Hi, my name is Joe, and I'm raising money for my mom, Cheryl.

Cheryl is 72 years old and lives in her 1996 mobile home in the Wilmer, Alabama area, on a very limited SSI income of $444 a month. Recently, she faced a homeowner's worst nightmare: a 30-year-old brass connector on her main water line under the house failed completely, causing a hidden hot water leak that lost hundreds of gallons a day. It wasn't just one fitting, either. Multiple connections have started failing.

A licensed plumber just came out and identified the real problem: her entire home is piped with polybutylene, the plastic piping from the 1990s that was the subject of a national class-action lawsuit because it fails exactly like this. This was never a patch job. The whole system is at the end of its life and has to be replaced.

Before she caught the leak, the water flooded her underbelly and soaked all the subfloor insulation. The damage reached inside the house too. All the linoleum and carpet are holding moisture and have to be replaced, the cabinets under her bathroom sinks have to come up, and mold has begun forming underneath the trailer.

To prevent things from getting worse, Mom got under the trailer herself and pulled out all the heavy, soaked insulation and belly board by hand. At 72, with a bad back, she's a rockstar, but she shouldn't have had to do that.

Mom takes fierce pride in her home. It's spotless inside, the yard is always worked, and the exterior gets powerwashed regularly. I did it for her recently, and she stood right out there supervising to make sure I did it to her liking. This isn't a neglected house falling apart. It's a well-loved home with a 30-year-old pipe system failing underneath it.

Here's the urgent part: her underbelly is sitting completely open with zero insulation. In our area, the first frost typically arrives in late November, and it's hit as early as late October before. Winters are very hard on plumbing out here. The immediate mission is getting the house fully repiped before freezing temperatures arrive. The plumber insulates the new pipes as part of the job, so once that's done the freeze emergency is off the table, and Mom can tackle everything else, the underbelly barrier, the flooring, the mold cleanup, without the clock ticking. We are racing the weather on step one.

The plumber quoted $7,000 for a full repipe, all 10 fixtures, hot and cold lines, switching the house to modern freeze-resistant PEX with a manifold system so every line can be controlled individually. Done properly, so it lasts decades.

She needs a licensed plumber for the pipe work and hired help for the heavy lifting after. I work full-time and have my kids on weekends, so I can't do this job for her the way I wish I could, and there's no room for professional help on $444 a month.

Where the money goes:

- Step 1, before winter: licensed plumber, full PEX repipe, 10 fixtures hot and cold, with manifold system, new pipes insulated (written quote): $7,000

- Step 2: underbelly barrier and insulation replacement (hired help): ~$1,000 to $2,000

- Step 3: interior restoration, all flooring, under-sink cabinets, mold cleanup: ~$1,000 to $2,000

- GoFundMe fees and contingency: remainder

- Anything beyond that goes to a new pressure tank

Every penny goes directly to saving my mom's home before winter. Even sharing this link means the world to us. Thank you. Joe