Posted 3:03 am Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Shine Your Light 2010: With A Little Help PATH Aids Many
By REBECCA HOEFFNER
Staff Writer
Staff Writer
Too good to be true.
That's what LaWanda Williams thought when her caseworker for People Attempting to Help (PATH) called her to let her know a PATH house was available for her family to move into.
"Of course, I was over the moon," Mrs. Williams said with a smile. "It's a great feeling -- like you can be in charge again."
Mrs. Williams first came to PATH after she was diagnosed with diabetes and hypertension. She needs four shots and five pills a day to keep everything in check. She and her husband -- who has Crohn's disease, two hip replacement surgeries and more surgeries that are needed -- were now in the same boat: disabled with a long list of medical needs, and a 24-month waiting period for governmental medical assistance. Not to mention the 6-year-old grandson they're raising, Joel.
"I know we wouldn't have made it without PATH," Mrs. Williams said. "They listen to you. When others said 'no,' they said 'yes.'"
ABOVE: Suzanne Daniel has been a volunteer at PATH for years. Her credo involves being a good listener — one who loves to help and find solutions for PATH clients — not only with nutritional issues, but medical and housing issues, too. ---Staff Photos By Jaime R. Carrero
Mrs. Williams is just one of the more than 20,000 people that PATH helps annually, said executive director Christina Fulsom.
"For every sad story there's a huge multiplier," Ms. Fulsom said.
Ms. Fulsom has heard the stories. The 13-year-old girl who makes poor choices because she doesn't think anyone cares -- something that might not happen if she had a PATH mentor. The 2-year-old who cries himself to sleep at night from hunger. The elderly man who suffers a heat stroke because he can't afford to cool his home in the summer. The mom and kids who return to their abuser because they have nowhere to go. The man who has his legs amputated because he can't afford diabetes medication. The twin sisters who sleep on a gym floor because they've been evicted. The frustrated father who yells at his daughter when she asks for help with her homework because he's ashamed of his illiteracy.
They're all true stories of real people in Smith County, Ms. Fulsom said. They're all stories that would be multiplied further if it weren't for PATH.
And, since the recession, Ms. Fulsom said they are seeing clients who are asking for help for the very first time. She estimated that PATH has spent more money on food this year than any previous year. When PATH received proceeds from Shine Your Light two years ago, the organization decided to use it for clients' emergency rent and mortgage needs. PATH usually sets aside more than $22,000 of its annual budget for rent and mortgage, which Ms. Fulsom said will often be gone in three months.
When one PATH client read about the Shine Your Light campaign two years ago, Ms. Fulsom said, he told her it gave him hope to see that people in the community cared so much.
"Some people really don't think anyone cares about them," Ms. Fulsom said. "Even when we tell them that people in the community make it possible, they just see PATH."
One volunteer caseworker, Suzanne Daniel, makes sure that the clients she sees every Thursday feel the caring spirit that PATH embodies.
Dressed in a festive Christmas sweater and candy-cane earrings, Ms. Daniel looks whoever she's talking to in the eye, and uses both of her hands for a lingering handshake.
"I cannot tell you the number of people who come in here and say 'I never thought I'd be here,'" Ms. Daniel said, as she sat behind the desk in the office where she counsels clients. "And I just say, 'well, do you want to trade seats? Because it could just as easily be me.'"
Ms. Daniel, a retired landscape contractor, moved to Tyler from Dallas in 2004, and began volunteering with PATH in 2005. She simply read an article about PATH caseworkers in the paper, she said.
"It's so important to treat them with dignity. I'm from the South, so I like to call everyone by their last name. You are never too young for me to call you ma'am, and I'm 71 myself!"
