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    gallahan42's Avatar
    gallahan42 Posts: 3, Reputation: 1
    New Member
     
    #1

    May 3, 2009, 03:38 PM
    Looking for free money donations
    I am in desperate need of free money donations. I am about to loose everything. Please tell me where I can ask for donations.

    During the years our farm has struggled, financially. The farm has been in existence since around the civil war and has passed through several generations. We had planted tobacco, vegetable crops such as greens, beans, squash and other vegetables. We barely just made it. I have been married over 30 years and held jobs to pay the bills.
    In 1981, my husband (Mike) began the orchard which was known as Cherry Hill Farm and Orchard. He was in partners with his dad and brother. Mike planted, sprayed and pruned trees (over 1,000). In the meantime, he worked for his uncle as a landscaper to help with the bills until his dad asked him to come back to the farm since no one knew how to spray, but him. This meant quitting the landscaping job and, hopefully, getting paid.
    The orchard took off. The trees looked beautiful. Since the orchard had not fully produced, we needed something else to make money. First, my brother-in-laws wife insisted on getting these passive exercise machines that would help you loose weight. She was about 100 pounds overweight. I was adamant that I did not want to do this, since my husband and I had to take a loan against our house ($50,000), but we did. As a family, we decided on a pumpkin patch. I sent out flyers to all the schools in the Washington, DC metropolitan area and took reservations. This took several years to build business, but we did and it was a good business.
    In 1992, my husband started the Bakery at Cherry Hill Farm. He started just in the month of October with Apple Cider Donuts, then on the weekends with cake donuts and then full time, with me quitting my job. We had a great business and worked very hard, getting up at 12am and 2am and working 15 hr. days. It was worth it. We finally found a way to make our own money and not to ask for money from the farm. Things were great. We put both our kids through private school and took family trips.
    In 1999, I was diagnosed with Progressive MS, but I still kept working. In 2001, my husband needed an aortic heart valve replacement. I ran the bakery. It was hard health wise, but I did it. Everything was still good.
    In 2005 since the real estate market was so good, my father-in-law and my brother-in-law decided to sell the farm. They said they were living year to year and since my husband would not help in the orchard anymore, they wanted to sell. Mind you, my brother-in-law had Mexicans almost doing all the work, but spraying, for which my brother-in-law had an air conditioned cab on the tractor with a radio, how hard could it be?
    They took the proceeds from the sale of one side of the road and bought a farm and decided to raise strawberries. They also decided to build huge houses for themselves. Went to architects and had fancy plans drawn up.
    They thought the other side of the road would sell fast. They told my husband that he would not receive his share of the farm money until the other side of farm was sold. Well the real estate market plumped. As of today, the other side has not sold.
    No one has any money. Since where the market sits was for sale, we had to sell the bakery. We sold it to another farm in the area for $76,000.00. We went to work for them thinking it would just be for a short time. Boy, were we wrong.
    In October of 2008, my husband quit his job because he could not stand the way the new owner ran the bakery. Poor management of employees and dirty. We have used the $76,000 to help pay bills over a two year period and now is gone. I am desperately looking for a job, putting at least 200 resumes. My husband has also been looking for a job, but no luck.
    I am currently working for the bakery that we sold to. I currently work the hours of 3:00am to 10:00am. Very hard for a person with MS. I have spoken to the new owner twice and asked if she would let my husband come back and she said no. She is really destroying the business,
    My husband became very depressed and drank. He has been arrested several times, lost license. Fell down the steps and ended up in hospital with neck brace and this last time in the mental ward. He can't take anabuse because he is on blood thinners. I really hope he has learned, since I did not go and see him at all the whole time he was in mental ward. We have been married for 30 years and I understand why he drinks, but don't approve. We are about to loose everything. I have been using our credit card and no funds left. I only make $300.00 per week. My uncle has me on his payroll so I can get health insurance. I have to pay him every two weeks ($1,478.00) for the gross income plus my portion of Social Security (I am now seven weeks behind and he has now cut me off the health insurance). So you know how much my medical bills are per month? Bills every month: Mortgage - $1,033.91, Electric - $440.00, Cable, phone, internet- $155.00, car insurance - $345.00, charge card - $500.00, over draft line - $150.00 and equity line - $346.00 (owe a total of $25,000.),
    Husband is now finally sober for two months and we go to AA weekly.
    Back in 2003, my husband inherited piece of land which was sold and another investment home bought in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. This was to avoid the taxes. Still needed a small mortgage of $45,000.00 (payments of $554.00 per month), plus phone $38.00, electric - $311.00, Water - $60.00. We rent out, but the market has been so bad, that I am stuck paying all bills.
    I don't know what to do. We would love to open a new bakery in Tennessee, but need $150,000. and, of course, don't have. I know it would work though. Every one has to eat, right?
    As of April 1st, I have not paid the mortgage in two months. The mortgage payment has gone up $200.00 per month starting April 1st. Also, I now owe the electric company $648.00.
    I don’t know how much longer I will be able to function without being forced to quit work altogether.
    I know your producer called my niece, Molly Bird, about our dysfunctional family. It makes me very angry about what my father-in-law did, selling the farm, on the advice from my ignorant brother-in-law who has never held a job off the farm. I just cannot believe my husbands family just left him with nothing. I truly thing that his family resented the fact that my husband was successful without them.
    nikosmom's Avatar
    nikosmom Posts: 1,611, Reputation: 488
    Ultra Member
     
    #2

    May 3, 2009, 03:58 PM

    I'll start by saying... I really didn't read your entire post... Please try spacing to make it easier to read. Being more concise will help also.

    Have you tried state assistance programs? There are many programs to help with medical expenses as well as help with utility bills.

    Also since you obviously have access to the internet, look into your local Urban Ministries or Salvation Army. They are legitimate programs that help families in need.

    I don't know your faith, but if you belong to a church they usually have a fund set aside to help their members that are going through financial difficulty.
    Fr_Chuck's Avatar
    Fr_Chuck Posts: 81,301, Reputation: 7692
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    #3

    May 3, 2009, 05:05 PM

    Sounds like a lot of poor management and business choices, from not requiring your share of the property when sold, to quiting jobs because you did not like the way things were run before you had another job.

    But it is time to go to welfare, local churches or more

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