HI! My name is Marlene and I was born and raised in Chile. I came to this country at 9 years old with my parents and 3 brothers with the hope of the American Dream. I am currently a Licensed Real Estate Salesperson and I am following in the footsteps of my brother and enrolled in my Master of Social Welfare program at Stony Brook University. During my first year, I have to do 400+ hours of unpaid internship to practice my skills and I was very fortunate to meet Amory Sepulveda who is a Social Worker at a local not-for-profit. Her job is to help the youth make better choices in life, and she is AMAZING at it and truly loves her job. Amory is also Chilean like me, and also a graduate of Stony Brook MSW program...so we have been able to connect in a way that has been a true blessing. Amory told me her story and shared that she has been a wheelchair user since she was a teenager and was involved in an accident that changed the course of her life. She is now a well-respected and loved counselor who travels for work, visits families, donates her time and also goes the extra mile to be there. Since I met Amory in August 2022, I felt that she has a heart of gold and a true passion for helping others, she is admirable, caring and dependable. Currently, she has been having many car troubles and because she needs an accessible van it is twice as hard to be able to fix this. The criteria for the modifications to a regular van are to be done by a state run agency but they are very limiting and also require that she buys an older van that will inevitably break down again. I hope that our community donates whatever it can to help AMORY GET AN ACCESSIBLE VAN! The kids in the community miss her (as she has not been able to work!) and they want to see her again, I also want her to be able to drive and not worry about her van overheating or breaking down! Lastly, Amory is a very hard worker but we all know that the industry of healthcare and betterment is not well paid, so any donations will help her be able to buy the appropriate vehicle so she can just go out there and help those who need it! The actual cost of a brand-new accessible van is OVER 50,000 USD so I would love to start small and see where it takes us. Thank you for reading this and I hope we can all contribute! ♥️