ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Wednesday, November 27, 1996           TAG: 9611270041
SECTION: VIRGINIA                 PAGE: C-1  EDITION: METRO 
COLUMN: Good Neighbors Fund
SOURCE: BETSY BIESENBACH STAFF WRITER

HELP IS THERE IF PAYCHECKS ARE SPOKEN FOR

Carrie, 54, (not her real name) is one of the millions of people in this country who live from paycheck to paycheck. She gets along fine and pays all her bills - unless something happens to keep her from working.

For Carrie, it was the two cataract surgeries she had this fall.

Although her job requires lifting and long hours on her feet, she went back to work in the weeks between the surgeries. But that wasn't enough to keep her from falling two months behind on her electric bill.

Friends told her about the Presbyterian Community Center.

"Everybody was telling me that they help you," she said. "It was the first time I had ever asked for help. I didn't know what I was going to do."

It was hard to ask for assistance, she said.

"There are a lot of people out here that need help, probably more than I do," she said, but she went, anyway.

The center serves as a screening agency for the Roanoke Area Ministries Emergency Financial Assistance program. The program is supported by the Good Neighbors Fund, which is sponsored by The Roanoke Times.

RAM paid the $67 bill for Carrie. Her only other outstanding bill is her account with the gas company, and she has arranged to make payments on it.

Her insurance will pay for most of the cost of her surgeries, but she is responsible for the rest. She's not sure how she will pay that off when the time comes, she said.

Carrie also is supporting her 7-year-old granddaughter. "She's just like me," Carrie said, shaking her head and laughing.

She has signed her granddaughter up for Toys for Tots and a church-sponsored program, so the child will have some new clothes and toys at Christmas. Carrie isn't expecting anything for herself, but "I'm not worried about me at all," she said.

Carrie is grateful for the help she has received from RAM and the center.

"If I won the lottery, I'd give them some money," she laughed.

Checks made payable to the Good Neighbors Fund should be mailed to The Roanoke Times, P.O. Box 1951, Roanoke, VA 24008.

Names - but not donation amounts - of contributing businesses, individuals and 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.

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