Posted 12:54 am Sunday, June 28, 2009
PATH Organization Struggles To Help In Down Economy
By PATRICK BUTLER
Religion Editor
Because donations are down - way down - the lights are out at People Attempting to Help's headquarters in Tyler and the air conditioner is set at a higher temperature. Paid positions are vacated and not refilled, as staff members pull double-duties to maintain services for a hurting public.
Religion Editor
Because donations are down - way down - the lights are out at People Attempting to Help's headquarters in Tyler and the air conditioner is set at a higher temperature. Paid positions are vacated and not refilled, as staff members pull double-duties to maintain services for a hurting public.
Everyone is working extra hours to pull the load at the faith-based charity. Some, such as PATH Executive Director Christina Fulsom, are working at home into the night after helping up to 200 people a day who come to PATH desperate for a break from life's grinding circumstances.
Supplies are running dangerously low at PATH or are gone, as case loads actually increase due to a weakened economy.
Mrs. Fulsom said, "Times are not good for many out there. We're seeing people who in the past have donated to PATH and now are coming for help. That's actually becoming more common than the odd exception."
COLLEEN
In the reception area at PATH this week, a weary and overly warm-looking mother of four, Colleen, was overheard asking the receptionist in a hopeful voice, "I heard you might have fans here for people. Do you have fans?"
Outside the doors of PATH headquarters at 402 W. Front St., the temperature is 100 degrees-plus at noon on a sweltering East Texas Wednesday. An exhausted-looking man sits with his back against the wall in the PATH parking lot. A woman fans herself inside the open door of her car.
"We don't," the receptionist told Colleen, who visibly wilts. "We're out of fans. I'm sorry," she adds, giving Colleen some paperwork with contact information.
"Oh," replied Colleen, quietly. "I just heard you had one."
Colleen, 34, whose last name is omitted, explained to the Tyler Courier-Times--Telegraph that the intense heat has made her doublewide trailer a hot box she can't air condition.
"I can't afford the $400-a-month electricity bill," she said. "Not on disability. I have four children to feed."
That kind of simple rejection is what Mrs. Fulsom fears will lead to hopelessness, a downward spiral and perhaps people just giving up.
"It only takes one time, one rejection, one 'Sorry, we can't help you,' to turn some people away from trying again," she said in her office, earlier Wednesday morning. "It concerns me greatly."
Turning her head, Mrs. Fulsom's eyes suddenly turn red and fingers move to intercept tears she cannot contain.
"It concerns me a lot," Mrs. Fulsom said after a moment to regain her composure. "PATH is supposed to be there for people and those who come here really need our help. We're the last chance for so many of them. If we're not there for them, where are people going to go?"
THE TAVES
That was the question Vicky and Kenneth Tave asked after Kenneth suffered a work-related accident that prevented him from working. Hard-working people who proudly owned their own home, they were unable to keep up with the mortgage payments as workman's compensation claims lagged. Living on Mrs. Tave's salary as a teacher, the couple was in danger of losing their home.
"We've never asked for help," Kenneth Tave said on Thursday, "and it felt funny to ask. But we'd done everything we could think of doing. We were going to lose our home and we prayed and asked God for a miracle."
The couple ran out of options until they thought of PATH. Visiting PATH's Emergency Services Coordinator Mike Dayton, they learned PATH didn't normally cover more than one mortgage payment.
"But talking to the Taves, you could see these were good, hard-working people who just needed help until workman's compensation claims came through," Dayton said. "They apologized repeatedly for having to come ask us for help."
Dayton got to work calling the bank that held the Taves' note and facilitating a conference call and discussion of payments.
"We usually help with rent assistance, or a single mortgage payment," Dayton said. "But I had some ideas."
The Taves went home empty-handed that day, but hopeful.
"Talking to Mr. Dayton was encouraging and helped us calm down and feel better," Kenneth Tave said. "We didn't know what was going to happen, but we felt God would do something."
Dayton went to Mrs. Fulsom with a request for financial flexibility. PATH staff was able to work out a creative alternative to cover two late payments the Taves owed.
"We could pay for one month from our existing housing assistance program, and then used some money from the Shine Your Light campaign to pay for the other," said Mrs. Fulsom, a smile coming to her face. "Without that campaign, we could not have done this."
The Tyler community gave more than $100,000 to the Christmas Shine Your Light campaign facilitated by the Tyler Courier-Times--Telegraph in December. The funds were equally divided and sent to four city ministries with PATH receiving $27,500.
Five days after the Taves met with Dayton and after some restless nights for them, a phone call and an answer to their prayers. The money was theirs and their home was saved. Kenneth Tave recalled the moment he found out he could stay in his home.
"It was like a 'wow' feeling," he said. "I kept saying to myself, 'Did this really happen? Did this really happen?' I was in shock, really."
MILO
Sitting with a sack of newly acquired groceries in the PATH lobby Wednesday, Milo, 18, had been sleeping outside the Greyhound Bus station in Tyler. He said parental custody after a divorce led him to Tyler as a minor, and at 18 he found himself on his own. Now armed with food and a bus ticket to his mother in South Dakota, where he said he'd like to learn to become a chef, the youngster reflected on his predicament.
"It was pretty scary at times sleeping outside where anyone could come upon you," he said. "I got pretty hungry, too."
Looking into the sack of food his eyes seemed focused far away.
"I really don't know what I would have done without PATH," he mused, looking up with clear eyes. Thursday morning Milo was on the bus, headed home.
Later that same Thursday, TXU Energy made a donation of $10,000 that enabled PATH to buy 1,000 box fans. On July 6, the fans will be available for Colleen and others like her to pick up at PATH.
"This donation was an answer to prayer for PATH," said Mrs. Fulsom at a press conference on Thursday. "We needed the community to come forward and help us help the people coming to us. And there are more people to help than ever."
ON TRACK
The Taves are back on financial track. Kenneth Tave is scheduled for knee surgery in July and workman's compensation has augmented his income.
Mrs. Tave said, "God brought us through this and used PATH to do it. We believe in PATH. They are just wonderful. Of all the agencies that I know of, this is the one to give to, because they really love the people and do what they say they are going to do."
Back at PATH headquarters, Dayton showed a card to Mrs. Fulsom the Taves had sent him.
"We would like to thank you so much, Mike, for your patience, time, concern, understanding and dedication to us," it read. "We cannot express how much your help has meant in our time of difficulty. We had been praying for a blessing and we were sent your way."
"It's not just the money we give," Dayton told Mrs. Fulsom with an emotional emphasis. "It's also the encouragement and inspiration we give that's important."
