Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, December 27, 1993 TAG: 9312270018
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BETSY BIESENBACH STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
"It's a place where they'll help you," she said. "But you have to help yourself, too."
Smith, 32, came to the center in October for help with a rent payment on her Northwest Roanoke home.
Caseworkers at the center, which receives money raised through the Good Neighbors Fund, gave Smith part of the payment - with the stipulation that she come up with the rest. She did.
A few months ago, Smith and her family were "pretty well situated," she said. "I really didn't have any worries."
Both she and her husband had jobs; she worked third shift, so she could be home when her children got out of school.
The family was doing fairly well, but with four children to support, "there was nothing to fall back on."
Then Smith lost her job in February, and her unemployment benefits ran out in July.
"Everything came down at one time," she said.
Around the time her benefits ran out, the father of one of her older children was laid off and couldn't make his support payments. In October, her husband lost his job, too. It took a month and a half for his unemployment insurance to come through; by the time he received his first check, early this month, he had found another job. Cynthia also found a job this month.
Things are looking up, although Smith says she is "still playing catch-up" with the bills.
The money from the Good Neighbors Fund "helped me out a lot," she said. "It was another worry off" her mind.
She is not completely at ease about the future, however. She worries that she and her husband could get laid off again.
"It could happen to anyone," she said. Without help from the center, "I don't know what I would have done. I didn't want my family out in the cold."
Checks should be made payable to Good Neighbors Fund and mailed to Roanoke Times & World-News, P.O. Box 1951, Roanoke 24008.
Names - but not the amounts of donations - of contributing businesses, individuals or organizations, as well as memorial and honorific designations, will be listed. Those requesting that their names not be used will remain anonymous. If no preference is stated, the donor's name will be listed.
Gifts cannot be earmarked for any particular individual or family. Gifts are tax-deductible.
by CNB