<div>Terri McLeod is a Wake County, North Carolina public school teacher. She is a single mother with a 16-year-old son. Virtually all public school teachers in Wake County in single-earner households must maintain second and even third jobs and/or side gigs in order to meet their families' most basic financial needs. Teacher pay is low and the County and its local towns are raising property taxes at staggering rates. Terri's recent pay raise was eaten up ENTIRELY by the increases in Wake County and Town of Cary property taxes. [Her Cary real-property tax alone increased over 56% from 2023 to 2024.] Terri's second jobs over the years, required to provide income to be able to afford her home, include delivering pizzas, ride sharing, clerking in a hardware store, and selling purses.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>Terri is irrepressible, and here are some of the things that tried to repress her over the years: she and her son endured many weeks where their grocery budget didn't exceed $20, making beans and rice their only meals; missing a (just one!) mortgage payment and being faced with foreclosure; missing an electric company payment, causing their power to be shut off. Terri has emptied her retirement accounts that she hoped would allow for a comfortable retirement, in order to pay for current expenses.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>At Terri's home in Cary, North Carolina, she cleaned massive amounts invasive species off her property and transformed it into a beautiful, stormwater-absorbing pollinator garden of beneficial native plants and noble hardwood trees. The garden provides Terri and her son (and some lucky neighbors) with strawberries, tomatoes, peppers, peas, &amp;c.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>Terri and her son love dogs. They found that offering an overnight dog-sitting service could provide enough extra income so that Terri didn't need to work extra jobs to afford their home and its increasing costs.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>A week or so ago [about Oct. 15, 2024] , a County official informed her that the dog enterprise she was conducting would be classified as a kennel. A kennel requires special wastewater treatment that includes a septic system. The cost of that system is not known, but estimated to be between $12,000 and $35,000.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>Terri simply cannot afford this expense, and it's not certain that her property could support a septic system.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>The contention is that, keeping overnight one or two dogs, sometimes three, and on one occasion four, does not constitute a kennel. She doesn't use cages. She doesn't bathe the dogs that stay with her. They run frequently and joyfully through her fenced yard. The dogs often sleep on or at the foot of her bed. Her clients and their owners love Terri and the wonderful atmosphere she and her son provide. The final decision on the status of the enterprise will be made by the bureaucracy, or more probably, by the court system.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>The GoFundMe proceeds will go entirely to Terri McLeod and her son. With it, she will:
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>1. contest the determination that what she operates is a kennel,
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>2. if, she loses on that issue, she'll retain a firm to install a septic system,
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>3. if she cannot install the septic system, she will shut down her dog-sitting operation and transition to selling by mail order and personal delivery the native plants and trees her property produces in abundance.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>-----
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>I'm George McDowell, Army veteran and retired lawyer. I live in Cary. I'm not related to Terri. I'm setting up this GoFundMe for Terri because of the fondness and respect I have for her, and also b/c, along with many others, we're ashamed that our state, our county, and our town have inflexible bureaucratic regulations and crushing property-tax policies that will cause the economic displacement of Terri McLeod, the <strong>2023 North Carolina Environmental Educator of the Year, </strong>and a member of what should be the most important and respected profession in any rational society.
</div>

Anonymous

Charlene Jones

Martha Paige

Sanan Smith

Jean Bigoney

Leann Rawlins

Maria Adoskina

Mark D’Elia

Jonathan Parsons

Ronda Guy

Richard Carroll

Keep Terri in Cary

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; 

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

be_supporter_comments_enabled_supported_funds

AMP24 New Funds Only PROD (DO NOT MODIFY)

countryCode

charityId

UKCharities

Federated Search Internal Testing

route.pathname community

US Donation Upsell audience 

Auto Thanks Feature Audience

Supporter Comments Eligible Funds

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

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

currencyCode

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

writePath

Stream Notification

start gfm intl allowed locales

Platform is iOS v11.2.0 and above

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

Fundraiser Without Instagram Deep Link

Native 11.4.0 and above

UC Tipping v20250107

Users Receiving Braze KYC Validation Failed

Native 11.3.0 and above

Influencer - Prod

US fundraisers and US users

userEmail

template_id

userId

fundUrl

isCharityCo

email

appVersion

shouldBucketIntoExperiment

partnerId

donationCadence

isActiveFundraiser

isPartner

isMobile

npoProfileOptIn

fundIsLinkedWithMeta

hasSessionDonation

isCampaignOwner

fundHasInstagramDeepLink

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

Logged In Users

CH Donation Upsell audience

Android v10.6.0 and above

userCurrencyCode

Localized Currency

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

Keep Terri in Cary

Still $32,650 to go. Help us build momentum.