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Making hard times hurt less

by Jeff Saunders

Reporter

Northfield Village -- Christmas is a time to spend with families, but also a time to remember that some families and individuals, often through no fault of their own, are struggling.

The Emergency Assistance Center, an organization located in Summit Plaza, is one area organization that tries to help all year and during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays in particular.

Executive Director Christina Ciryak said that at any given time, the organization is providing temporary assistance with food and other goods for about 120 clients. The agency typically helps for six months, but sometimes will assist for longer periods of time. By appointment, these individuals and families can come to the assistance center to grocery shop.

Thanksgiving meals are also provided to the clients and for Christmas, the assistance center has an adopt-a-family program. Sponsors are sought to donate gifts to children, as well as provide food for a Christmas meal.

What follows are several stories of people who are being helped by the assistance center. Their names have been withheld at their request.

Coming out
of rough patch

"If it were not for them, I don't know what we would have done," said a Macedonia woman.

The woman said she initially approached the assistance center for help about two years ago.

"My husband left me with four children and I was unemployed when I was married," said the woman, adding that her now former husband provides some child support.

"I did get a lot of help from my parents," she said. "As a matter of fact, just after my divorce, I was living with my parents for awhile."

Making things more difficult was that while going through divorce proceedings, the couple's assets were frozen by the court.

"There was a time when I wasn't able to get any money out," said the woman.

Last Christmas, the family had a sponsor in the adopt-a-family program.

"I was stressed out about Christmas, but my children were adopted and we had a wonderful Christmas," said the woman.

The woman said she receives some help from Medicare and food stamps, but initially, she had to go to the assistance center once a month to stock up on food. Now, however, she said once every three months is enough.

"We were at rock bottom," she said. "There was very little [cash] at the end of the month for groceries and that's where the assistance center came in."

She said she has some income coming in by babysitting in her home.

"We're doing OK now. We're getting back on our feet," she said. "If we're getting a little low on food, I just call Christina and she says, 'Sure, come on down.' It's a wonderful organization. I can't say enough good things about them."

"In one more year, my kids will all be in school so I'll be able to work outside the home, something I haven't been able to do because I couldn't afford a babysitter," she added.

'Barely getting by'

"I'm a single mother of two kids just barely getting by," said a woman, who asked to be identified as a Summit County resident. "Basically, all my money goes to rent, utilities and stuff like that."

The woman works full time for a bill collections business, an irony since she says she is often unable to pay her own utility bills in full.

"I'm paying just enough so they don't shut me off," she said.

The woman said she has been a client at the assistance center for eight months and still has to go monthly for food. She lives in an apartment and said she is looking for a job that pays more than the $10 an hour she currently makes. She has Medicaid to provide medical care for her children, but was turned down for food stamps by the Summit County Department of Job and Family Services because her income is higher than the maximum of $6.85 an hour. So coming up with money for groceries, she said, is difficult.

"Once I'm done buying diapers and stuff, I can barely put enough gas in my car to get to work," she said.

The woman said the assistance center is still a vital lifeline for her and her children.

"Mrs. Ciryak is the greatest lady I've ever met in my life and they're great people over there. They've really helped us out a lot," said the woman.

Senior gets help

"I had to retire from my job several years ago and I'm on a fixed income of $942 a month," said a 71-year-old Sagamore Hills woman.

"Expenses keep going up, inflation keeps going up, but my income stays the same."

The woman, who lives alone with her small dog, said she gets $54 a month in food stamps.

"It doesn't go far," she said.

She does not have private medical insurance, but does get some help paying for doctor's visits and prescription drugs from Medicare. She said she would get even more help from Medicaid, which she is eligible for, but it would cost her $379 a month.

"It's ridiculous, because it's people like me who need it the most," she said.

She said her health is not too bad, but she does have a heart condition and an autoimmune deficiency condition, in which her body attacks her muscles.

"I have to be on steroid therapy to move around or I'm immobile," she said, adding that her condition has shut her out of most jobs she might otherwise be able to get, such as a store cashier.

"It's not that I'm dying, but I couldn't possibly hold down a job," she said.

"It drives me a little crazy. I'd like to find something that would help me supplement my income, but I haven't been able to find anything I can physically do."

The woman said the assistance center has been essential to her.

"I'm not sure I would be making it without their help," she said.

Children's father murdered

"I have three children and they just lost their father four months ago," said a Sagamore Hills mother.

The woman said she and her children's father were unmarried and living separately, but he was very much a part of her children's lives and helping financially until he was shot to death in Cleveland last August.

In addition, all three kids have sickle cell anemia, which requires frequent medical care. Her son, 3, receives disability from Social Security. Her two daughters, ages 9 and 7, have been covered by Medicaid, but this will end.

She said that she receives $800 a month in wages working part time for a service station plus $1,100 total per month from Social Security, which is too much to maintain her eligibility for Medicaid. The girls, she said, have been moved into a transitional program and the benefits end in about eight months.

"I don't know what I'm going to do after that," said the woman, adding that her income is also too high to qualify her for food stamps. She said she is paying her bills, but is a little concerned about utilities in the winter.

The woman said she started going to the assistance center monthly shortly before her children's father died. In addition to the emotional and financial loss of her children's father, she said she also had to come up with the funds to pay for his burial.

"Christmas was just basically put on the back burner this year," she said.

But thanks to a Christmas dinner from the assistance center and her kids receiving a sponsor in the adopt-a-family program, there will be a Christmas.

"The center has been extremely beneficient. I can't say enough about them," said the woman. "My kids are going through a really rough time. All kids dream of Santa Claus at this time of year."

E-mail: jsaunders@recordpub.com

Phone: 330-688-0088 ext. 3169