My intent was never to hurt you and I apologize
that I have.  I let Durandal's flaming of the
initial poster get to me as he basically
insinuated that everyone who chose not to help
you was a good-for-nothing person that doesn't
care about their fellow man. My negativeness was
reacting more to that than to you.  However, I
lost sight of the fact that your feelings might
get caught in the crossfire and I apologize for
that.

From all reports, this is not from your urging,
but rather your friends doing this to you.  I'm
sure that I would feel the same strange mix of
happiness and embarassment if my friends ever put
me up on the internet as a charity case.  Accept
your friend's good wishes (and money) without any
regard to what a few random strangers on the
internet think.