Help for Catherine

Hi, my name is Mike McNicoll. Karen and I recently met a woman in Topeka, Kansas that's had a very rough year. She has four children and was divorced about a year ago. She lost her home in the divorce and has been homeless since. Although she has joint custody of their children they live full time with their father because Catherine has no home. She stayed with friends as much as she could during the past year and although she didn't say this, it seems like she wore out her welcome there, and she's spent a lot of nights in her car.

I met Catherine in the Wal-Mart parking lot on Wanamaker St. in Topeka, Kansas recently. She was parked near me and when I got out of my car she asked if I had jumper cables and if I would help her jump start her car. I had the cables and we tried to start the car but It quickly became apparent that the car problems went way beyond the battery. It needs an alternator and it burns oil as fast as she can put it in. It would probably take thousands of dollars to get the 13 year old car road worthy again.

Catherine hadn't just arrived at Wal-Mart, she arrived the previous day. She spent the previous night in that car in the Wal-Mart parking lot after being unable to find anyone that would help her. And she didn't have enough money to help herself. Homelessness and car problems make it difficult for Catherine to hold a job. Currently she's been out of work for about four months. And tonight will be the eighth consecutive night she's spent in that car in the Wal-Mart parking lot, with no heat.

On Saturday, (her fifth day in the parking lot), Karen and I drove to Topeka from Kansas City hoping Catherine got help and would not be there. Unfortunately when we arrived, she was still there, in her car. What a life...living in a car at Walmart!

We offered to take her to lunch so we could learn more about her and she could have a hot meal and a warm place to sit for an hour or so. She seems articulate, likeable, and capable...with potential for a brighter future if she could just get a jumpstart on a working vehicle and a place to live.

Catherine never thought she'd be in this position. She described how things spiraled downward after the divorce. She's on a waitlist with the housing authority for assistance, but the list is long... There's only one shelter in Topeka (other than a battered womens shelter that fortunately she doesn't qualify for). When we called the shelter, it was full and had a waitlist.

As we drove back to KC that afternoon, Karen and I talked about how we could help Catherine. Karen started calling churches and social services. One church feared that if they helped one person they would be inundated with requests from others.

Then we started thinking about how we could help with the car situation. We know a reliable car won't solve all of her problems, but we believe it will give her a better chance to solve some of the others herself. It will also enable her to see her children again.

So that brings us to this Go Fund Me. We want to raise enough money to get Catherine a reliable vehicle. We believe we can do that for $5,000 and we are hoping you will help us help her. We aren't asking for large donations, although we won't turn them down either, but we hope you will consider contributing $5 or $10 or perhaps $20. But whether you do that or not, we hope you will share this GoFundMe with your friends, relatives, neighbors, aquaintances and co-workers. If we can get a few hundred people to each contribute a small amount of money we can make a big difference for Catherine and her family.

And by the way, in the brief time we've known Catherine, the only thing she's asked us for was a jump start of her car. She knows she needs more help than that, but she's too proud to ask for it.

Please help us help Catherine.

And if you can help in other ways, please let us know that too.

Thanks