Cohran Family Homeless at Christmas

This is a story about the Cohran family, who are homeless at Christmas in the Brunswick, GA. area. We're trying to get them a little Christmas, and then a little place to live. Whatever you can do will be helpful. How many of us could be in the same situation? All it takes is a job layoff, an accident, or any bad turn of luck and any one of us could be in their shoes. It's easy to look the other way sometimes when folks need help, but then sometimes, God taps you on the shoulder and says, "Hey, there, it's YOUR turn to help."
The Cohrans have fallen on some hard times. My friends Mike and Jim were on their way home from grocery shopping when they saw the Cohrans, a family of five, Mom and Dad with three little kids, pushing everything they own in this world in two baby strollers, on their way to a church to get a meal for their three children. All they had in their strollers besides the baby and their clothes was a box of Rice Krispies.

Mike and Jim talked to the Cohrans and found they had been evicted from the motel where they'd been staying when they ran out of money and now were on the streets. Mike and Jim gave them money for a different motel for that night (the first motel had bedbugs) and put out a Facebook request for help for the family. That's a picture of the strollers above, that's how they get around. They don't have a car, they have to walk everywhere, and they usually put the baby and the youngest son in the strollers to get where they're going.

Mike plays music and he donated all his tips and the sales of his CD to the family, and with the help of other friends, raised enough money for them to stay in the new motel, the Seabreeze in Brunswick, GA. for another week. But they still need more help. Today is December 22, 2013 and Christmas is three days away.

There's five people homeless here. The dad Rick, the mom Lara, two boys,Jacob and Joel, and their little one year old baby sister, Abby. They are currently staying at a motel in Brunswick, GA. Mike and Jim raised enough money for them to spend a week there.
My name is Susan Morrison, I'm an former police officer, and after Mike and Jim put out the call for help for this family on Facebook, I took the Cohran family some groceries and diapers and I talked to the Cohrans. I told them we wanted to tell their story so other folks could help, so they let me take their pictures.

WHY THEY'RE HOMELESS
This family once had all the same things we do. An apartment in Jacksonville, FL, on the Northside, near 44th and Main. Dad Rick had a job hanging sheetrock. But Rick was having to travel farther to get to jobs, sometimes didn't get home until after 8 PM at night, he rode with the work crew, but then the work dried up and they got evicted from their home, so they came to Brunswick, where Rick has a brother who tried to help him find work. They don't have a car, so they had friends drive them to Brunswick from Jax. When they left, they could only bring their clothes and a few pictures. They had to leave their furniture, their bedding, their dishes and cookware, every precious thing they owned behind.ven the frames from their family pictures.
But the sheetrock job here in Brunswick has been slow and won't start up again until after the New Year, and that's a long time to go homeless and hungry. The last of their money was gone on Friday, Dec. 21, and they were evicted from the bedbug-ridden motel where they'd been staying. Both Rick and Lara's parents are deceased, so the children have no grandparents to help out.

SOME THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW - .when I got there in the late afternoon (Saturday, 12-21-2013), their small motel room was CLEAN and NEAT. Although there's 5 people living in one small room with two double beds, the beds were made, the few things they have were stacked neatly or put away, the TV wasn't on, and the two boys were sitting on the floor playing with small plastic army men; those, and a red foam Nerf football, are the some of the few toys they have. The boys were both very well-behaved. Normally kids that age would be whooping it up and jumping on the beds--these boys helped put the groceries away. They thanked me politely for the apples and bananas but their eyes really lit up over the Double-Stuff Oreos. The parents are intelligent and well-spoken, no cussing or poor English, and everyone was very polite.

I built a free website on Weebly about the Cohrans, so to learn more about this family, see pictures and hear their stories and what they need, and what we're are doing right now to help, visit:http://cohrans.weebly.com/

So far, we've had some kind folks donate money for an extra week (maybe two) at the new motel they're staying at, I brought them $115 worth of groceries (that will barely last a week, and some of that was paper cups and plastic utensils and condiments) and $26 of soap, shampoo, toothpaste and some coloring books and crayons for the kids. We got their laundry done for them. We're trying to raise local donations of food and clothing. I'm bringing them to my house for Christmas dinner. But we need to find a more permanent solution for their housing issue.

Brunswick is a small town on the southeast coast of Georgia, an hour south of Savannah, GA and an hour north of Jacksonville, FL. Our area has been hit hard by this past recession and we have a lot of need in this area.

Thank you so very much for any help you can offer. I'll keep you updated on here about the progress we make.