By Wayne Laepple
MILTON — “It’s really embarrassing to ask for help like this,” said the young woman on the other end of the phone. “Please don’t use our real names.”
Her husband, she said, was laid off from his job in June for what was supposed be one month. He still hasn’t been called back.
“He’s been out looking, and so far, nothing has come up,” she said.
He worked at Yorktowne in Mifflinburg for eight years before the plant closed, and he went to a foundry, where he worked until June.
“I’ve been a stay-at-home mom,” she continued. “But now I’m looking for work, too.”
She has applied for a number of retail and clerical jobs, but every place she applies already has a stack of applications. She’s a recovering drug addict, she admits, and that fact doesn’t help her job search.
“I’ve been clean for four years, but that doesn’t seem to mean anything,” she said.
They scrape along on her husband’s unemployment checks.
“Seven hundred and four dollars a month for three people is pretty hard,” she said.
The couple has a 4-year-old daughter, who was born three months premature on Dec. 23.
“She’s our life,” the woman said.
She and her husband want nothing from the Needy Family Fund, only some gifts for their daughter.
“She asked for anything, Dora the Explorer or Barbies,” she said, “and she loves Playdough, anything Playdough.”
“It’s nice that people are willing to help us out,” she said.
“All we’re hoping for is something for under the tree for her,” she concluded.
Recent donations were as follows: Kevin Oswald, Selinsgrove, $55; Jeana Manotti, Mifflinburg, $20; Allen and Elsie Tobias, Sunbury, $100; T-Square Drafting Service, Mifflinburg, $100; Club 39, Mifflinburg, $200; George D. Manning III, Milton, $60; Henry H. Osborn, Lewisburg, $50; Barbara J. Lipscomb, Middleburg, $50; Charloette R Belier, Middleburg, $200;
Also, James and Jennifer Troxell, Selinsgrove, $100; Ernestine M. Hanselman, New Berlin, $25; Michael and Henrietta Kruleski, Kulpmont, $25; Vickie M. Ritter, Selinsgrove, $25; William Little, Millmont, $50; Marcella J. Ream, Selinsgrove, $100; Allen Schweinsburg, Lewisburg, $100; Joy Heddesheimer, Middleburg, $25; Romany E. Fisher, Port Trevorton, $50; Larry Naugle, in memory of Sharon Guyer, Sunbury, $20; Rhonda Longacre, Kreamer, $25; Rose M. Snyder, Richfield, $300; anonymous donations, $334.33.
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Needy Family Fund
Donations go to buy food, clothing and gifts for the less fortunate in the Valley. Contributions are tax-deductible. The fund is sponsored by The Daily Item, Sunbury Broadcasting Corp. and Susquehanna Bank. Contributions may be taken to any Susquehanna Bank office or mailed to:
Needy Family Fund
Susquehanna Bank
400 Market St.
Sunbury, PA 17801
2009 goal: $75,000
