I have been in upper management performing crisis project management for the past 13 years. Before that time, I had 2 middle management careers, each one lasting 8½ years, one as a business manager and one as a purchasing agent. I was laid off last July due to Federal/State/District budget cutbacks. I have been determinedly looking for work, leaving no stone unturned, since that point with no success yet. I scour every Sunday paper for job leads. I am registered on over 200 websites (something that took a couple of months to do) and on the top 20 (most likely to bear appropriate fruit) have built search engines to e-mail me daily with job leads specific to my background and abilities. Most recently, I have registered with many local headhunter agencies for both a realistic career restart as well as inappropriate temporary work to fill in on the premise that partial income is better than no income. I hand out my business cards wherever appropriate, whenever possible. I have also designed temporary work postcards that I hand out. I am networking with prior business connections as well as personal contacts. I have several different religious employment agencies on the hunt for me, as well as the State. Upon learning, through my financial journals, that the manufacturing sector is the first one to finally rebound, I looked through the yellow pages under “manufacturers.” Of the several dozen listed, I selected all those on a bus line (I do not drive) and created a mail merge begging for work, if only on their manufacturing lines in the plant. I did the same thing with 5 data processing firms. I even applied at a pet store because they had a “help wanted” ad in the window for a cashier. They took one look at my management background and laughed me away. I did not feel that it was necessary to add insult to injury; they could have just politely said that my background would not match the level of job duties. I also applied to a grocery store, to a pizza maker, and to all 3 local all-you-can-eat buffets for any work available, no matter how menial. I went to one of those “cash daily” places who specialize in giving work no one wants to felons on the run, ex-convicts, and drug users, none of whom can get honest work, and sat with them all day. I was given no work, although the others were. I even tried to sell my body as a human guinea pig to 2 of those bizarre lab experiment houses, but both were in a neighboring state with no busses to get there. The only things I have not done are where I must draw the line. My faith does not permit me to work with gambling, prostitution, drugs, or alcohol, so I will not apply to gambling houses or escort services or places where alcohol is served. My insurance benefits ran out at the end of January, as they only last 6 months. (President Bush tried to get 3 more months pushed through, but Congress vetoed it.) I had also taken the 30% penalty and liquidated my retirement to add to my tiny insurance benefits in order to survive, and that is also long gone. I have no other savings or investments at my disposal. I applied to all 24 local secular and religious “help” or “assistance” groups/agencies; all but one refused me, as I am childless. Some even said it was because I made too much revenue when I worked, even though that came to a grinding halt 9 months ago and all partial income (weekly insurance benefits) stopped 2½ months ago. I even applied to 2 so-called “philanthropic” foundations, which allegedly specialize in one-time emergency assistance grants; they, too, denied me because I had not immediate promise of work forthcoming, although I more than satisfied their other criteria of legitimate need and exhaustive remedial efforts on my part. (I found that very odd; if I had an immediate promise of work forthcoming, why in the world would I even remotely have needed their help?) I have no living family; I am an only child (mother died when I was 14, father died when I was 28). To be honest and blunt, I have no obligated support system to care whether I live or die, or how I survive. I have no further income or revenue forthcoming until I am able to earn it. I refuse to give up hope, and continue to pray throughout every day while I work at job opportunities and leads through all venues and on all levels, whether appropriate for me or not. My church has done what little they can for me prior to this, in the form of paying a single month of electricity and living quarters studio rent. The sole secular agency mentioned above who did not refuse me also set their limit at paying one month of my electric bill. I have come to you to beg you for your charitable mercy in contributing to temporary one-time emergency assistance, so that I will not become homeless and may continue to seek out work in the immediate future, as I literally have nowhere else to turn. Following are the details of my desperate need:
CURRENT OUTSTANDING
overdue loans taken out for survival and for medical costs:
Advance America (original loan + interest was $201, remaining $290.40 in charges are default penalties, fees, and interest) = $491.40
Midwest Heritage (as of 4/11/05, increases at a daily rate, 18% APR compounded monthly and calculated daily) = $506.19
May temporary studio rent (if not paid, eviction on 6/6/05; landlord is G. Chancellor) = $190.00
certified restricted mailing of rent (required, payable to USPS) = $7.92
May bus pass (required to get to job interviews or work, payable to KCATA) = $44.00
post office box overdue (due 2/28/05, USPS will close box and return all mail at month end if left unpaid, no mail is delivered to physical address; payable to USPS) = $48.00
overdue local-only telephone (cannot get job interview or job notification without it,will be shut off 4/18/05, payable to SBC) = $98.48
overdue storage (if left unpaid, facility will sell all my possessions at month end, payable to Independence Self-Storage) = $260.00
overdue garbage pick-up (if left unpaid, service will stop 4/18/05 and garbage will cause health and safety hazard; payable to Diffenbaugh Disposal Service) = $42.00
Sunday paper subscription due (required for job search, due 4/30/05 for May and June,payable to KC Star) = $24.00
overdue account payments:
Ferrell’s = $52.00
Barnes & Noble = $25.00
UPS (resume/cover letter printing/copying) = $43.43
Laura Gale (hair cuts for work/interviews) = $45.00
electric/hot water/heat due (payable to City of Independence Utilities) = $194.84
TOTAL = $2,072.26
I have lost all other services and accounts for non-payment already. Gone are my cell phone, pager, and all major credit cards; they are all suing me. If you could find it in your heart and your budget to help rescue me in any way, I will be ever grateful and reciprocal. I can e-mail the creditor’s full mailing address along with any information that would need to be in the memo field and/or cover memo. Also, I a have a complete professional marketing packet that I would be eager to submit to you should you have any ability to connect me with a local job opportunity or income-generating project. I can work on public computers at the local library up to 4 hours per day before they throw me out, and I can perform 80 wpm word processing (proposals, notes, papers, articles, books), spreadsheets (budgets, projections, amortizations, investment tracking, invoicing, order processing), graphic design (advanced graphs/charts, business cards, presentations, flyers), and building of databases (including design of forms, reports, labels, and advanced formulas). For job opportunities, I do not drive and am on a bus line, and can travel to most locations in Independence, Missouri; downtown Kansas City, Kansas; and within Kansas City, Missouri: downtown, Crown Center, midtown, Plaza, “north of the river” in the 64116 zip code. I earnestly beseech you to give me positive consideration; I truly do want to rejoin the ranks of the contributing productive and not lose any and all reason for my existence and purpose. Late last summer, I had extreme experimental bone surgery on my leg, and am still trying to recover from that, although I was forced to give up all required medical attention, medicines, and physical therapy last January when I could no longer pay my COBRA insurance. I also struggle with now-untreated emphysema. (No, I don’t smoke; I was diagnosed with that and chronic asthmatic bronchitis at the age of 6.) Naturally, my ideal scenario would involve restarting my career at a reasonable livable salary to pay what is past due, sustain myself, and provide for a moderately secure future as well as have adequate health insurance in order to resume safely living and functioning as a whole person, but my immediate goal is simply to survive through each day and each hour. Anyone who can and will help me in any way, on any level, right now will truly be acting as an angel of mercy, charity, and understanding in your tithe. I can be reached at erin_the_red@hotmail.com.