Errol Pierre-Louis
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CaringBridge: Connection, Love, and Support When You Need It Most
by Errol Pierre-Louis
October 3, 2008
AppScout.com
Late last spring, Chief Warrant Officer Gary A. Linfoot was conducting a combat mission in Iraq when the AH-6 helicopter he was flying suffered a mechanical failure and crashed. Within three days of his accident, he landed back in the States at Walter Reed Hospital where he was reunited with his wife, Mari.
In addition to dealing with Gary's injuries, which left him paralyzed from the waist down, the couple also needed a way to reach friends and family members to keep them updated on Gary's condition. Getting support and communicating with loved ones is an important part of the healing process, but it's not always simple. This is why Gary and Mari Linfoot used CaringBridge to set up a Web site dedicated to their ordeal, to reach out to friends and family.
Sona Mehring founded CaringBridge about 11 years ago, based on the idea of using technology to bring people together and to keep in touch with loved ones during difficult times. Whether fighting cancer or recovering from war injuries, CaringBridge users get the tools to share their ordeals easily. Family and friends can visit to get news and sign the guestbook to offer support and encouragement.
"We definitely needed something to communicate to our family and friends, because I was so busy helping Gary," said Mari Linfoot over the phone. "Being able to put our story in one place at the end of the day was such a huge help for us."
Every free, personalized CaringBridge Web site includes a personal journal to update family and friends, a guestbook for people to leave messages, a photo gallery, and free online support. CaringBridge isn't an open social network, though; it's a personal site created for the user and only the people he or she invites.
CaringBridge makes setting up your personal Web site as hassle-free as possible. No knowledge of computer code or HTML is needed to get started. "It's super user-friendly. It just took me minutes to set it up," Mari said . "Absolutely no questions about it. It was very easy."
Setting up a CaringBridge site is a three-step process. First, you fill in information in about yourself or the person you're creating the site for. Next, you choose a style theme for your site. And finally, you choose a privacy setting, and you're set. You can begin to upload photos, post journal entries, and invite friends and family to sign your guestbook. CaringBridge recently provided users with the additional option of turning their CaringBridge experience--the journal, guestbook, and photos--into a book, which costs approximately $22 for softcover and $35 for a hardcover copy.
The Linfoots found CaringBridge not only a practical way to update people about Gary's condition, but also found sharing their story and reading the support and encouragement to be a vital part of the recovery process.
"We chose to be very open in our communication and tell our story. We told the ups and the downs, [the] funny experiences along the way, and the rough times," Mari said . [CaringBridge] is a great place, because we can see all the support we're getting with visits to the site and the comments that people leave. It's hugely important to know that people are supportive. It's not so much what people do that helps in a situation like this, it's just knowing that people care."
CaringBridge is mostly marketed via word of mouth and through healthcare professionals. And it's largely funded by individual donations, half of which go toward keeping the site running.
As for the Linfoots, they continue to use CaringBridge to update people on Gary's recovery. Currently, Gary is learning how to use an advanced iBOT wheelchair, but hopes to someday be able to walk and drive his Shelby Mustang again.