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eskielover · May 30, 2009, 11:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DocJohn

Hi folks,

Just wanted to give you an update on the progress of this Community Fund Drive! Congratulations, we've hit our goal of $500, the maximum we allow such drives to attain. This includes donations that have been pledged that we plan on receiving by regular mail. If we receive any additional money, we will also forward that along to eskie.

THANK YOU ALL for helping out with this drive. We had over 24 people give money for this drive, which shows you the open hearts and willingness to give and help our, even in tough economic times such as these.

I am always humbled by the generosity of our community, and feel grateful that I can be a part of this.

If you've given and are not yet recognized as PC Supporter ("Premier Poohbah"), drop me a PM and I'll grant you access to the forum.

Thanks again,
DocJohn

First, I want to thank Doc John for listening & understanding my need & for arranging the Community fund drive. How thankful & blessed we feel as a community that you have acknowledged this type of need does occur & have made a system like this available when someone is in desperate need of help. A system where the contributions are matched for extra help takes a lot of extra effort & planning & accounting added to the directing of this site. I think something we take for granted until we actually find ourselves in need of this kind of help.

I know for me, it was the hardest thing to do was to ask for financial help....a place I have never been in before. I kept holding onto the understanding that those who were responsible (the manufacturer, the installer) were going to step up & be accountable for their bad product & the problem it caused. I hadn't even acknowledged that I was going to end up being responsible for the exorbitant amount of my electric bill that I wasn't able to pay as I knew the responsible people would stand up to their responsibility. When it hit me that wasn't going to happen & there was no way I could force it to happen, I had to come to the realization I had to find other sources of help. There was NO WAY I could pay that kind of bill but the situation I was in was a foreign concept to me. I started my search for help & was sure that all the community actions groups that were in place to help with things like this would come through.....but when those doors were closed because I missed their date for help because I was trusting the responsible people to step up to their responsibility, I was really starting to feel hopeless. Finding a door that was willing to help provides the most amazing feeling of hope. This feeling of hope in the middle of feeling so hopeless is something I can't thank Doc John enough for providing. A door that didn't close. I had seen this community fund drive here & supported financially when I could & emotionally when I couldn't do anything financial. I never had the deep appreciation for the feelings that come from the help like this being available & I know that until the need hits, the reality of the feelings of hope it gives goes far beyond the financial help that it provides.

Second, I want to thank you all, the community here at PC, with my deepest endless thanks. I tried to thank personally each one who posted here in this post, but if I missed, please accept this as my personal thanks. Your support financially has been amazing especially in such bad economic times. Your support with all the prayers, good thoughts, well wished, hopes that have been given has helped encourage me & kept up my spirits to get through this part of the problem. Please accept my thanks for ALL the support you have given to me.....it is all equally important to getting through "difficult" (I think that should be "impossible") situations, & making them not so impossible to get through.

I want you all to know though how much this has financially helped. I went to the electric coop on Thursday to talk to them about the contract as they had never gotten back to me about it. When I talked with Salvation army on Wednesday & was able to get a little help from them, they talked with the electric coop & the amounts they came up with were nothing like I had agreed to. The next day, I talked with the public utilities commission & they also didn't agree with mine. So I called up the electric coop, made an appointment Thursday afternoon & we sat down & went through everything. I wanted every last cent accounted for (my accounting college degree was valuable for something...lol) I verified the amounts that weren't accounted for on the bills (as payments on contracts don't show up anywhere). Found out, they incorporated the next months bill into the contract so it turned into a 5 month problem rather than just the 4 (that last month added $169 to the contract amount). The total electric amount for the middle of November until the middle of April was $2623.. I had already paid $1500 on the account, so the amount of money that was still owed was $1123. which they placed into the contract. The Christian life Center here in my town provided $50 from their emergency utilities fund & the Salvation Army provided $90 from their fund for utility bills. When I told the electric coop about the fund drive & that it was around $500, they were amazed just as I have been. That leaves only only $483. on the contract to deal with. They knew how impossible even at $350/month over my normal electric bill would be since I only have max $300 total for my electric. It was amazing how they changed their approach with me when they saw they I was trying to get the money for the bill.....they were willing to work with me on the ending balance the last 2 months by spreading it out depending on further assistance I can find. All thanks goes to the help you have provided to which not only helped with the bill, but also help with their willingness to work with me on the rest of the bill.....just wanting to let you know what a huge difference your help has actually been in my situation. All thanks to that goes to all of you who have supported in the financial end & all thanks go to every ones prayers & best wishes as it help me go there with a much better attitude.

I know for the past almost 5 years (wow has it really been that long) I know I have been here through some of my worst times & some of my best. Through the home care person's abuse to my Mother & my Mothers death, through my illness with the anorexia that after that from the stress I went through. One I will always remember is my trip across the country, driving the moving truck from California to Kentucky. Checking in here at my motel stops every night gave me the drive (no pun intended) to get through that. What fun that was. I have always tried to be as supportive as I possibly can here....I find there is a great feeling in giving support & hoping that some of the support in just a little way might make a difference in any possible way

Much of my life however, I have always felt rather invisible in the overall scheme of life. It seemed many times when I needed support (not even financial) I would turn around & no one would be there or those that were there had no idea that support was even needed. Here, there has always been support through every tough time & even though there was always a little of the invisible feeling going on inside, there was always the support that helped me realize I wasn't as invisible as I felt. This need for support with this situation has really helped me know that I really am not invisible & that there are the most wonderful people in this world who really do care. I am completely honored by the support you all have given from your hearts. My feeling of invisibility IRL is also lessening as my Bible study group has put me in contact with a benevolence group to help me with more of the remaining amount & I will also follow up on some of the leads that have offered also here through the support you have provided.

I will be eternally grateful to all of you for all the wonderful support you have graciously given to me. I hope that I can give back to all of you the support & kindness you have provided to me.

Debbie