FIREWOOD FOR WIDOWS: Winter 2017-18

Gregory Montella is organizing this fundraiser.

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FIREWOOD FOR WIDOWS! Our 7th year starts now...

My name is Gregg Montella, director of Heroes International, a nonprofit charity that empowers people like you to discover and use your "superpowers" to save the lives of widows, orphans, and the disadvantaged around the world.

I'm raising money to heat the homes of 50 abandoned seniors through this winter.

Either childless, or worse, these are my elderly friends who barely subsist on their pensions of about $30 per month.

It costs a month's pension - $30 -  to heat one home for a month. So most simply cannot afford food, medicine, and firewood. They must choose one - sometimes two - but rarely will any have the luxury of all three.

For the past seven years our teams have provided firewood for our "adopted" widows and widowers, and now we are expanding to include every needy home in our adoptive
village, as well as a nearby sister village.

Temperatures in Moldova's countryside can reach -20 degrees sustained, for days on end. Winter is upon us.

Your best gift, be it $10, $30, $120 or more - will literally save a life... And, this year, we have some unique ways to say THANK YOU! Check it out below...

Be a high roller, cover the whole amount ($6,000), and I'll visit you anywhere in Europe or the Americas and personally bake you a Christmasy batch of my award-winning triple chocolate chip cookies.

SPONSOR LEVELS & REWARDS

1. Firewood for 1 Lady, for 1 month: $30
Reward: A thank you email and tax-deductible receipt.

2. Firewood for 1 Lady, for 2 or 3 months: $60 - 90
Reward: Personalized photo of lady receiving the wood, an email of thanks from her, her name, a brief history of her life; and tax-deductible receipt.

3. Firewood for 1 Lady, for Entire Winter: $120
Reward: Jar of Gregg's award-winning triple chocolate chip cookie dough mix, just in time for the holidays, PLUS personalized photo of lady receiving the wood, an email of thanks from her, her name, a brief history of her life; and tax-deductible receipt.

4. SAVE THE VILLAGE. Firewood for 25 families $3,000
Reward: Two nights at the Gaylord Opryland in Nashville, Tennessee for up to three people, dinner and homemade cookies with Gregg, PLUS Jar of Gregg's award-winning triple chocolate chip cookie dough mix, just in time for the holidays, PLUS personalized photo of lady receiving the wood, an email of thanks from her, her name, a brief history of her life; and tax-deductible receipt.

5. SAVE THE SHIRE: Firewood for 50 families: $6,000
Reward: Be a high roller, cover the whole amount ($6,000), and I'll visit you anywhere in Europe or the Americas and personally bake you a Christmasy batch of my award-winning triple chocolate chip cookies. PLUS Jar of Gregg's award-winning triple chocolate chip cookie dough mix, just in time for the holidays, PLUS personalized photo of lady receiving the wood, an email of thanks from her, her name, a brief history of her life; and tax-deductible receipt.

HOW IT ALL STARTED

Seven years ago, my life changed forever. It was my first winter in Moldova, a beautiful, tiny nation hidden in Eastern Europe.

Moldova was in the middle of a mass exodus of working-age adults and youth. Searching for the dignity of work, nearly half the nation left. Some finding better opportunities abroad, and too many finding themselves the victims of sex and labor trafficking.

Left behind in their villages are thousands grandmothers and grandfathers, many widowed, in their late 70s to mid 90s. Too old to work, too poor to buy anything, and too feeble to collect firewood for their brutal winters.

On my second visit to the village Tabara, while distributing firewood to a few abandoned seniors, I was interrupted by the kindest little old lady you could imagine.

She was apologetic. Embarrassed to be so blunt. And, yet, she found the courage to speak.

"Sir," she squeaked with her weak voice, "I'm sorry to bother you. I'm all alone. The drunk men in the village dug up my potatoes, killed my chickens that give me eggs, and stole my firewood. Now, I'm almost starving. I have no wood for the night, and it's supposed to freeze."

By this point, her lips were quivering and she was crying. "Might you have one or two extra pieces of wood to spare? Just so I can get through this night."

My heart was pierced.

She reminded me in every way of my own precious grandmother - a saint who raised me alongside my grandfather and mother in rural Ohio.

Something instinctive, protective, came over me. It was the feeling of outrage against poverty, and love for an individual I had only just met.

I took her hands and on my knees, promised her that she would have firewood and food for this winter... and for the rest of her life.

By God's grace, that's been a promise we've been able to keep in all the years since.

Years later now, we are feeding Dunya, Eugenia, Elena, Tanya, and so many more every week - even sponsoring important medical procedures like cataract removal, dental care/dentures, and day trips throughout the country.

So, on behalf of the precious seniors in Tabara, our Moldovan village, we sincerely ask that you give your best gift towards this project. Lighting a fire for them will light a fire in your heart, too.