You’ve shown up for 193 families so far!

For the past two months, as we have sheltered in place, Together Rising has been doing what we do best: Paying attention to what is breaking our individual and collective hearts, and turning that heartbreak into effective action. For nearly a decade, we have spent the bulk of our time reviewing and fulfilling applications from individual families. Right now, the applications show that not only are so many of us struggling to make ends meet because of layoffs and furloughs, but we are also fearful and worried, and we feel alone. So when you, through Together Rising, send checks and grocery gift cards, you are not just helping to pay rent, pay bills, and buy groceries and other necessities, you are giving the gift of being seen. 

 

To date, you have supported 193 families with gifts totalling $170,969.19.  That is 193 families who feel lighter, who feel hopeful, who feel less alone. 

 

Carrie wrote us to say, “I put in a request for help for my brother and sister-in-law a couple weeks ago, and they received their money today from you!!! They were floored! I never told them I applied in case you couldn’t answer their application. But, it blessed my heart, and I haven’t stopped crying. My brother struggles with severe depression, and because of the corona outbreak, and losing his job, he hadn’t been able to function or get out of bed. So, you have no idea how much this helped them!!! Now they will be able to pay some bills, and have hope!!!... You are making a difference!!! Thank you!!!”

 

Thank you for being the light for Carrie’s brother and sister-in-law, for Megan and her son, for Tara and her children, for Diane, and for 189 other families. 

 

And thank you to Stewardship Team members -- Natalie, Sami, Karen, Amanda, Gloria, and Katherine --  without whom carefully and responsibly supporting these 193 families would have been impossible.  

 

We belong to each other.