“Anderson had wanted to remain anonymous, but her name has remained on Massey’s gofundme website since Friday when she made the contribution. Attempts to locate her talent agent were unsuccessful.
(…) Bonnie Carper, also of Brookings, knows Massey through her son, Patrick; the men have been best friends since they were teens.
Carper also has a niece named Mia, whose best friend from college is Anderson’s sister; she wished to remain anonymous, Carper said. Carper, a big fan of the talk show host Ellen DeGeneres, wrote to her to ask for help.“And Mia was telling (Anderson’s sister) about Mikey and that I’d written to Ellen, and I asked if Mia could send it to her friend to pass on to Gillian.”Whether the request ever got to DeGeneres is unknown, but it did make it to Anderson. The “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon” — a theory that everyone is connected by six people: your friend has a friend who has a friend who has a friend who has a friend who has a friend who’s your friend, crossed Carper’s mind many times over the weekend.“Mia really wanted to help,” Carper said. “She put fliers up around Manhattan about Mikey, saying, ‘You never know. You never know. Nothing will probably come of it, but you never know.’”Seven hours later, at 3 a.m., Carper received a text.“Oh my god; look at Mike’s gofundme,” Mia texted.”
Just Holding Hands 