Hello, my name is Wanda Schroedel. I am a resident of Buckeye Towers in New Boston, Ohio. This is a senior community apartment complex. There are 120 apartments here.

This building has seniors aged 94 to disabled individuals aged 50.

I myself am 78.

I have lived here for 4 years.

We have two elevators in the building, and the apartment is 8 stories high.

Ever since I moved here, there have been multiple problems keeping both elevators working.

Now, as of October 18, we have NO working elevators. None!

I live on the 6th floor, and my cousin Mary lives on the 8th floor. Neither of us could get down the steps. Now, I would be able to a little bit easier than her as long as I had help and went slow. However, Mary would not be able to whatsoever. Mary has had polio since she was about 2 1/2 years old and has never walked again. Since the elevator has been down, Mary had a daughter that passed away. It took an act of Congress just about to get Mary’s family into the building. So many stories to tell and I don’t have the time, but here’s what I will tell you. I, along with maybe 70% of the people that live here, have not been out of our apartments for now maybe 36 or so days. This creates lots of problems. It’s missed doctors' appointments. It’s missed grandchildren’s birthdays. It has missed just going downstairs and playing bingo and visiting with your neighbors from other floors. But the most heartbreaking thing is we have no hope. We don’t know when this will be fixed because all we do is get very little information from the manager. However, it’s not the manager's fault or the maintenance man’s fault. The fault lies within the Treetop Corporation who has bought this building.

The problem also lies with the past owner, The Rose Community Organization. So we’ve had two managing companies. The Rose Community had a managing company called WIN, and now Treetop Company has a managing company named Aspen. Now, we weren’t even allowed to know who the owners of the building were. Yes, as residents, we were not allowed to know our new owners. Well, that seems shady to me. The new owners didn’t sign the final paperwork until October 22. Now, there were some odd things that went on during this time, and I found out a lot of them. But I’m not going to put it all out there. This is what I’m saying. I’ve been told over and over, along with other residents here and along with the managers and the maintenance, the truth be known. The elevator people have said time and time again that it’s time for a new elevator, that they cannot continue to put Band-Aids on these elevators. They are dangerous, very dangerous. People have been trapped in them. They have dropped from higher up, maybe the eighth floor, the sixth floor with my own family, and it went immediately just zoom down to the first floor. Now we’re getting into Thanksgiving. We can’t get out; some of us can’t. Now you have to realize everybody here has their own story because there are people on the eighth floor that are capable of walking up and down the steps, going out to smoke. There are people on the first floor, and even on the second, this elevator does not affect their lives whatsoever. They still come and go and live their life as they have in the past. So you need to realize everybody here has their own story. But you cannot come into the ground floor and walk around the common areas and the community room and the living room areas and see people laughing and talking and just assume that everything is okay. This GoFundMe is trying to purchase an elevator. Now they’re gonna have to pay me back, but I want out of here. I’m trapped. I want out for the holidays. I want to be able to enjoy Thanksgiving and Christmas with my family and my grandchildren. I’ve missed birthdays. I’ve missed doctors' appointments. I have a loved one in hospice that I can’t get out and see. I want Treetop and WIN to get off their duffs and get a new elevator, but until they do, I want to take whatever money I got, whatever money I raise, and I want some kind of elevator system that will be safe and that we can use until better things happen for us. This is very, very depressing and stressful. I have great anxiety that I never had before. I wake up gasping for breath, worried about what if this place should catch on fire. Who can get out? Who can’t? There’s no way that the firemen could get everybody out. And yet, I don’t want an elevator to just run for 2 to 3 days like it has many times in the past and then someone ends up losing their life because the owners don’t want to put any money in. Treetop, WIN, Rose Community, Aspen Management, listen up. You have dropped the ball. You have forgotten us. You go ahead and live your life and expect us to just stay in our apartments day after day after day. Y’all don’t care about us, and you know you don’t. The oldest person in this building is a neighbor of mine just two or three apartments down from me, and she cries all the time. All she wants is to be able to get out to church. She cries. Listen again. She just wants to get out to church. Now, as you sit around your tables for Thanksgiving and for Christmas and you enjoy all the things that normal people like to do with the holidays, you best be thinking about the people that are paying the rent every month to you. We are no more than a name on the mailbox and the rent check in the office. I’m tired of it. I’m tired of it. I’m speaking out, and shame on you. You know what? I have not seen anything come from corporate. We have a lot of people coming in here and bringing food. Why don’t y’all show up? Why don’t you come to the door with a Christmas card with a big bonus so the people that live here might be able to enjoy some Christmas because we certainly can’t get out. Shame on you. Shame for this is shameful. Whatever money I got, I will use for something, something to get us out of here. You watch and see me. You do not know who you’re messing with. But all of you oughta be sued, and all of you oughta be ashamed of yourselves. We have a new manager here, and I’m sure she’s overwhelmed. We have maintenance men here, and they are overwhelmed, and you know what? They know things, but they’re not allowed to tell us. Please be patient; that’s what we were told. If it wasn’t for the New Boston firemen, I don’t know what people would do. These men come and get people out for emergencies like for falling. They come and get people down for medical appointments, and they have other duties besides just watching this complex. I work for everybody in this community of New Boston, but God love their hearts, when we need them, they are here. So I hope this gets to you, and I hope it kind of gets you stirred up and fired up. Someone, are your intentions possibly not to fix the elevator so you can move us all out, do your remodeling, and jack up the prices? If that’s what’s going on, people here think that I’m going to call strike on them. They’re gonna have to move out because I have reached out for help. But you and I both know you may have a hidden agenda, and whether I spoke out or not, ha ha, you may be up to something that is not good.

So this is my story, folks. This is my story. I certainly can use any and all help. Doesn’t matter how.