Help with Generator Repairs & Survive the Summer Heat

Thank you for giving us a moment of your time to read this and consider helping us through this most recent hardship we are facing.

My name is Joanne Rakosi & I live with my fiancé Robert Whitchurch & our 4 year old beagle mix Raye. Something you should know about us, is nothing in life comes easy for us. We never get anything handed to us and we have always had to work hard for what we have. Asking for help, especially in relation to a financial burden, is not easy for us to propose.

As we all know, life is not easy. It may come a bit easier to some of us but we all face hardships. This year, 2024 has been a year full of hardships for Rob & I. We are no stranger to hardships as we have overcome a multiple year long addiction and have worked extremely hard to achieve over two years of sobriety. Not to mention having to completely rebuild our lives after finally reaching rock bottom. This year has been so extremely difficult for us because we are finally living life the right way and how it should be lived but we cannot seem to catch a break. In January, Rob became unemployed during the time of year my job at the time was closed for the season. We tried to reach out to local resources for help but none seemed to be able to help us through such a bad financial hardship. Rob and I both tried for almost two months to seek other employment to dig us out of the continuously filling hole we had gotten into. We became so far behind on bills that we were eventually issued an eviction notice.

April 11th, 2024 at 9:00am we had to vacate our apartment & were officially homeless. Luckily, it was tax return season &, while I didn't see a single cent of my tax return this year, Rob was blessed to receive enough back from the money taxed when his mother passed away, to afford to purchase a Class A motorhome for us to live in so we would not be completely homeless. We knew absolutely nothing about motorhomes and what to look for when buying we just went with one in our budget. This one came with an on board generator. This has been our life line and power supply when we cannot stay at campgrounds and have to stay in parking lots.

Once again Rob has found himself unemployed after getting bit by a copperhead and having to be admitted to the ICU. Doctors orders were to remain out of work until he could get to the check up almost 2 weeks later to get the clear to go back to work. During that time his boss decided to let him go and replace him because he needed too much time off. Rob continues to seek employment elsewhere but the hiring process nowadays is a long process. This has placed our financial burden solely on me and me alone.

Right before tropical storm Debby our generator decided to stop working. Campgrounds closed due to the storm so we have been without power for over a week. Due to Rob being unemployed I cannot afford to pay to go back to a campground & we can only use the campgrounds for 2 weeks out of the month anyway. This means we rely on our generator for the other half of the month. We all know how hot and humid it has been and living in basically a tin box temperatures inside our motorhome can get up to 100 degrees. If we had access to our main power supply we would be able to power our air conditioners and cool down and be comfortable. My main concern is when Rob does become employed and we have to leave our dog Raye in the motorhome alone I do not want her to overheat in such extreme temperatures. We need to fix our generator to ensure her safety and also to ensure we have running water as that only lasts about two days off our batteries before needing to be recharged by our generator which is not working. Making this going on two weeks without any power or air condtioning.

We think the carburetor is the issue but we do not know. The local shop we contacted called Ebrons is asking $95/hr in labor and then whatever parts need to be fixed. Unfortunately I cannot afford the repairs on just my income alone so we decided to take to the internet and ask for help. I am currently dripping sweat as I type this on yet another hot day, just hoping enough people will have the compassion and understanding to help us gain access to funds for the generator repairs needed in order to help us survive.

Carburetors can run from about $60 & up

Labor is $95/hr and we are unsure how long the work should take but I assume it should take no more than 5 hours.

A new on board generator would cost upwards of $1,000 if we wind up having to go down that path.

Our goal is to reach $1,500 in the event we do need to purchase a new generator but we are mainly focused on covering the cost of the generator repair. If you find it in your heart to help two people trying everything they can to live a somewhat normal life and ensure the safety of their fur baby, please donate. Anything you can afford will help get us closer to reaching our goal. Even if it's just $1! We would be forever grateful to anyone willing to help. If you cannot donate please share this to spread the word. The more people that see this, the more of a chance we have at getting the help we need and survive these extreme temperatures.

Thank you for taking the time to read all of this & an even bigger thank you in advance if you are able to donate & spread the word.