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Friends of Jerry Andrus O4SR's best known member, magician, illusionist and iconoclast Jerry Andrus died last August. If you attended the memorial for Jerry, you know an effort has been underway to preserve Jerry's lifework. A coalition of skeptics, magicians, secularists and friends has formed as the Friends of Jerry Andrus working group to save Jerry's significant inventions and creations for future generations to learn from and enjoy. A note for O4SR members: Jerry donated his optical illusions to O4SR with the hope they will continue to viewed and enjoyed. The illusions have been a cornerstone of our da Vinci Days booth and other educational and youth outreach activities. The Friends of Jerry Andrus Memorial Fund is now open at the US Bank. It is an independent account managed by the Oregon educational not-for-profit organization Oregonians for Science and Reason of which Jerry was a founding and active member. Checks should be made out to the "Friends of Jerry Andrus" memorial fund. Donations can sent to: Friends of Jerry Andrus c/o Jeanine DeNoma 39105 Military Road Monmouth, OR 97361 Donations are tax deductible. Donations can be sent directly to US Bank to the Friends Jerry Andrus memorial fund. However, we will not be able to acknowledge or provide a receipt for donations sent directly to the account. In addition to donations, the following services are needed: Legal assistance to make Friends of Jerry Andrus an independent nonprofit entity, A host for the jerryandrus.org website now being hosted by Barry Brilliant, A Webmaster for the jerryandrus.org website, and Assistance finding or creating a permanent location for Jerry's collection. If you can assist with any of these services or have questions or concerns, please contact Jeanine DeNoma. Mission of the Friends of Jerry Andrus The Friends of Jerry Andrus was organized to preserve the lifetime work of Jerry Andrus, including his original optical illusions, magic, music, mechanical inventions, art, writing, and other memorabilia. The Friends of Jerry Andrus Memorial Fund was created to fund this mission. Goals of the Friends of Jerry Andrus Members of the Friends of Jerry Andrus believe Jerry's works are of cultural interest and educational value. As such, the long-term goal of the Friends of Jerry Andrus organization is to find or create a permanent home for this unique collection of work either in an established museum or one created for this exhibit. Progress to date Jerry Andrus's home, the "Castle of Chaos," is being cleared out. This must be accomplished within the next year. Unfortunately it is structurally unsound, and it is unlikely that the Castle of Chaos can be maintained or that his brother George will be able to keep the property. Out of concern that Jerry's work will be lost or simply discarded, we have formed a working group to collect, catalog and store it. A secure storage unit has been rented to house items as they are sorted. Photo documentation of original items in the Castle such as mechanical devices is underway. We are buying an external hard drive and creating back-up files from Jerry's computer, which contains the original art for his optical illusions and magic. Barry Brilliant has converted Jerry's original music from very old, fragile reel-to-reel tapes to digital format, and we have done similar work with old video. Other efforts are underway. Some of the fruit of this preservation work is available on the JerryAndrus.org website.