Hello GoFundMe -----
On August 11, 1997 I fell asleep at the wheel. My car rolled off the side of the road and down a hill. Due to multiple surgeries, anesthesia and pain medicine, my first memories were roughly 2 weeks after the crash. I was told I have an 80% contusion of the L1 vertebrae, paralysis. I was a paraplegic, in other words, bound to a wheelchair. Despite this tragic event I was back at work that November( '97 ) part time. 1.5 years before my crash I had started working for a family owned technical recruiting company called ICC Corp, in Petaluma, CA. I really enjoyed technical recruiting and they were very supportive during my recovery....helping me every step of my rehab. Unfortunately after the original owner sold the company, an auto parts company took over. The company disintegrated quickly and ceased to exist by 2003 due to a recession and a parent company called MSXI that didnt know staffing. I took another job in 2004 with a very large staffing company in the Silicon Valley. I will refer to them as X company. I learned a lot at company X. I really enjoyed my time there but around 2012 things changed. The CEO "resigned". Our 25 year long NorCal VP was let go. The company was suspended from the NYSE due to discrepencies in our financial records. After that ANYONE/everyone senior level was being fired or laid off. I was let go in September 2013. I found out the company was losing a LOT of money. Everyone senior level like myself was let go and replaced by a college graduate at half the price. I started looking for work and landed a permanent job with CHR in San Jose. I learned very quickly it was a horrible match for me. The recruiting manager was a hardware engineer and had never recruited. The commute from Alameda( where I moved after 10 years in San Jose ) to San Jose was 3-4 hours round trip. I didnt like anything about that job. At the end of May 2014 I was terminated. I would have quit, but I really needed the unemployment money. So I started looking for work again. I worked 4 different contract jobs and none that I wished became permanent. About the time I took my 2nd contract job, I contracted a bad urinary tract infection/UTI. This caused me to miss work quite a bit and in contracting you really cannot have any sick days. In the last 36-37 months I have been unemployed for 18 months. Not only did I have this illness but my age and wheelchair were a fairly big disadvantage in finding work. Two of my contract roles were just 1 phone interview, no on-site interviews. And when I rolled into those 2 jobs in my wheelchair, the disappointment was palpable. The other part of this story is starting in 2013, I was going through a divorce. I had to pay my lawyer a retainer fee of $3,500 and also $500 a month. And until we went before a judge which took 18 months, I was paying my ex wife $925 a month for child support. My healthcare has been Obamacare and I was paying $600 a month for healthcare and coming out of pocket for all prescriptions and doctor appts. I am 45k in debt due to divorce, REALLY bad healthcare, 18 months of unemployment and a urinary tract infection that has lingered for nearly 2 years. My car has 165k miles but given my debt, I cannot afford to buy a better car. My car in the past few years has needed a new transmission, a new starter, 2 new radiators, radiator hoses/fan, 2 oxidizers in the exhaust, a fuel pump and it started over heating last week. It now needs a new water pump which costs $600.00 which I dont have. Ideally I would buy a new( used but newer than mine ) but I have not worked since March 11th, 2016. I actually had a job offer at a company called Intelligent Staffing. My start date was Tuesday, 10/4/2016. The Monday morning before my orientation day, start day, my car would not start. I called a mobile mechanic. He came to my girlfriends house and replaced the fuel pump but the car still would not start. This mechanic started at 11:30am and worked until 3pm. He told me he would come back the next day to check my fuel line. I called I.S. explained to the owner that my car broke down that morning and its still not running so I would miss my orientation but I would call into the 10am meeting to listen to orientation and introduce myself. He seemed OK when we hung up. Feeling stressed out, I decided to stroll/roll up to Safeway and get some fresh air. When I was coming out of the grocery store I pulled my phone out to text my girlfriend. I noticed I missed a call/voicemail. Likely because my phone was muzzeled by my sweatshirt in my shoulder bag. It was the I.S. owner leaving a message @ 5:15pm. He said "I talked with our COO, and we decided we are going to rescind your offer". So the ONLY JOB OFFER I have had in the last 7 months was lost due to this bucket of bolts crappy car I have. I felt blindsided. But that car is NOT RELIABLE and unfortunately these people somehow knew my car was a wreck. Its not worth even $1,000 dollars. The WORST PART is, this is my weekend with my twin girls, age 6. But given my car now needs a water pump, I wont be seeing my girls this weekend......AT ALL. I split time between my moms home im Fairfax, CA & my girlfriends house in San Leandro, CA. If not for their generosity, I would be homeless right now. And without a running car, I have no idea if I can accept a new job offer unless its next to the BART train. I am stuck at my girlfriends house and I dont know when I will be able to go anywhere. Missing time with my kids is the worst part. They are just 6 years old and I have missed a LOT OF TIME with them due to my car trouble. I need to work and I need a car so I dont lose anymore. job offers. I wont have any kind of life with NO VEHICLE. I WOULD BE VERY, VERY, VERY GRATEFUL for a reliable vehicle. I pray to God my life will change soon. My wheelchair, chronic nerve pain and my age( 50 ) are big enough obstacles to over come. No car is an obstacle I cannot overcome. I implore anyone out there for help so I can buy a reliable vehicle and get back to work. I love my job which is ironically finding others jobs. Here I am a job expert who cannot find a job. Karma is real and good deeds do not go un-noticed. God bless anyone helping those in need. This world needs more kindness, more love and more understanding. We need love. Not hate. Generosity is a loving gesture. People with big hearts and kindness will be rewarded always. I have never asked for help like this. But I had to really humble myself and be realstic with myself. I have a 2001 car with 165k miles. I have a wheelchair that is 15 years old
Given how difficut its been finding and keeping work, I have to do this. I have to do this for my twin girls. I have to do this for my girlfriend. I have to do this for ME. As an aging paraplegic, I am not the prototype employee lard companies look for. In fact I deal with discrimination with my disability and more recently my age. Ageism is the most prominent discrimination out there. As I get older, finding open minded companies becomes more diffiult. I appreciate any help. I truly do appreciate the generosity people often show. My life has been a challenge and extremely humbling. I rarely ever ask for help from anyone. But thats where I am now. I need help. I wil forever be grateful if I can buy a reliable car. God bless anyone who believes in helping others- John H
On August 11, 1997 I fell asleep at the wheel. My car rolled off the side of the road and down a hill. Due to multiple surgeries, anesthesia and pain medicine, my first memories were roughly 2 weeks after the crash. I was told I have an 80% contusion of the L1 vertebrae, paralysis. I was a paraplegic, in other words, bound to a wheelchair. Despite this tragic event I was back at work that November( '97 ) part time. 1.5 years before my crash I had started working for a family owned technical recruiting company called ICC Corp, in Petaluma, CA. I really enjoyed technical recruiting and they were very supportive during my recovery....helping me every step of my rehab. Unfortunately after the original owner sold the company, an auto parts company took over. The company disintegrated quickly and ceased to exist by 2003 due to a recession and a parent company called MSXI that didnt know staffing. I took another job in 2004 with a very large staffing company in the Silicon Valley. I will refer to them as X company. I learned a lot at company X. I really enjoyed my time there but around 2012 things changed. The CEO "resigned". Our 25 year long NorCal VP was let go. The company was suspended from the NYSE due to discrepencies in our financial records. After that ANYONE/everyone senior level was being fired or laid off. I was let go in September 2013. I found out the company was losing a LOT of money. Everyone senior level like myself was let go and replaced by a college graduate at half the price. I started looking for work and landed a permanent job with CHR in San Jose. I learned very quickly it was a horrible match for me. The recruiting manager was a hardware engineer and had never recruited. The commute from Alameda( where I moved after 10 years in San Jose ) to San Jose was 3-4 hours round trip. I didnt like anything about that job. At the end of May 2014 I was terminated. I would have quit, but I really needed the unemployment money. So I started looking for work again. I worked 4 different contract jobs and none that I wished became permanent. About the time I took my 2nd contract job, I contracted a bad urinary tract infection/UTI. This caused me to miss work quite a bit and in contracting you really cannot have any sick days. In the last 36-37 months I have been unemployed for 18 months. Not only did I have this illness but my age and wheelchair were a fairly big disadvantage in finding work. Two of my contract roles were just 1 phone interview, no on-site interviews. And when I rolled into those 2 jobs in my wheelchair, the disappointment was palpable. The other part of this story is starting in 2013, I was going through a divorce. I had to pay my lawyer a retainer fee of $3,500 and also $500 a month. And until we went before a judge which took 18 months, I was paying my ex wife $925 a month for child support. My healthcare has been Obamacare and I was paying $600 a month for healthcare and coming out of pocket for all prescriptions and doctor appts. I am 45k in debt due to divorce, REALLY bad healthcare, 18 months of unemployment and a urinary tract infection that has lingered for nearly 2 years. My car has 165k miles but given my debt, I cannot afford to buy a better car. My car in the past few years has needed a new transmission, a new starter, 2 new radiators, radiator hoses/fan, 2 oxidizers in the exhaust, a fuel pump and it started over heating last week. It now needs a new water pump which costs $600.00 which I dont have. Ideally I would buy a new( used but newer than mine ) but I have not worked since March 11th, 2016. I actually had a job offer at a company called Intelligent Staffing. My start date was Tuesday, 10/4/2016. The Monday morning before my orientation day, start day, my car would not start. I called a mobile mechanic. He came to my girlfriends house and replaced the fuel pump but the car still would not start. This mechanic started at 11:30am and worked until 3pm. He told me he would come back the next day to check my fuel line. I called I.S. explained to the owner that my car broke down that morning and its still not running so I would miss my orientation but I would call into the 10am meeting to listen to orientation and introduce myself. He seemed OK when we hung up. Feeling stressed out, I decided to stroll/roll up to Safeway and get some fresh air. When I was coming out of the grocery store I pulled my phone out to text my girlfriend. I noticed I missed a call/voicemail. Likely because my phone was muzzeled by my sweatshirt in my shoulder bag. It was the I.S. owner leaving a message @ 5:15pm. He said "I talked with our COO, and we decided we are going to rescind your offer". So the ONLY JOB OFFER I have had in the last 7 months was lost due to this bucket of bolts crappy car I have. I felt blindsided. But that car is NOT RELIABLE and unfortunately these people somehow knew my car was a wreck. Its not worth even $1,000 dollars. The WORST PART is, this is my weekend with my twin girls, age 6. But given my car now needs a water pump, I wont be seeing my girls this weekend......AT ALL. I split time between my moms home im Fairfax, CA & my girlfriends house in San Leandro, CA. If not for their generosity, I would be homeless right now. And without a running car, I have no idea if I can accept a new job offer unless its next to the BART train. I am stuck at my girlfriends house and I dont know when I will be able to go anywhere. Missing time with my kids is the worst part. They are just 6 years old and I have missed a LOT OF TIME with them due to my car trouble. I need to work and I need a car so I dont lose anymore. job offers. I wont have any kind of life with NO VEHICLE. I WOULD BE VERY, VERY, VERY GRATEFUL for a reliable vehicle. I pray to God my life will change soon. My wheelchair, chronic nerve pain and my age( 50 ) are big enough obstacles to over come. No car is an obstacle I cannot overcome. I implore anyone out there for help so I can buy a reliable vehicle and get back to work. I love my job which is ironically finding others jobs. Here I am a job expert who cannot find a job. Karma is real and good deeds do not go un-noticed. God bless anyone helping those in need. This world needs more kindness, more love and more understanding. We need love. Not hate. Generosity is a loving gesture. People with big hearts and kindness will be rewarded always. I have never asked for help like this. But I had to really humble myself and be realstic with myself. I have a 2001 car with 165k miles. I have a wheelchair that is 15 years old
Given how difficut its been finding and keeping work, I have to do this. I have to do this for my twin girls. I have to do this for my girlfriend. I have to do this for ME. As an aging paraplegic, I am not the prototype employee lard companies look for. In fact I deal with discrimination with my disability and more recently my age. Ageism is the most prominent discrimination out there. As I get older, finding open minded companies becomes more diffiult. I appreciate any help. I truly do appreciate the generosity people often show. My life has been a challenge and extremely humbling. I rarely ever ask for help from anyone. But thats where I am now. I need help. I wil forever be grateful if I can buy a reliable car. God bless anyone who believes in helping others- John H
Organizer
John Homitz
Organizer
San Leandro, CA