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Through our work with Randi Cairns, the founder of Home Front Hearts which provides advocacy on behalf of, as well as awareness of, the needs of military families, we just learned about a young soldier (a 3rd generation military person–even Mom has served!) who was returned to the States from his second tour of duty in Iraq. Found to be suffering from an aggressive brain tumor (Randi tells us this is not so rare among more and more soldiers serving in that region) "Dave" has recently undergone surgery and radiation and is now in the midst of a difficult chemotherapy regimen which will hopefully put his cancer in remission.

What happens to Dave’s family while all of this is going on? He is being treated at a military hospital thousands of miles from home and his illness is not considered an injury so he is dealt with differently than those who have sustained injuries. In this soldier’s case, his Mom has left her home and her job to be at his side, and while she did receive some military benefits (as a "non-medical attendant") those have now ended. She is behind in her rent, her car payment and has nothing left in her savings.

Randi shared the following exchange with Dave’s Mom:

… I also have rent due and a car payment. If you have any funds, those are my needs. If you don’t have any means to help me, then I certainly understand. I know that God will somehow make sure our needs are provided for. After all, he sends people my way just like you! Just when I don’t think I can make it … it happens. No matter what Randi, I’ll never lose my faith and that is important. I’ve quickly learned to put things in their proper perspective. God, family and all the rest! :)"

The Good People Fund has stepped in and paid the overdue rent and next car payment. After all, isn’t it the least we can do on behalf of a soldier and his family?

It was twenty years ago when Bob Housman, a Boston-area resident, came to realize that many Jewish people in that city were in distress and no agency, private or public, could step in to provide them with significant help for their emergency needs. People were, indeed, falling through the cracks and serious short-term, immediate needs were not met.

As with so many of the "good people" we work with, Bob felt that he just had to "do something". He could not just ignore what was happening around him. Yad Chessed was Bob’s response to this void and since that time the small organization has raised and distributed more than $3,000,000 to provide food, clothing, help with housing, medical needs, interest-free loans…the list is long and often, when such needs are unmet, leads to even more dire circumstances.

Yad Chessed works in the simplest way possible. Other than a recently added part-time social worker, there is no staff, no advertising, and minimal bureaucracy. As referrals come to them they are investigated and if assistance can be offered the needs are addressed quickly and efficiently.

In a conversation we recently shared with Yad Chessed’s board chair, Marc Fogel, we learned that the organization is also laboring with increased emergency needs presented by the current economic situation. When Marc mentioned that in addition to the "usual" demands, they were now dealing with two single parent families, both functioning fairly well until job loss and illnesses took their toll and forced the parent to lose their home(s) and one now finds refuge in his car every night. How could it be, we thought? Both parents were working and yet could not reverse the misfortune that had fallen upon them. We doubt that this is an unusual scenario today.

We have offered Yad Chessed funds to underwrite specific needs for each of these families and hope that by working with them we might actually stop the downward spiral each is experiencing.

By 7am this morning I had already opened four emails, two from programs in the US and two from Israel, each discussing situations that can best be described as tragic and incredibly sad. One involved needs for soldiers who have returned from Iraq and Afghanistan with serious issues that are not being met by government resources; another involved two single parent families, both functioning fairly well until job loss and illnesses took their toll and forced the single parent to lose their home(s) and find refuge in their car every night. In Israel, a single Mother working a menial job but still able to care for her family, finds herself overwhelmed by the costs involved with addressing one child’s unexpected medical needs. She is facing the loss of her utilities and has so few resources that putting food on the table has become almost impossible. A second situation in Israel describes families that cannot afford to turn on their heaters or pay for their medications.

If this scenario which I describe was unusual, I would not be concerned. In the 16+ years that I have been involved in tzedakah work, never have I witnessed this kind of desperate need. Some way or another we have always been able to meet the need. This morning I am not so sure of that – not sure at all.

As I speak with others who do similar work I learn that they too are overwhelmed and frustrated. If only I could heed the advice I was offered a few minutes ago…

"As to the general situation… You have to focus on what you can do (and have done) and not on what the need is. Otherwise you can easily become overwhelmed and disheartened."

It is "bad out there". Hopefully we will be able to help more than we have to turn away.

Last May we shared the story of House to House, a small Israeli organization that provides for the needs of many elderly people in Jerusalem. In that diary entry we explained that Darla Oz, House to House’s founder, had visited a former hotel which now houses elderly survivors who rarely celebrate birthdays. We immediately committed funds to provide the elders with some treats on their birthdays. When Darla wrote a few months ago asking if we could possibly help her with birthday cards we knew just where to go. Within a short time we had contacted teachers at several religious and day schools across the country and asked if they could help.

Before long, packets of cards started to appear and we have been forwarding them on to Darla in Israel who is placing one in each birthday gift. We thought you would enjoy seeing the work of students at the Rashi School in Boston who, under the guidance of their amazing teacher, Stephanie Rotsky, the school’s social justice coordinator, produced some pretty amazing cards that would make even Hallmark a bit jealous!

We thank all of the schools that responded to our appeal and look forward to providing birthday cards for these elders, hopefully, for many years to come!

Last week we returned from a three day trip to the tiny town of McRoberts, Kentucky, located in what is commonly referred to as Appalachia. McRoberts has a population of about 800 people, drastically reduced from the thousands who once populated this former coal mining community which thrived until the 1950’s when coal production started to diminish.

McRoberts is rural America. "Downtown" has no traffic lights, only a handful of functioning storefronts, no banks, no movie theater, a small general store. Unemployment figures in the town are above the national average and the average per capita income stands at about $23,500, well below the state average of about $40,000. More than 55% of the population has less than a high school education and many families have little or no means of transportation.

As we traveled to McRoberts it was obvious that many factors helped to explain the region’s unique problems. Driving west from Charlestown, West Virginia you get the sense that you are entering a physically beautiful region but most definitely one that is extraordinarily remote. It was as if we were driving into a cocoon with mountains towering over us on both sides. Town after small town came into view but concentrated commerce was almost non-existent. Sporadically, fast food restaurants and a Wal-Mart or K-Mart were the main attractions. With little difficulty one could see the effects of mountaintop removal mining and when we spoke with residents there was much more that we learned about the devastating impact of coal mining in southeast Kentucky.

The purpose of our trip was to visit McRoberts Elementary School and deliver a 53′ trailer of new merchandise; all donated by our friend Ranya Kelly and her Redistribution Center in Denver. McRoberts Elementary School is led by Ms. Kristie Collett and almost every child in the school comes from a lower socio-economic background. Ms Collett and her staff have worked hard, with sparse resources to produce a school that is both warm and welcoming. It is obvious that she and her staff care about the students (a few more than 70 now enrolled) as well as the building itself. Despite the age of the school, its leaking roof and very well-used furniture, the halls are welcoming, filled with bright colors and positive messages directed to the students.

Over the course of the two days it took to unload this huge trailer, sort the thousands of items it held, and then distribute them to the school families and elders in the community it quickly became apparent that there was something unique and positive about this little town. Despite its many problems and serious lack of resources, McRoberts’ residents have developed a true sense of community. Members of the Community Center, who joined in as volunteers, proudly shared the successes they had achieved in finding grant money to build a community center, a playground, a new walking track and so much more. There was a spirit here that perhaps is common in very small towns…we don’t know? Whatever its origins, we were so happy to offer what we could and look forward to the many other ways we will assist the school and the town as they struggle to provide for the community.

Shortly after we returned home, we received the following email from Ms. Collett.

First of all, thank you so much for blessing our small community. I have had such positive feedback form the event. Everyone really appreciated the items and was amazed at the quality of such items…

We are already thinking about a return to McRoberts. What can we do next?

Randi Cairns is a military wife. Not the kind who lives on a military base amid other wives and families who share the common thread of a spouse who has been called to duty in Iraq or Afghanistan or some other far-off post. No–Randi and her husband and four children live in a suburban New Jersey neighborhood surrounded by other families where Mom or Dad, or both, usually go off to a job each day and return home for dinner.

Randi’s husband is a "weekend warrior", a member of the National Guard who, until 9/11, went off to serve for a weekend a month, and a few weeks in the summer. Along with so many other things that changed in this country after that terrible day, National Guardsmen found themselves called off to active duty far from home and Randi’s husband was one of them. Randi was left on her own to raise the kids, (you really have to read her description of the day she-8 months pregnant, on crutches because of a broken leg– took the three kids to the supermarket!) be both Mom and Dad, deal with daily crises and worry about her husband’s well-being and safety while he completed a tour of duty in Afghanistan. As Randi so aptly told us, "The communities where the typical Citizen-Soldier lives don’t understand the 24/7 implications of being the ones left behind when a Soldier is called to serve."

Home Front Hearts was Randi’s response to what she knows are the areas where military families could use support from their local communities. In the midst of raising her family, working a part-time job and doing what every other mother of four does, Randi started this organization not only to raise awareness of the needs for these families, but also to become a clearing-house for services for the Citizen-Soldier family. From our first discussions with her, we could not help but be impressed by her passion and her commitment to this mission. By providing Home Front Hearts with a new printer and some other simple office equipment we hope to have sent this fledgling program on its way to assisting military families in important and meaningful ways. Check out the web site to learn more about what she has done. http://homefronthearts.org