Mitchell Family Lead Remediation Project
Donation protected
Hi there family and our closest friends,
Late this winter I submitted an at-home lead swipe test to the Maine CDC for the floors and stairways in our house. The swipes came back with dangerous lead dust levels. The state sent a lead inspector out to our house to do a full report on our house and after much anguished waiting we got the full report back on May 19. Our stairway, entire upstairs and the older parts of our downstairs were declared to be a lead hazard. We haven't been able to bring Lyra in to get her blood test as her doc recommended we hold off until mid-June when COVID traffic dies down. So that variable awaits us.
Our contact at the Maine Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention has told us that the federal and state grants to cover this kind of work are stalled indefinitely. She said it could be next year before they open back up and once that happens there will be a backlog of cases that need to be dealt with. It could be years before we can get the remediation work done with grants.
We just can't wait for that. We're forging ahead, looking for funding for this work. We are not in the 100% best place to be borrowing money, though we will if we have to. We wanted to initially reach out to close family and friends and see if we could garner some support from folks who are invested in Lyra's future.
We got an estimate to take care of the full extent of the issues brought forward in the lead report and that is our fundraising goal. Thanks so much for your care and support. We will be endlessly grateful for any support our families are able to provide.
(I wish I had a photo with Ryan in it, but I don't!)
Love,
Us
Late this winter I submitted an at-home lead swipe test to the Maine CDC for the floors and stairways in our house. The swipes came back with dangerous lead dust levels. The state sent a lead inspector out to our house to do a full report on our house and after much anguished waiting we got the full report back on May 19. Our stairway, entire upstairs and the older parts of our downstairs were declared to be a lead hazard. We haven't been able to bring Lyra in to get her blood test as her doc recommended we hold off until mid-June when COVID traffic dies down. So that variable awaits us.
Our contact at the Maine Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention has told us that the federal and state grants to cover this kind of work are stalled indefinitely. She said it could be next year before they open back up and once that happens there will be a backlog of cases that need to be dealt with. It could be years before we can get the remediation work done with grants.
We just can't wait for that. We're forging ahead, looking for funding for this work. We are not in the 100% best place to be borrowing money, though we will if we have to. We wanted to initially reach out to close family and friends and see if we could garner some support from folks who are invested in Lyra's future.
We got an estimate to take care of the full extent of the issues brought forward in the lead report and that is our fundraising goal. Thanks so much for your care and support. We will be endlessly grateful for any support our families are able to provide.
(I wish I had a photo with Ryan in it, but I don't!)
Love,
Us
Organizer
MARGARET MITCHELL
Organizer
Freedom, ME
