Hello all, my name is Makayla. I've been a long time resident of Sacramento for 23 years now. This is a beautiful place to live, but can be a hard place to live as well.

I’m reaching out with lots of hope, but also lots of anxiety because it's hard for me to ask for help. I recently received the pink envelope of death!! An urgent shutoff notice from PG&E, stating that my electricity will be turned off on March 20th unless I can pay the remaining balance of $742 by then. I’ve done everything I could to get caught up, but I can’t reach that amount in time on my own.

Unfortunately, if my electricity is shut off, it also puts my apartment at risk too. My apartment complex requires utilities to remain active under the lease agreement, and a shutoff would be considered a violation of that lease. This means I could face eviction and lose the apartment that I worked so incredibly hard to secure that made the growth I have had in my life so far possible.

I am a CPTSD survivor who is now in remission. It's not a straight line, but I'm doing my best. Getting to this point in my life took years of healing, effort, and rebuilding myself back to how I was before the trauma, but an even better version of myself. Because of that, situations like this weigh heavily on me. This debt feels like a dead weight tied to the past years when I struggled so much just to stay mentally there.

What I want more than anything is a fresh start as the new me. A fresh start with my life, my friends, my loved ones, my ELECTRICITY BILL. Being able to clear this shutoff balance would mean not only keeping my electricity on, but also protecting the home that saved me from the years of abuse and neglect from people that I trusted. It would be finally putting the hardships of the past behind me and welcoming my new hopeful future.

If you are able to donate, even a small amount would help more than I can ever express and if donating isn’t possible because I know everyone is struggling, sharing this fundraiser would mean the world to me as well.

Thank you for taking the time to read my story and for any support you can offer. It truly means everything to me.