ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, December 3, 1995 TAG: 9512040050
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: Good Neighbors Fund
SOURCE: BETSY BIESENBACH STAFF WRITER
Winter came early this year to the Roanoke Valley. Freezing temperatures arrived well before Thanksgiving.
Most people just turned up the thermostat or tossed another log on the fire. But Lisa (not her real name) and her two children had to close off most of their house and use an electric space heater to warm the two rooms they lived in.
Their gas service was cut off in October. Lisa is on Aid to Families with Dependent Children, and there was no money to pay the current bill, the reconnection fee, a third of the deposit, and the bill from their previous home, all of which she owed.
When the baby fell against the heater and suffered first-degree burns, Lisa shut it off. The family members then huddled around the open door of their electric oven, and that bill began to mount up, too.
Lisa fell behind on her utility payments this summer, after her oldest child died unexpectedly. The funeral cost $5,000, and the burial plot cost about $700. By the middle of November, Lisa still owed $2,600 for the funeral. The rest had been paid by donations from friends and family.
But the cemetery where her child was buried began to pressure her for payment, even going so far as to threaten to pull up the metal grave marker. If Lisa hadn't managed to come up with part of the money, "we wouldn't even know where he was buried," she said. "I had to try to keep that bill up."
That money was supposed to be used to pay the utility bills. Even though Lisa gets food stamps and lives in subsidized housing, her monthly $267 AFDC check "isn't enough to do anything with," she said.
Lisa said she probably could have found a better price for her child's funeral, but she was so distraught at the time that she didn't even think of comparison shopping.
Although there are many agencies that will help with food, utilities and medicine, few will help pay for an expense such as this. "I tried to get help from everybody," she said.
In November, Lisa came to Roanoke Area Ministries, hoping to get the gas turned on before it got even colder. She was given $50 from the emergency financial assistance program, which is supported by the Good Neighbors Fund. Dannie McLain, who screens applicants for the program, also worked on finding money for the gas bill.
McLain "is one of the best," Lisa said. If he can't help you, she explained, he'll call around until he finds someone who will.
Checks made payable to the Good Neighbors Fund should be mailed to The Roanoke Times, P.O. Box 1951, Roanoke 24008.
Names - but not donation amounts - of contributing businesses, individuals or organizations, as well as memorial and honorific designations, will be listed in the newspaper. Those requesting that their names not be used will remain anonymous. If no preference is stated, the donor's name will be listed.
LENGTH: Medium: 58 linesby CNB