Bring Warmth and Stability to a Local Family

About a week before Christmas, I met this family who resides right here in Pennsville and began learning about all they have been through in the last 2-3 years. They were looking for some help with the holidays so they could give their son a nice Christmas, but also were really just looking for the opportunity to work and earn. Before helping with anything, I wanted to meet them, so I asked her to meet me for breakfast and she quickly agreed.

With the way the world is today, I half expected to meet up with someone on drugs, but that wasn’t the case here. Instead, I met a very intelligent woman looking for a lifeline for her and her family so they could get back on track and instead of fighting to survive and stay warm every day, to be able to actually live for the first time in well over a year. She began telling me how they haven’t had electricity since September of 2023 and owe Atlantic City Electric $11,000. I was in shock. I couldn’t believe it. How could someone be THAT behind on a utility?

After breakfast, I really wasn’t totally convinced. I just thought…there has to be more to the story. What aren’t you telling me? Since then, I have spent multiple days a week with this family. Their son is now friends with my son. I help out however I can, whether that be taking him to school, or allowing him to sleep here when he isn’t sleeping at his grandma's, or just simply being a resource for the family…providing firewood or propane, a shoulder to cry on, advice, resources, etc.

I already know what you’re thinking, so let me stop here to say, yes…they are actively working with social services. They have a safety plan for their son. Their son has spent most of the winter at school, with her mom, or at my house. They are EXCELLENT parents and have done a great job with making sure he is safe and warm. SO before you go pointing your finger and saying “how dare they…,” instead ask yourself, “how has a family right in our own backyard been living like this for so long without any of us even knowing? How can we help? How can we throw them a lifeline and help put them in the position to be successful and overcome this absolute travesty?”

Back to the story… I learned that the husband was the sole income in the family. He was the breadwinner. After contracting Covid-19, he suffered numerous complications. He had to have surgery in May of 2021 to remove a portion of his colon. He awoke with an ileostomy bag. At this point, he was unable to work and just weeks later he had to have another follow-up surgery, putting him out of work even longer. Throughout this whole time, he remained employed with the same company he has worked at for the last 20 years, but not being able to physically work during that time meant no income and being a mason means work is very slow during the cold months. This was the start of it all.

I recently started going over the bills and just going through the data with his wife trying to understand it all because again…$11,000 bill to ACE? How? I’ll tell you how… Another door-to-door salesman telling someone to “sign up to save money” yadda yadda. Right before he contracted Covid-19, he was suckered into one of these and I know you all know someone that has opted into having a “supplier” on their electric bill not really knowing what it was. I was in absolute DISBELIEF when I saw their “supplier” was charging $282 MONTHLY on top of their electric bill. An extra $282 a month? That’s nearly $3,400 extra a year that they didn’t have. Then, the last bill I saw the monthly usage charge was $2,000? I don’t even understand that one…

Why/how didn’t they know about this extra charge? They probably saw it, didn’t understand it, and were too bogged down by life and everything else going on in the world that it just didn’t take precedence. They didn’t have the time to deal with one more thing that shouldn’t even be something anyone should have to worry about.

Anyway, I’m here to ask you all if you’ll go in with me and help raise the money to pay this bill and get this family’s electric back on. At this point, it goes so much deeper than an electric bill. They have been living without it for so long, but this winter has been the coldest in a while. A generator and a woodstove can only do so much. Imagine barely sleeping because you’re so busy stoking the fire and having to block off areas of your house that you no longer even use because you need to keep one area warmer. I’ve taken a deep dive into their life the past 5-6 weeks and I’ve learned and witnessed all that I can and it’s sad. It’s so freaking sad. I can’t stand watching them go through this and I’ve done absolutely everything I can do alone to help them. I need help to help them. I know we can all pull together and get this done.

I will not disclose the names of the family. If you feel uncomfortable donating because of that, that is fine. We are still going to figure this out. Just know that I would not jeopardize the reputation I have built over the last 30 years. I have vetted this situation. I am in constant contact with this family. We have sat down and developed a plan to ensure that all bills are kept up with once the electric is back on and he has actually already been successfully completing work at our flips to earn an honest income to supplement the income from his employer. He’s talented, she’s talented. These lives are so worth saving. Feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions at all. Do not reach out to me with any negativity. If this donation would be out of your comfort zone, then just simply move on, no hard feelings, but this is going to take a village and I know that I have the absolute best village around <3

....any additional money raised will go towards fixing the pipes in the home that recently burst after freezing during the single digit temperatures we just experienced a week ago.