For over twenty years, Sheila worked at the same fast food restaurant, making salads for little more than minimum wage. After all that time, she earned just a dollar an hour more than the day she started. When a cut in her hours brought her to Crisis Assistance Ministry seeking assistance, her path began to change.
Angel and Tony earned trips to sleepaway camp through the Bruce Irons Camp Fund. But with their mom already struggling to make ends meet, the long supply list was a bit daunting. Fortunately, they were able to shop at the Free Store for flashlights, swimsuits, pajamas, towels, water shoes, toiletries, summer clothes, and more.
When her husband walked out on her, Patricia and her 15-year-old son Jamil were plunged into an unfamiliar world of financial distress. Fully disabled after a surgical mistake years earlier, Patricia had relied on the income from her husband’s job to pay the mortgage and other bills. Left with only her monthly Social Security disability payments, she soon found the situation unmanageable.
Between the two of them, Michael and Ronnie have survived two heart attacks, a near fatal infection, P.T.S.D., and a stroke. After all that, the two friends who met at the Men’s Shelter of Charlotte are ready to settle into “everyday life,” as Ronnie puts it, after working together for over a year to meet goals and achieve housing.
