Please help

Many, many thanks to those of you who have already donated. If you have not yet made a contribution, now is the moment. It is not too late to send a check or make an on-line payment at Navajo Child.org in any amount.

Kathy Spitz recently wrote to me with an update about the family of SM. Kathy has known S for many years, having had her as a student at Dlo’ay azhi School in Thoreau. S is now the mother of five girls, ranging in age from 9 to 19. The two oldest sisters, N and L, have both been diagnosed with microcephaly. They are severely disabled and will need lifelong care. Both of these adolescent girls are in diapers. Their father left the family three years ago and does not support them in any way. Some of the slack is taken up by A, age 15. A would like to finish high school but she has been retained several times because of poor attendance. S and the girls live in a family camp about 20 miles from Thoreau. Their home has no running water.

I would like to be able to say that theirs is an unusual situation. However, many needy Navajo families live in similar situations, typical of the kind of poverty one encounters on the reservation: no running water, no electricity, no transportation, minimal education, collapsing family connections.

Of course, a food basket and a present will not make a big dent in the cycle of poverty. But it will bring happiness to S and her daughters, and to many other Navajo families, on Christmas day. It will also bring you the satisfaction of giving, adding one light to the sum of light.

We really need each of you. Please help.

God opens doors.
Love, Susan S.

Please Donate to the Eastern Navajo Child Drive

Happy Thanksgiving

As we approach Thanksgiving and the holiday season, perhaps you can find a way of giving thanks by sharing with those less fortunate. Bring a little happiness into the lives of some children. Visit the Eastern Navajo Child Drive and make a donation today. You’ll feel great doing so!

Navajo Child Drive – Give today!

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Image credit: licensed by Creative Commons – xybermatthew

Are you following us on Facebook?

We have recently started a Fan Page on Facebook to help support our effort. How about becoming a Fan of the Eastern Navajo Child Drive?

Eastern Navajo Child Drive on Facebook

The 2009 Navajo Child Drive has started

Greetings and Ya’ ah’ teeh Keshmish – Merry Christmas

The 2009 Navajo Child Drive has started in earnest with appeal letters going out this week. If you haven’t gotten your letter, make sure to drop a note to Kathy Spitz, she’d love to hear from you.

Since that first Christmas 16 years ago, when 25 special needs children were visited by Santa’s elves, the Navajo Child Drive has experienced tremendous growth. During our 2008 Child Drive, we had the privilege of delivering to 280 families a holiday basket of food along with all the special gifts, wrapped, bowed, and tagged for over 650 of our children.

In 2008 we were able to raise $21,089 as well as receiving boxes of toys, clothing, and used blankets. We ended this season with $9,012 in our account! This means we will have emergency funds for food and fuel as well as saving hundreds at sales.

Our goal this year is to share with 250 families & 650 children.

For sponsors who rather we shop, “Santa” boxes are wrapped & tagged for $20. $150 sponsors a family with 4 children including the Holiday basket & one fleece blanket.

Please consider a donation to the Navajo Child Drive!

Can’t sleep

12:55 a.m. Can’t sleep.

In mid-December, I finally asked my doctor for a sleeping pill and he willingly complied with a prescription for Ambien. I am always reluctant to ask for any medicine like this (pain pills, too) for fear that the Narcotics squad will leap out from somewhere and nab me and I’ll be dragged off to the big house for good.

Ambien is a gift from God. If I remember to take the pill around 10 p.m., I am fast asleep by the time the 11 p.m. news is half over. Tonight, though, I waited longer than usual because Mark had instilled in me the fear of “home invaders.” There has been a rash of this type crime here lately and I had associated it with larger neighborhoods in town. Mark, however, got it into his head that precautions were needed in our home, especially when he is out somewhere (e.g., Waffle House). Following are some of his prevention and response measures:

1. keep the doors locked at all times.
2. don’t smile and open these doors if strangers approach. Do not offer cold drinks and/or coffee, tea.
3. in case of emergency, press my “life alert” button.

Now I am worried, seeing in my mind’s eye truckloads of interlopers peeling up our dead-end dirt road, creeping up on us through the cemetery behind the house, or lowering themselves on bungee cords from the overhanging trees.

In the unlikely event that our house would be selected for such a melee, I would be most likely to press my “life alert” buzzer. It makes a god-awful noise and a very authoritative individual intones, “Miss Sullivan, are you all right”? Depending on my answer, the voice dispatches police, ambulance, fire department, or a pleasant greeting. The voice always requires my password as an identity check. If the password is incorrect, the police are immediately summoned. The voice remains in contact until emergency personnel arrive. I have had to call them several times over the past year for medical issues and they are prompt and comforting.

When I was in Crownpoint, NM, I never worried about burglaries or criminal elements. Never locked the doors. Never locked the truck and, in fact, I used to stash my car keys under an empty Diet Coke can in the console. Once, some friends borrowed the truck and left me a note explaining. Picked up all manner of hitchhikers. Hollered “come in” whenever there was a knock on the door. Our newspaper deliveryman, Mark H, once sat in the living room and conversed with me while I was soaking in the bath tub. Nothing seemed out of whack.

Preparing for the possibility of “home invaders” seems out of whack. I look around and don’t see anything of extreme value, but Mark says the electronics (one computer, one TV, one 10-year-old Bose stereo) would be enticing. Well, if any of these folks is that desperate, I would be happy to help carry the junk out for them. And make them some sandwiches for the road.

Times are hard and appear to be getting even harder. In honor of MLK Day, the largest local food Bank, MANNA, had a huge food drive. Looks like they made out well, too. Having become familiar with food drives, I have made some observations that might be useful when you are selecting items to donate. This is the “Hints from Heloise” portion of the letter!

Most people go for items that will feed families with children, like cases of macaroni and cheese, large cans of ravioli, Beef stew, big cans of soup, and so on. This is great. But, let’s not forget the less prominent recipients of food banks: the elderly and those with chronic illness (like diabetes). Following are some suggestions:

1. Choose canned veggies that are labeled “low sodium” or “reduced salt.”
2. Choose staples in small containers that are easier for the elderly to open and lift, such as mayo, mustard, ketchup.
3. Pick up some sugar-free jelly, jello, and puddings. Don’t forget sugar-free “sugar” packets.
4. Choose regular size tea bags.
5. Some coffee companies now make coffee singlets, kind of like a tea bag for coffee. These only require boiling water and a mug to prepare. Nice for older people who may be living alone.
6. Choose items that do not require the addition of other ingedients that the recipient may not have on hand. Mac & cheese is a great example of this. The box kind needs milk and butter or oil to complete. A few cents more and the meal can be made directly from a box containing noodles and a small can of cheese sauce).
7. Know the group for whom the food is being targeted. In some cultures, canned tuna or salmon are not eaten.
8. Consider donating non-food items. Soap, shampoo, toothpaste/brushes, feminine hygiene products, diapers, baby supplies, napkins, toilet paper, dish detergent, laundry soap, bleach, and so on. Food Stamps does not pay for these.
9. “Treats” are always welcome. Even a small bag of hard candies (with or without sugar) is greatly appreciated by older people.
10. When we donate to the food banks, we have a great chance to ease worry and raise people’s spirits. It’s not quite as good as eating together around a big family table, but it works!

2:08 a.m. I think I will try once more to sleep. I want to be awake and alert by 8 a.m. to get the full effect of the Inauguration. What a proud day for Americans! Let’s vow to make a new start, set aside our differences, and pray for our leaders and for equitable solutions to our problems.

I hope each of you is well and enjoying life and walking the path God has designed for you. My path appears to have been somewhat peripatetic, but that’s okay. God bless all of you for your prayers, good wishes, and support for the 2008 Navajo Child Drive. Soon, we will have photos, stories, and a report to share.

God opens doors.
Love, Susan S.

Words for the day

Unending peace will come to you only when you are a dedicated person, ready to give. You can never become poor by giving; on the other hand, you will become richer and richer…. For such a person, no advertising is necessary. In such a soul you see the light shining.

Sri Swami Satchidananda

Merry Christmas

Dear Friends and Family

Earlier today, I received an e-mail from my friend Allison P in Grants, New Mexico.  Allison and I used to work together at Crownpoint Community School with the M family. Is there any social problem that this family has not faced?  Grinding poverty, overcrowding, alcoholism, Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS), suicide, accidental child death…..

Allison kindly volunteered to deliver Christmas gifts for the M’s from my sister, Pat, and me. The family numbers 12 so it was a challenge to allocate our financial resources to cover everyone. But we managed and sent off three cartons of gifts.

The M’s live up a dirt road (what else?) in Dalton Pass, a few miles outside Crownpoint.  Allison had never been there before, so she picked up 17-year-old LaShawna M. at the Wingate High School dormitory in Gallup for directions and company on the trip.

Allison found LaShawna lacking winter shoes, personal hygiene items, laundry soap, hat, gloves, and other cold
weather necessities.  Many people do not associate New Mexico with cold weather, but I assure you that the high desert plain, with its fierce winds, can be bitterly cold.  There are frequent deaths from hypothermia when drunks or the homeless fall asleep outside and keeping homes warm is challenging.

Allison managed to get together a few items for LaShawna and Pat and I are sending an “emergency box” of winter supplies later this week.  I have known and worked with the M family since 1998 and their situation – a never-ending cycle of deprivation – has broken my heart many times over.  A few extra basics will certainly not repair LaShawna’s life but it will assure her that she is loved and cherished.

This morning, before I got Allison’s e-mail, I was thinking about the words, “no room at the inn.”  Of course, we think of Joseph, desperate to find a safe place for his wife (already in labor, no doubt), to deliver their first child.  It also prods us to think about our hearts, another kind of “inn.”  Is there room for the Holy Family in our hearts?  Too often, my heart is so filled with superfluous concerns – worry, self-pity, resentments, envy, longing for material things – that I have too little space remaining for Joseph, Mary, and their Son.  I pray that the “inn” of my heart will be wider and deeper this Christmas and during the coming year.

God bless each of you during this joyful season of hope and promise.

Keshmish Baa’hozho!  Merry Christmas!

God opens doors.
Love, Susan S.

 

Could you help?

I have begun writing this entry several times without success. Just can’t think of any “snappy” ways to capture your attention and persuade you of the great need the Navajo Child Drive is experiencing this year. In a recent update, Kathy Spitz reported that money for the food baskets and Walmart gift certificates is most urgent. Typically, a certificate in the amount of $15.00 has been given to each teenager identified for the Child Drive. Sure doesn’t buy much, but the kids enjoy picking out their own “present”. Because of this year’s money shortage, the gift certificates may have to be slashed to $10.00 per child.

So, once again, I must appeal to your generosity to help us provide some joy for our neediest Navajo families this Christmas. Donations in any amount are gratefully received and deeply appreciated. Remember, you can donate on-line or, if you prefer, you can send a check.

Please help us.

“Hope” is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul – Emily Dickinson

Susan Sullivan

 

Who is my neighbor?

She is my sister

By now, some of you have received a copy of the Navajo Child Drive slide show, photographed and produced by Amanda Newman. Ms. Newman, a home-schooled high school student from Bluewater, New Mexico, is a talented and enthusiastic volunteer for our organization. We are all proud of the beautiful statement she has made through the slide show. If you have not received a personal copy, you may view it by logging onto NavajoChild.org. Please share it with your family, friends, co-workers. Make as many copies as you would like. It is truly compelling.

It will not be much of a “spoiler” to alert you to the fact that most of the photographs depict large numbers of children and skinny dogs. When I have written about these situations before, occasionally someone will want to know why families have so many children, why the dogs have not been neutered, why mothers cannot make the food stamps last a full month, why there are so many broken-down cars and litter lying about.

Although I took several sociology courses that included information about the insidious nature of poverty, my truthful answer is “I don’t know.” Further, I am no longer seeking an answer to the question. A few years ago (when I was healthier, younger and somewhat brasher), I complained about the people’s poverty to Sister Barb Smith. “Sister,” I said, smugly thinking that I had her cornered, “the prophet Isaiah assures us that the Lord hears the cry of the poor. What is He going to do about it?” Sister Barb looked at me calmly and replied, “He sent you.” Not just me, of course, but each of us. Each of us is asked to be our brother’s keeper, our sister’s salvation, our parents’ comfort, our children’s protector. “Who is my neighbor?” a man asked Jesus. And He told about the Good Samaritan.

Now I know that many of us are faced with tough times. I can tell from the “Big Sale!” advertisements that people’s wallets have snapped shut. Christmas will be a little thinner for many this year. But, really, who can remember from one year to the next what presents were given and received? What constitutes our fondest holiday memories? Mine are exclusively family and friends, laughing, playing Scrabble, singing Christmas hymns while my mother played the piano, talking to my Aunt Louise while she made her delectable cookies, watching old movies with my beloved sister, making reindeer “poop” out of peppercorns for my nephew Pete to assure him that Santa had really come, thanking God for the gift of His Son.

Perhaps, like me, your Christmas memory bank is full and warm. If so, you might help to make a beautiful Christmas memory for one of our Navajo families. Making a donation to the Navajo Child Drive will do the trick! Every donation is “One Size Fits All” so you won’t have to worry about returns. And you will find your own Christmas enriched by the simple act of giving.

Keshmish Baa’hozho
“Merry Christmas”

Susan Sullivan

Goodness is the only investment that never fails. (Henry David Thoreau)

 

A Place to Call Home

If you drive along Interstate 40 between Gallup and Grants in New Mexico, you may decide to stop at Thoreau, about halfway between those two towns.  Not surprisingly, it is a small place with a couple of convenience stores and gas stations, a Post Office, a health center outpost, a“dollar store” and a few other “mom-n-pop” businesses.  No restaurants, no movie theater, no library, no bank (unless you count the pawn shop), no strip mall (unless you count the weekend roadside flea market).

What Thoreau does have is St. Bonaventure’s Mission.  Among its other ventures, St. Bon’s operates a small elementary school.  Navajo children from the surrounding area predominate in the student body and the school bus rolls along, very early in the morning, as far as Crownpoint, 25 miles north.  On travels around remote parts of the rez, one often encounters St. Bon’s water truck, making deliveries to homes that lack running water.  The sisters, brothers, lay teachers and volunteers at St. Bon’s do all they can to make a difference in this very poor Navajo community.

Recently, St. Bon’s generously donated a used trailer to the Joann J. family.  Joann is the single parent of eight children.  She and the children had been staying with Joann’s mother until mother died unexpectedly.  Navajo people who adhere to traditional customs abandon a house in which someone has died.  Now, Joann and her younger children sleep at Joann’s father’s house.  The older children, who are students at Mariano Lake Boarding School, sleep at the school Monday through Thursday.  This arrangement has eased the family’s stress somewhat with fewer mouths to feed and bodies housed during the school week.  Nevertheless, Joann and her children have yearned for a place to call home.

I would dearly love to report that the family is now warm and cozy inside their new used trailer.  However, anyone who has ever been in a used trailer knows that most have seen their share of wear and tear.  This one is no exception.  It is a single wide (approximately 12’ x 40’ feet) comprising 2 bedrooms, 1 bath, and a combination kitchen/living room.  The structure itself has been gutted and has no appliances, sink, shower, toilet, lighting fixtures, or central heat.  The trailer sits on cinder blocks about 3 feet from the ground.  The stairs do not quite make it to the front door threshold and there is no landing.  There is no skirting around the exterior of the house, allowing the cold winter winds unrestricted access to the underbelly of the trailer, making it a virtual icebox.

Regretfully, the folks at St. Bon’s did not have the funds necessary to make the trailer habitable.  Approximately $3000 is needed to purchase and install the kinds of items mentioned above. Joann has very few possessions of her own, so furniture, bedding, towels, and mattresses are also needed.  We hope and pray that Joann and her children will be able to live in this trailer by the end of this year.

It may be hard to believe that anyone in the United States of America, the richest country on earth, lives without electricity, running water, indoor plumbing, or the conveniences most of us take for granted.  Sitting here in North Carolina, with a full stomach and a cup of hot tea, and the heat on, and the washing machine doing its job, and my pantry and refrigerator full of stuff from Sam’s Club, I sometimes think, “Did I really see that kind of poverty during my years in New Mexico?”.  Yes, I did.

Can you help Joann and her children, or the many other families we serve, through a donation to this year’s Navajo Child Drive?  Our greatest expense is the Christmas food baskets.  They are generously filled and feed a family of four.  Navajo families are apt to be large and extended, so some families need two or even three baskets.

Whether or not you are able to contribute materially to the Navajo Child Drive, please remember our Navajo families and our volunteer workers in your prayer life.  Each of you is forever in our hearts.

~Susan Sullivan

 

Welcome

This will be the official weblog of the Eastern Navajo Child Drive. We will have various volunteers provide posts here to help the world learn more about the children we serve and their needs. We appreciate any support you can provide and encourage you to visit the main website to learn about the program and how you can help.

The Eastern Navajo Child Drive is a 501(c)3 charitable organization (NMSPRC #2233807) that helps Navajo children in the eastern region Dine’tah (Navajoland). Please find it in your heart to help bring the Hope of Christmas to these children and their families.

The Eastern Navajo Child Drive Website

Asheville Newsletter

Dear Family and Friends
 
It’s barely fall and I have already received oodles of Christmas catalogues in the mail.  Being a 10-year-old girl at heart, I love leafing through the catalogues, exclaiming over the latest dolls, canopy beds, bicycles and arts-and-crafts kits.  Maybe this is because these are really big items, ones that require lots of packaging and tape, oddly-shaped gifts that hold the promise of mystery within their confines.  Adult presents are an awful lot smaller, usually more expensive, and often pitched under the guise of “stocking stuffers.”  Stocking stuffers! In my childhood home, stocking stuffers were apples and oranges borrowed from the kitchen.  We would dump out the stockings and my mother would holler, “Give me that fruit.  I only put it in there to make it look like you got something.”  Sometimes my mother would put in gum or cough drops.  To this day, my sister swears that she once received an opened package of Chiclets. 
 
But, I am not writing to regale you, like Charles Dickens, with stories of my Christmas Past.  This is my annual appeal for the Navajo Child Drive’s 2008 Christmas campaign.  As you know, providing Christmas holiday cheer for the poorest of our Navajo families has been the main purpose of the organization since its start fifteen years ago.  We aim to give a food basket to each family, and some simple gifts for the children. 
 
The typical food basket consists of a variety of canned vegetables, ham, beans, coffee, flour and other staples.  Each family receives one new fleece blanket and the whole business is delivered in a new plastic laundry basket.  The projected cost for this year’s basket is about $44.00.  We will need over $12000 to feed the 280 families targeted for this year’s campaign.  
 
We choose simple gifts for our preschool and school-aged children.  I am partial to activities that have a learning component, such as books (high interest, lower reading levels), arts-and-crafts, board games.  Hygiene products, underwear, socks, coats, hats and gloves are always needed.  We are happy to recycle gently used items.  I am proud to report that “dumping” has never occurred with any of you on my sponsor list, but I was on hand (and deeply ashamed) when Kathy Arviso opened a donation box at our office in Crownpoint and found a bunch of worn-out old bras and dirty hairbrushes. I will never forget Kathy holding up one of the brushes and saying, “I guess whoever sent this figured we’re just a bunch of wild Indians.”  Sharing ought not require the recipient to surrender her pride.
 
God willing, I am flying to New Mexico on October 1, returning to North Carolina on October 7. My friends, Marita and Robert, have asked me to be godmother to their second daughter, Elizabeth.  I am greatly honored and looking forward to this beautiful ceremony at St. Paul’s in Crownpoint.  I am also going on some home visits with Kathy Spitz to see some of our families.  This will be a great joy also since most of you know how deeply I love the rez!
 
I hope to get some new insights into the problems faced by the Navajo people during these critical financial times.  None of the families identified for the 2008 Child Drive have anything to fall back on during hard times: no IRA, no “emergency” cash or credit cards, no trust or college funds, nothing to sell.  Getting a second or third job is not an option: the lack of industry and the vast distances from homes to towns makes any job almost unattainable.  You may recall how stunned I was when I first moved to Crownpoint and discovered that the closest bank was 25 miles down the road in Thoreau.  That bank closed about a year later and the next closest banks, about equidistant from Crownpoint, are 60 miles away in Grants and Gallup.  Ditto for the nearest public libraries. That’s 120 miles roundtrip…….watch John Ford’s 1939 classic, Stagecoach, to sample a good flavor of the distances involved! 
 
Right now, many of us are preoccupied with the national elections, the growing financial crisis, obligations of all sorts.  Please make a little room in your hearts and minds for the Navajo Child Drive.  The need is so great it challenges description.  And, as Kathy Spitz recently wrote, our efforts “are never enough.”  There will always be another family in dire circumstances, another mother without diapers or formula, another frail grandma, another child without a winter coat.  But when we show Love to our brothers and sisters, we show God’s essence, one at a time.
 
Keshmish Baa’hozho
 
Merry Christmas!  A little early, but Christmas is a season of the heart. 
 
God opens doors.
Love, Susan S.
Visit our website: Navajochild.org
 
For Jesus is our hope.  Through his merciful heart, as through an open gate, we pass through to heaven.  (St. Faustina)

A Recent Trip

Navajo Child Drive News

It’s always surprising to make the journey to New Mexico across country.  Everything changes:  the terrain, the weather, even the time zones.  Several times over the years I have made this trip by train and it is still my favorite mode of transport.  It puts me in mind of Lewis and Clark and the pioneers who followed in their footsteps.  “Footsteps” is the right word, too, because they walked – across the hot dusty plains, up and over the mountains, carrying their lives with them in wagons behind horses, mules and oxen.   I figure the women must have turned cranky and that this accounts for the presence of crazy little hamlets that sprang up along the trail. “You better start buildin’ somethin’, fella, cause I ain’t goin’ one step further.” Well, I enjoyed the luxury of air travel on my most recent trip and was grateful for its relative ease and speed. From Asheville , NC to Atlanta, GA to Denver, CO and then to Albuquerque – all in one day!

In Dine’tah (Navajoland),  things change slowly, if at all.  The buildings with the Leaning-Tower-of-Pisa stance that I first marveled at in 1998 are still standing.  By the side of Route 66, the single-wide trailer with “add-ons” cobbled to each side remains intact and occupied.  My friend Marita calls it a “trailermorph”.  I had an energizing reunion with Marita Delaney, Martha Brisky, Kathy Spitz and their families. In keeping with the spirit of the Navajo people, laughing and storytelling predominated. Sister Maureen put me up (or, “put up with me”) for a refreshing night at St. Paul’s.  The next morning, Father Kevin, Deacon Sherman and a congregation of about forty baptized Marita and Robert’s second daughter, Elizabeth, welcoming her to the Body of Christ.  Lizzie’s five-year-old sister, Katharine, accompanied the choir on the chimes and Robert played the guitar.  The Mass ended with my favorite English/Navajo hymn, “I Have Decided to Follow Jesus, No Turning Back”.

Kathy Spitz, Amanda Newman, and I drove to Haystack, NM one afternoon to meet the C. family.  Haystack is a small, remote community located a few miles north of Prewitt.  Prewitt is a small, remote community located a few miles east of Thoreau.  Thoreau is a……well, you get the idea!  The drive to Haystack is beautiful, the red dirt roads winding around towering cliffs dotted with gnarled pinon trees.  Pinon jays dart in and out of the trees.  Their swift little bodies are so blue that they appear to be bits of the firmament, broken off and embodied for sheer delight.

We were introduced to Emma C., age 47,  and her 17-year-old son, Emery, by Kelly Cain, a vibrant and dedicated teacher from Thoreau High School.  The C’s live in a single wide trailer and were glad to see Kelly Cain, with whom they were acquainted, and they welcomed Kelly, Amanda (and her camera!) and me with smiles and ready conversation.  Navajo is Emma’s primary language and she relies on her son for translation. She did not complete high school and has not been employed outside the home. Emery is a senior at Thoreau High School where he participates in Special Education programming.  Although Emma remarried after Emery’s father’s death, her second husband is in prison. Right now, Emma and Emery live on the $300 monthly Social Security payment due Emery as a child of a deceased parent. They also receive $106 per month in food stamps.  That’s their financial portfolio: a total of $406 per month, or $13.53 per day for all expenses for both of them.  Needless to say, no other assets.  Recently, the propane company repossessed their gas tanks for failure to pay a late bill of under $100.  They moved an old wood stove back into the trailer for cooking and heat, a dangerous but necessary accommodation.  There was no wood pile or wood source in evidence.  Emma and Emery have no transportation and must rely on family or neighbors to go anywhere.  Emery will graduate from high school in May but has no job prospects. If he managed to land a job in either of the two closest towns (Grants or Gallup), Emery would need to travel about 40 miles each way.  As noted, the family has no car and there is no public transportation. In fact, high school graduation will coincide with an additional problem:  Social Security payments will cease after Emery’s 18th birthday.

What is there to say in the face of encompassing poverty and such dilemmas?  We took all the information we could.  Kelly Cain will follow up with the school social worker about the Social Security problem. Gratefully a ”Family to Family” sponsor from back east has been found for the C Family. Kathy will continue to look for 27 more F2F sponsors for immediate help. Sullivan will return to North Carolina, write about them, and hope that these words will show how desperately your help is needed.

She has.

Susan