“Josh” and “Ellen” work hard, they have since they were 16 years old. They believe in an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay. They are teaching this philosophy to their two beautiful children who aren’t quite old enough to work for a paycheck yet, but they sure know how to help out at home! Ellen has worked in the service industry for her entire life. She’ll tell you she really enjoys helping people and making them happy. “I love to see their smiles when they are enjoying themselves.” Josh works in construction, he’s a skilled carpenter, having learned most of what he knows from on the job training. I’m sure you know where this is going ... Covid-19 has ripped apart their dream life. Like so many others in our community, Josh and Ellen have suddenly found themselves struggling. They’ve been able to pay rent and utilities with their savings but, after almost two months, they fear they can only do so for one more month before they deplete their emergency fund. Their unemployment applications have been a nightmare of red tape and waiting. They’ve been able to stretch their savings by using the food bank and cutting costs in every corner they can. We’ve assured them, that if they need help with rent and/or utilities, we’ll be here for them. Because of YOU, they have hope. They can take comfort that their community, the one they’ve served their entire lives, will be here for them. We are so privileged that we can share that message with them thanks to you. Bless you all, and thank you.
We’ve said it before but we just can’t say it enough. Thank you, thank you, thank you, dear community, for wrapping your arms around our neighbors and lifting them up through POM. This is the kind of thing POM was built for over 20 years ago … to help our neighbors in crisis! It is only because of the generosity of all of you that we can continue to serve during this chaos. So far, because of you, we’ve been able to meet the huge increase in need (up 130% over April of last year) despite the loss of income from our store. YOU ARE INCREDIBLE!!! Please know, it is only because of your generosity that we can give hope to those like Josh and Ellen.