GO ATHENA! FUND Special Needs Trust

Athena's entire life has been marked by care and concern for others.  She now needs some care and concern herself.

In the third grade, she wrote a letter to the Mayor of the City, protesting what she believed was the inhumane treatment of animals by the City.  She became a vegetarian at 11 or 12.   

In her 13th year she started a chapter of Amnesty International at her school and became a local expert on child slavery and prisoners of conscience, educating first fellow-students and then the community at large in talks to local organizations.    

For her 16th Birthday, she refused gifts and required her party guests to bring food for a local pantry.  She collected over 500 lbs of non-perishables, and insisted that the donation be anonymous (oops, I guess I just let it slip, sorry, Athena).

In August 2001, she organized a demonstration on Public Square in Wilkes-Barre bringing to light abuses by the Taliban in Afghanistan -- over a month before 9/11.

After college, she was a Community Organizer in Philadelphia for Working America, helping working class families have their needs addressed and their voices heard.

For most of the last eight years she tirelessly worked in the field of health insurance reform, first working for the support and passage of ACA, then as the statewide Advocacy Director in Pennsylvania for the expansion of Medicaid.  Early in 2014, she became Florida's staetwide Advocacy Director to take on the same struggle.

Where ever she went, whatever she did, she touched people and did whatever she thought would make their lives better.  In working on her assistance applications we discovered that, even in her most spare economic situations, she gave at least a little every month, through modest recurring donations, to organizations for which she cared deeply.
 
That life of giving was paused on October 7, 2015, when Athena, a seat-belted passenger in a single vehicle accident, suffered traumatic brain injury.

Athena faces very long and difficult road to recovery.  We are looking at five or more years of recovery and rehab.  

We are now asking others to help someone who spent the bulk of her life helping others.  

Athena desperately needs your help since, despite her best efforts, medical care is still very expensive and assistance doesn't cover everything she will need as she fights to regain consciousness and then to rehab.

Your contributions will go to "The GO ATHENA! FUND", a managed Special Needs Trust registered with the IRS.  This is to ensure that all donations go to the support and care of this amazing woman, and that they do not disqualify her for much needed government assistance programs.  When Athena no longer needs help, everything remaining in the Trust will be donated to a non-profit organization that helps brain injured patients.

Athena's struggle will be lengthy.  We are looking at an estimated year for recovery, followed by several years of rehab.  With that in mind, we ask that you please consider a recurring monthly donation in any amount comfortable for your circumstances.  You can also send checks to THE GO ATHENA FUND at 67 Center Avenue, Mt Pocono, PA 18344

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