If your neighbor asked for help raking, planting, harvesting, or babysitting for an hour, very few

  people would decline to help.

This is an opportunity for you to help your neighbor…someone who lives in your own town.  Neighbors you may, or may not, know.  Your neighbor’s need is for heat this coming winter.

Far too many families are living on the edge due to unemployment, under-employment, catastrophic medical expenses, or insufficient income such as unemployment benefits or Social Security alone.   We’ve all see the stories in the papers and on the local television news. 

Stories such as:

1. •The woman who made and paid for her final arrangements with one of her last checks, expecting to freeze to death during the coming winter because she couldn’t afford both food and fuel,
   
   

2. •Families burned out of their homes

   

   while attempting to heat their homes with wood stoves that had become unsafe or overheated, or families overcome by carbon monoxide from using ovens or kerosene heaters for heat,
   
   
3. •Elderly citizens

   

   forced to surrender their pets having been forced to choose between heat and companionship.
   

Local towns are also struggling with tight budgets in this economy.   Yet they continue to try to meet the basic heating needs of their citizens with very limited funding.

What can you do?

This is an opportunity for you to help your own neighbor without a making a large donation.  We urge you to send just one hour of your income to your own town’s fuel assistance fund. 

If you work full time, that is just a tiny fraction of your annual income…just 1/2080th of what you make each year.   For those with part time jobs or on Social Security,  just compute your annual salary based on your current income, and divide by 2080 (the number of hours worked in a full time job).