Jason sez, "Ralph Kipniss is a master puppeteer who has fallen on hard times. In 2005, he lost both his life partner (after a grave illness) and his puppet theater (in an accidental fire). In the years since, Kipniss has had to move out of Chicago, but hundreds of his specially-created marionettes are still in storage in his old apartment building. Local filmmakers Joseph R. Lewis and Lew Ojeda are running a Kickstarter campaign to help reunite Kipniss with his puppets and hopefully help him get back into performing regularly."
In addition to being tweeted about by Neil Gaiman ("I'm pledging to support the abandoned marionette Kickstarter. Because otherwise what's the point of Kickstarter?") and William Gibson, stories about Ralph Kipniss have appeared on NBC news, in the Associated Press, the Chicago Sun-Times, and the Chicago Reader.
However, despite all this attention, the campaign is still in need of a miracle: with 5 days left, they need to raise just under $18,000.
