First, I wanted to tip my hat to both the OP and the AH. Both were professional and empathetic about what happened and I personally learned some great conflict resolution tactics throughout this thread.
Next, perhaps I could offer a different type of charity. I'm a leadership fellow for Veterans in Media and Entertainment. We work to help train, prepare, and network for military veterans to get jobs throughout the media and entertainment industry as a way to change the image of military veterans from the inside (ie- we aren't all a broken post traumatic mess).
Also, who knows this thread could make a heck of a video one day....as well as many, many, MANY other threads on this forum.
https://www.crowdrise.com/vmeconnect
Thanks for the consideration, I would gladly serve as the middle man or you can even donate directly to the crowdrise website above. Please let me know if you have any questions.