Help Mario with food & rent money

Hi, my name is Barbara Treese and I created this fundraiser for a super sweet guy, Mario because he is in desperate need of help for the basics of food & shelter.

He battled esophageal, stomach & colon cancer last year (it's not over yet) and then not long ago he was the victim of a pretty bad car accident. He hurt his right knee & hip so badly that he is in a lot of pain, can't work & can barely walk. If he gets any settlement from the accident it will be months from now and too late to help him with his current needs. He isn't getting paid for work while he's off because he never filled out the paperwork for FMLA. He was too busy working during the aftermath of Hurricane Ian & helping Ariel & its residents get back to normal when everyone else in that department either quit or was ineffective. Then, he simply forgot to go back and fill it out. He is having meniscus surgery on his right knee Weds, May 17th at 9 am and then hip surgery later. He is due back at work on June 16th.

He is incredibly embarrassed but reached out to me because he is facing potential eviction from his landlord and has hardly any money for food or gas. He said he had $200 as of yesterday. He is single and his family is helping all they can, but it is not enough; financially, they can't help any more than they already are. He says that they bring him chicken 3 times a week to eat and so he lives off of that for the rest of the week. He is incredibly SICK of eating chicken as you can imagine!

I'm not sure how long he has been unable to work but he is behind on his rent, which is $2,200 per month. Luckily his landlord has allowed his deposit to be used as his rent but that is used up as of June 1st. For such an active & vivacious guy, he can barely walk and is depressed because he feels like there is no way out.

I started this Go Fund Me in the hopes that we could show our support and help him through this rough patch while he is healing & getting the surgeries that he needs. He wants nothing more than to return to work & his "family" at Ariel, the condominium where he works in Ft. Myers. If you could donate, even a little, it would mean so much and help him to eat & keep him from getting evicted. I set the goal at $3,000 so that he could pay at least 1 month of rent and have some leftovers for food and gas.