Arc-tan Fundraiser Update #1

Hello everyone and welcome to the first update post for the fundraiser!!

All of the support in just the first few days has blown us away, and we couldn't be more grateful. Arc-tan had been nothing more than a hope and an idea for most of 2024, so to see our community welcome her with so much love and open arms right away has been incredible. Truly, words cannot express our thanks!

The numbers speak for themselves: we have already raised $975 since the campaign started on New Year's Day!

Three milestones have already been unlocked: Emotes, Stickers, and Keychain! The Shirt goal is also incredibly close, which I am personally really excited to see. 

If you don't know how Arc-tan came to be, let me take a moment to tell you a story. Atlanta Riichi Club has wanted a mascot for a long time, perhaps ever since the beginning. But creating a mascot to represent our club, our community, is no easy task! We had to find an artist who understands mahjong, and who could capture the essence of what it meant to be in not just any mahjong club, but the ATLANTA Riichi Club. 

Enter Klaeia!

 

Klaeia is a phenomenal artist who runs a booth at conventions around the US and Canada to sell her own merchandise, which is how she met our humble organization in 2023. Already a fair hand at mahjong herself, Klaeia left us in awe at her artistic talent and table skills— we just knew she was the one who would make our mascot dreams come to life. And despite being a highly-sought after professional with plenty of credits in the VTuber and Content Creation industries, she generously provided her services to our humble club.

And let me tell you folks, Klaeia understood the assignment. But we can talk more about Arc-tan's creation process in another post. Suffice to say that after only a few short weeks of back and forth, Klaeia produced the concept sketch of what would become our beloved mascot. Work has already begun on the official reference sheet, but we wanted to show her off as soon as possible, so Klaeia also drew this wonderful illustration for us!

Arc-tan is the kind of person you might run into at a typical Atlanta Riichi Club meetup; she's an Atlanta resident who loves mahjong, and loves making friends at the table! By creating more art and merchandise featuring our mascot, we hope to spread not just more mahjong love around the world, but more recognition of our club as an up-and-coming community! We have already seen so much growth in the almost two years since our founding, but we have no intentions of slowing down and look forward to everything that lies ahead of us. The only question is, are you ready to join the party?

There's plenty of time left to back the campaign before it ends on January 31st; help us clear these milestones for more merch and more free swag! We'll reveal the Secret $4,000 Stretch Goal if we clear the Tote Bag Milestone ($1,500) so share our posts and tell your friends!

Until next time!