks. The money will go towards
helping to fund his road trip and to pay for expenses like gas,
hotels, food and any emergencies he might experience on the road.

You can give as little or as much as you want to -- every little bit
helps when it comes to paying for a tank of gas, a sandwich on the
road, or a night's stay in a hotel. We are recommending gifts of $10
to $50 to whatever you feel like giving to show your appreciation.

To make things easier for everyone, there are 2 easy ways you can donate:

1.) Credit Card or PayPal:

Click the link below and make a secure transaction with either a
credit card or your PayPal account.
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=6997675


2.) If you would rather not use PayPal, you can send cash or checks to
Alicia Zhou, 247 River St. #2, Cambridge, MA 02139.

Make checks payable to Alicia Zhou and we'll add your amount into the
final check that we give to Chris.

Also, if you'd like to write a special note for Chris, we've created
an online thank you card that people can sign. You can write a
message, include a picture, and do whatever you'd like to give Chris a
personalized farewell note: http://www.groupcard.com/c/3jKw4I0rDXW

As mentioned above, we'd like to give him the gift of Tuesday, August
11th. So please make your contributions by Monday, August 10th so that
we have enough time to put it all together.

Chris has given a huge amount to all of us over the past few years,
let's show him how much we've appreciated it all by giving him
something back!

Alicia

And feel free to email me with any questions!