<div>[This GoFundMe is organized on behalf of my dear friend Kiran for her mother, Elizabeth.]

</div>

<div><br />

</div>

<div><strong>Help a Pioneer of Early Literacy and Childhood Development Live Her Final Years With Dignity</strong>

</div>

<div><br />

</div>

<div>My mother is 84 years old. She is going blind from macular degeneration, has suffered multiple serious falls and has recently been told by her care team / rehabilitation center she can no longer live independently. She now requires 24/7 assisted living care. Asking for help like this is incredibly hard—but we are out of options.

</div>

<div><br />

</div>

<div><em>Who She Is</em>

</div>

<div>My mom grew up in extreme poverty in a small coal-mining town in Alabama—no running water, no indoor plumbing. Through sheer determination, brilliance, and grit, she became the first in her family to attend college, skipping two grades along the way. She went on to attend William &amp; Mary (in the first year women were admitted), became a Woodrow Wilson Fellow at Harvard, and earned her doctorate at the University of Virginia.

</div>

<div><br />

</div>

<div>She is a world-recognized pioneer in early literacy and childhood development, having developed benchmark standards used across the U.S. and internationally. Her research has shaped how millions of children—especially those in underserved communities—learn to read. She was offered the role of U.S. Secretary of Education multiple times but chose to stay closer to the classroom, where she believed real change happened.

</div>

<div><br />

</div>

<div>She has spent her life advocating for equity, education, and opportunity—often at personal risk. As a young woman in college, she helped form one of the first interracial study groups on her campus. The Ku Klux Klan burned a cross on her lawn in response. She was terrified—but she refused to back down and held the study group again the very next day. This is who she is.

</div>

<div><br />

</div>

<div><em>How We Got Here</em>

</div>

<div>Despite a lifetime of achievement and service, a series of events beyond her control erased her financial safety net: She was forced into early retirement to care for her terminally ill husband 6 months after they were married. The 2008 financial crash wiped out retirement savings. Chronic health issues and progressive vision loss followed. She has no remaining family other than me. She now survives solely on Social Security. In recent weeks, her condition worsened rapidly. After another fall and hospitalization, we were told she can no longer return home and must move into assisted living with full-time care.

</div>

<div><br />

</div>

<div><em>Why We’re Asking for Help</em>

</div>

<div>We are trying to raise $45,000 to cover immediate and unavoidable costs, including:

</div>

<ul>

<li>Medical and skilled nursing bills not covered by insurance

</li>

<li>Dental work from falls not covered by insurance

</li>

<li>Temporary board-and-care while awaiting permanent placement

</li>

<li>Medical transport from Nevada to California

</li>

<li>Assisted living move-in costs

</li>

<li>Furnishing and accessibility needs for her new living space

</li>

<li>Long-term care averages well over $100,000 per year, and her social security income does not come close to covering the full expenses.

</li>

</ul>

<div><br />

</div>

<div><em>Why This Matters</em>

</div>

<div>After a lifetime of giving—educating generations of children, mentoring educators, fighting for equity—my mother deserves to finish her life with dignity, safety, and compassion. We don’t ask for help unless we’re truly desperate. And right now, we are. If you’re able to donate, share, or simply connect us to resources that can help us, it means more than we can say. Thank you for helping someone who spent her entire life helping others.

</div>

Lois Bridges

Pam Allyn

Mara Holt

Scott Wallace

Daniel Gray

Anonymous

whitney wright

Leslie Biggs

Elizabeth Walsh-Sahutske

William Lindsey

Mary Delcamp

Jennifer DeLatte

Issac Menamparampil

Rachel Laycock

Thomas Squeo

Help Elizabeth Live Her Final Years with Dignity

platform

Platform is iOS

Android

Adyen Google Pay Development Audience

$opt_dummy_attribute

English only

Deprecate Stripe Legacy

dyn_template_ids

Adyen V6 Bene Transfer & MyMoney Campaign Organizers - test01

Bene transfer V6 and AdyenV6MyMoney Campaign Organizers - production

OneTrust next-app audience

fundCountryCode

NextDoor Share Option Users

Fundraisers with Reactions feature capability

fundCurrencyCode

US + Non-charity COs Only

locale

fund country is US and user language is English

personId

comms-internal-person-ids

Enhanced Story Experience Users

Suggested Goal Experience Users

user language is English and fund country: US, AU, DK, FI, IE, NO, SE, CA, GB; 

Poster share - new funds eligible (newest 9/18)

Streaming widgets beta user

paymentProcessor

3DS payment method

user language is English and fundCountry: US, AU, DK, FI, IE, NO, SE, CA, GB; 

currencyCode

Money Box Donation List Prompt Experiment Audience

GoFundMe Employees

ipAddress

Mark Rieth IP Address

Version 9.2.0 and above

Fund is in English speaking country

desktop

Android v12.11.0 and above

Platform is Android

paymentMethodType

checkoutType

Payment method type group to be vaulted on success

admin pr kit prod

EUR Donation Upsell

Share Text generation Skip Fundraiser

(prod) new funds eligible for amp12 (UGC gallery)

fintrac_cad_idv_form_v2 audience

paymentProcessorAccountId

fallback mode accounts

proCampaignId

p2p legacy startfundraising page

AMP24 New Funds Only PROD (DO NOT MODIFY)

Eligible for Profile Share Badge

countryCode

charityId

UKCharities

Federated Search Internal Testing

route.pathname community

US Donation Upsell audience 

Auto Thanks Feature Audience

International Only

fundId

braze fundraiser group 

Payment Identity Transfers ATO Risk Check (Targeted) - Production

Fundraiser Saved Payment Method Rate Limit Bypass (Production)

leaderboard-partner-id-audience-givepanel

Version 9.2.1 and above

AUD Donation Upsell audience

fundraiserCountryCode is US/EN

Active Fundraiser - Smart Default Cadence

DAF Internal

Vault on success card payment method

Platform is iOS v11.0.0 and above

Desktop users

Person ids

United States (US) users

allow yuno fundraisers for test

Mexico country code

Posters INTL

Support Comments Allowlist

NPO Profile Opted-In

iOS at or above 12.4.0

non-US recurring donors

Canada Campaign Owner Group

Fundraiser Without Meta Link

Scheduler payment tester gorup

charityCommunityId

Charities allow to be claimed unclaimed (PRD)

Canada (CA) users

UC Tipping v20250115 International

pymk_production_xplr_fe_team

Android at or above 12.2.0

Profile photo entry point audience

smart goals (fundraiser/manage) on test01

Activity Tracking v1 Beta Testing

start gfm intl allowed locales

Platform is iOS v11.2.0 and above

NPO upsell education category

unclaimed charities

prod_ach_audience

AI Chatbot Audience

amp13 only new funds (prod) (anyword auto)

UC Flow Enabled (Prod)

Payment Identity Beneficiary Verification - Production

shared notification bell audience

Custom users

ach frontend audience

Android v11.0.0 and above

Users Receiving Payments Paused Notifications

smart goals test01

Manage Coach - US English Organizers Only + new funds only

Team EGG - IP Address list

NPO recommendations prod

Fundraiser Without Instagram Deep Link

Native 11.4.0 and above

UC Tipping v20250107

checkout headers audience

ai_title_page

anyword

openai

control

manual_entry

userEmail

template_id

userId

fundUrl

isCharityCo

email

appVersion

shouldBucketIntoExperiment

isEligibleForProfileBadge

partnerId

donationCadence

isActiveFundraiser

isPartner

isMobile

npoProfileOptIn

fundIsLinkedWithMeta

hasSessionDonation

categoryGroup

isCampaignOwner

fundHasInstagramDeepLink

Native 11.3.0 and above

Native 11.4.0 and higher

New funds eligible - Video Sharing (PROD)

GB Donation Upsell audience 

Auto Thanks V3 Rollout Audience

Thank you V3 testing whitelist

isRecurringFriendly

Is Recurring Friendly

Excluded funds - Video Sharing

NPO upsell animals category

NPO upsell disaster relief category

Logged In Users

CH Donation Upsell audience

Android v10.6.0 and above

NPO upsell essential needs category

NPO upsell medical category

userCurrencyCode

Localized Currency

NPO upsell cancer category

v11.5.0 and above

testAudience

pathname

Survicate

appVersion is at or above 12.8.0

Non-charity fund

isChallengeFundraiser

challenge-fundraisers

Payment Identity Launch Verification - Production

New funds eligible - Posters v2

CAD Donation Upsell Audience

Braze Email Tester

NPO Profile Opted-Out

iOS App Version

hasKnownDonors

PYMK has donors

iOS v12.3.0 and above

Help Elizabeth Live Her Final Years with Dignity

Still $17,016 to go. Help us build momentum.