Help Jess bring Phoebe home for the summer!

Help Jess bring Phoebe home for the summer!

Our family has been friends with Jess and her daughter Phoebe since elementary school days at the Drinking Gourd School. We love them so much and want to help them however we can. Phoebe has been in Massachusetts all year where she has a full scholarship to an amazing school (she's a sophomore). Jess has been home in Maine and was homebound from December until just recently due to complications from her post-concussive syndrome.

Despite countless obstacles due to her disability, Jess has managed to keep their lives stable and make it possible for Phoebe to thrive. But the summer is posing new challenges. Jess is just now able to drive again and needs to pick Phoebe up at school. A friend will go with her to share the driving, they will spend the night in a motel to break up the driving, and they can stay at the school when they arrive to attend a special year-end ceremony with Phoebe.

This is where expenses start to mount. Jess needs gas money for the trip, new tires, registration renewal for the car, and funds to cover expenses while Phoebe is home for the summer. Phoebe is a growing kiddo! She needs new summer clothes and plenty to eat. Their regular food stamps won’t be enough. We estimate these expenses will come to around $3,000. This includes the cost of a one-time cleaning fee for their apartment and some simple things that would really help Jess’s healing like a heating pad and her supplements.

Jess has applied for Social Security Disability and has been denied in the past because she didn’t have support or advocacy. She now has a lawyer who has confidence in her case, and there’s a hearing set for the end of August.

Let’s get Jess and Phoebe through the summer and give Jess some peace of mind until she has stable income. As she says, she just wants to be able to “let her brain rest.” She hasn’t been able to come out of survival mode since she had to stop working in 2019, and no one can heal under that much stress. She wants to be able to give her attention to being a present, loving mama and just enjoy her time with Phoebe this summer. Any and all donations are very much appreciated.

Love,

Alexis

p.s. Jess is planning to pick Phoebe up the weekend of June 14th. We don't have to meet the summer goal quite yet, but a strong start of donations to make the trip happen would be wonderful.