My name is Steve. I am a physician. I’m trying to help raise funds for a friend who has fallen on hard times. She is a fellow employee, who I worked with for several years at a facility that helps rehabilitate individuals who have an addiction to opioids.

Her heart is as big as Alaska, California, and Texas combined. She has an uncanny ability to treat everyone with the respect, dignity, and compassion they desperately need, having gotten little, if any, from society. She does this despite personal challenges in her own life.

This friend and colleague’s name is Krystal. She is a 38-year-old single mom of two wonderful children, a 13-year-old boy who plays football at school and a 6-year-old little girl who loves cheerleading.

Currently, she is a registered medical assistant but has been taking classes toward her ultimate desire to be a registered nurse. Yet, as if physically and emotionally juggling her responsibilities at home, work, and school has not been hard enough, finances have always been tight. Somehow, up to this point, she has managed to squeeze a dime out of a penny, and against all odds found ways to soldier on with grace, driven by an unwavering determination to make a better life for her children and herself.

In the past few months, her carefully balanced apple-chart has come crashing down. With an unforeseen accident, in which a woman hit her car—though fortunately causing no bodily injury to anyone—her car was totaled. Only months from being paid off, the insurance only covered the amount she owed. With no transportation, she has had to turn to family, who are very unreliable. Historically, they have expected her to cater to their needs but reciprocation doesn’t appear to even be in their vocabulary.

Consequently, her two-week paychecks, which used to regularly reflect 70 to 75 hours, have dropped to between 44 to 55 hours, at best. This reduction has nothing to do with her desire to work; she can’t get there to do so.

Months ago, another enormous bombshell occurred when the Department of Social Services had to open a case because her little girl’s father’s girlfriend had been physically and verbally abusing her. Her daughter’s daddy is denying it and siding completely with his girlfriend. Forensic counseling has said otherwise. This has taken a huge emotional toll.

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Krystal has completed all of the prerequisite courses and is deeply involved in more advanced course study. Because of finances, she has had to delay applying to start clinicals (learning in hospital settings, during the day). When she is able to eventually start, however, she will have to quit her current job, which has enabled her to start each day at 5:30 AM, get off to attend class about 11:00 AM on some days, and about 1:00 PM on others, to still be able to pick up her kids in the afternoon. She studies at night.

So far, at the community college she’s attending, she’s been able to pay as she goes. She has begun to look into and apply for competitive scholarships she might qualify for. School loans have become harder to find and increasingly more expensive to pay back.

Here is a quote from Krystal:

“For the past 4 years, I’ve worked in healthcare, and during that time, I’ve learned that my true passion is helping others. My patients love me—not just for the care I provide, but because I treat them with compassion, patience, and dignity. If I’m able to change and impact lives now, just imagine what I’ll be able to do as a nurse.”

Please help this smart, energetic, passionate woman to achieve her lifetime goal. Her immediate need is to first secure some reliable transportation allowing her plan to get back on track. Her bigger long-term goals could use additional financial assistance, but that is only a distant dream with no way to get to her job today.

With the promises of governmental assistance, in the way of grants for deserving students, scholarships, and affordable loans dwindling, and support for educational institutions in general quickly disappearing, it is incumbent on the private sector to jump in and help.

Our very future as a functioning nation depends on it. Making a difference can start small with individuals like you each giving small amounts. It adds up!

Please consider contributing. Whether $1, $10, $100, or even $1000, every gift helps, no matter how big or small.