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Vote online to help The Time is Now in its mission of caring

We at The Time is Now are very happy and honored to be chosen as a 2012 Chase Community Giving nominee. Chase will be granting $5 million to 196 charities. We need your help to be a finalist in receiving one of these grants. Voting will take place through Sept. 19 to determine the charities that will share in this grant. Please visit chasegiving.com or Facebook.com/ChaseCommunityGiving for more information or to cast your vote.

We are very proud to have been nominated by our supporters. Our only wish is to be able to continue our good works in alleviating the pains of poverty for the many fellow Americans turning to us for assistance. We count on you to spread the word about The Time Is Now to Help and help in voting when we receive such a wonderful opportunity such as the Chase Community Giving grant.

Together, our good works benefit many -- children who are provided sufficient food when school meals aren’t available, adults who receive help with car repairs to ensure transportation for jobs, senior citizens who receive utility assistance and families who are spared from being homeless.

You have all contributed to easing the pains of poverty for those in desperate need. Together, we really do make our world a better place to live.

Dear W.C.,

I am in desperate need of your help. The company I worked for closed after 17 years. I lost everything -- my house, my car, my belongings when I could no longer make the payments on my storage unit, and even my children have gone to live with my mother until I get back on my feet.

My heart is broken without my children. We cry every day we are apart. I have been living with a friend, sleeping on the couch for the last few months. I just recently got a job and have been carpooling with a friend to our jobs in the same area. Just today the engine blew on her car and I had no way to get to work. I know I will lose this job I fought so hard to find if I do not have reliable transportation.

I want to get my children back, but I know I need to find an apartment first. It will take me several months to save enough for a security deposit and first month’s rent, and my mother is being pressured by her landlord for having extra people in her apartment.

I feel so bad putting everyone I love through so much just because I lost my job. If you could help me with a reliable car and security deposit on an apartment for my children and I, I think we could finally be on the road to recovery. The job I have now is a really good job. I prayed and searched for months to find this job.

Please, I do not want to lose my way back to life with my children.

-- homeless mom trying hard

Dear friends,

When I contacted this single mother I felt her guilt and pain over not being able to provide for her children. She shared her downward spiral into poverty after the loss of her job.

She was lucky enough to have several good friends who tried to help her. They could not afford to give her financial help but they offered her and her children a place to sleep for several weeks. It didn’t take long for the mother to see this was not the way she wanted her children to live. They no longer had their own belongings or rooms. Finally, the grandmother asked them to stay with her.

The grandmother has had the children with her for two months now but has been given notice by her landlord that she can no longer have children living with her full time.

The mother is ecstatic she finally got a job that even comes close to paying her what she earned before. She is an educated woman with an impressive resume, but so are many other Americans who are looking for a job.

I contacted her employer. He assured me he would hold her job for a few more days. He informed me she was a very good employee.

Our immediate assistance was to provide the mother with a reliable vehicle for work. She could no longer count on other people to drive her. We also spoke to a landlord on her behalf to assure him this woman would be able to pay her rent going forward.

After reviewing the mother’s present income, we worked out a reasonable budget for her family to live by. We provided the first month’s rent and security deposit.

We also provided this family with the everyday necessities they needed to make their apartment a home: beds for the children and mother, some furniture, food and toiletries. All the mother’s friends shared some belongings, as well. Even though they did not have much to give, they were able to share dishes, towels and other odds and ends.

This show of support from her friends brought tears to her eyes. The mother said even after all she had been through in the last few years, being humbled by the loss of all her belongings, being homeless, she felt blessed to have such wonderful family and friends and everyone at The Time Is Now to Help.

The children and mother were reunited. The children clung to their mother with tears and hugs of love. The mother shook while she held on to them, crying. The sight brought me to tears, thinking of the great pain and suffering this terrible recession has caused for so many. Thanks to all of you, she is now able to live with her children again, without need of assistance, and proud to be providing for her family.

Once again, together we make our world a better place, doing God’s good works.

Health and happiness,

God bless everyone,

W.C./Sal

Please help: Make checks payable to: The Time Is Now to Help, P.O. Box 70, Pell Lake, WI 53157. The Time Is Now to Help is a federally recognized 501(c)3 charitable organization licensed in Wisconsin and Illinois. You will receive a tax-deductible, itemized, thank-you receipt showing exactly what every penny of your donation provided for the poverty stricken.

A very special thank you to: Mark and Natalie Reno, John and Kathy Sell (in honor of Bill and Mary Smarslik’s 50th wedding anniversary), Mildred Haff and Ronald, Charlotte, Jerry and Kathryn Swank (in memory of Mary Stoughton), Kunes Country Auto Group, Walworth Fontana Rotary Foundation, Paul Ziegler/Ziegler Charitable Foundation, Dick and Jean Honeyager, Whiting Law Group, Martin Business Group, Royal Neighbors of America, Donald and Marilyn Ketchpaw, Claude Jr. and Sally Trotter, Patricia Jankowski, Marge Mahnke, Russo Drywall, Michael Glass, Louise and Clifford Morris, Barbara Giovannoni, Walter and Florence Strumpf, Marie Kerkman, Tim and Laura Kolnik, Barbara and Lee Zuzanek, John and Katherina Sell, Joan Marabito Rietz, Michael and Sally Anne Chier, Victoria Wertz, W.C. Family Resource Center/Food Pantry volunteers, and all the God-loving volunteers of all our caring food pantries, all of you who support The Time Is Now to Help donation boxes and the businesses that allow our donation boxes. Anyone who would like a donation box in your business, please call (262) 249-7000.