New Year brings change and the desire to help even more of those in need

The Time is Now To Help

As the New Year begins many of us make resolutions to improve our lives in some way for the coming year. We

may make a resolution to exercise more, eat healthier, lose a few pounds or we may make a more spiritual resolution to pray more or attend church. While all good healthy choices for the New Year, there can be deeper meaning to this tradition.

How about making a resolution to bring a meal to a shut in every week? Maybe promising to visit a senior citizen or disabled person you know is alone? The New Year’s resolutions we are hearing from the poverty stricken people we have been assisting are to not be or become homeless, to provide food for their children, to make it through the year without utilities being disconnected… very heartfelt needs for those that are struggling to survive.

Every day I see our fellow Americans struggling with the pains of poverty, and yet I am still shocked and saddened by what I continue to find. At The Time Is Now to Help we are again making a resolution to help even more of our fellow creations than ever before. Each year begins with renewed enthusiasm and energy. With the support and prayers our poverty stricken fellow creations have received from all of YOU, together we can continue to spread our caring and sharing into the New Year. The heartwarming love of the holidays has passed, yet the needs of the poverty stricken continue throughout the harsh winter.

This past year has seen much activity and assistance. We began the year just after the CNN Heroes event. With the CNN, CBS and Fox News coverage, we received donations and requests from all over our great country.

We even received donations and letters from China, Japan, Australia, Canada and India. Many people were inspired to begin their own charities to bring assistance to those in need in their own communities. From this inspiration and the donations from both Turner Broadcasting/CNN, and the donations from all of you, we helped over 1,000 people this year. We are so grateful for your help in bringing this desperately needed poverty assistance to those in dire need right here.

Our hope this coming year is to help even more than 1,000 people. We are very appreciative of the help we have received from the many businesses and organizations that have believed in our organization and its mission for years. We could never have eased the pain and suffering of so many without you!

Together, we helped many with food, utility assistance, shelter/rent assistance, automobile repairs, gas, registrations, dental and eye care, handicapped assistance, toiletries, household necessities and more.

We prevented many families, children, senior citizens and disabled people from becoming homeless, or provided emergency housing, also first month’s rent and security deposit when needed.

Many cars were repaired and others were purchased. Registrations and even gas for the tank were expenses many could not afford this year. When your job depends on your being at work on time a reliable car with gas is a must. It is unfortunate as some families who are struggling will be sold a lemon as they cannot afford a new car, this can be a worry and will require them to look for answers to their questions like ‘what is lemon law?’ so they can get the right legal help, this just shows why we want to help out as much as possible.

Many wonderful dentists provided discounted and even free dental assistance this year. So many people cannot afford to have painful teeth repaired or removed. Living with excruciating mouth pain is a terrible thing to endure. So many fellow creations Sal went to visit were wincing in pain just trying to speak. Not only dental care, but also eye care was provided as well. Senior citizens living with glasses that were cracked and taped together, or worse yet unable to see clearly due to not having any glasses was another common find on Sal’s visits. The sad fact is, many have cataracts and are even unaware of modern medical technology and treatments (like what https://sharpe-vision.com/ offers) that can cure their ailments.

Food insecurity has been an area of concern for us since The Time Is Now to Help first began. Here we are all these years later and people continue to go to bed hungry every day in America. The W.C. Food Pantry has done an excellent job fulfilling the demand for desperately needed food. We will continue to support the W.C. Food Pantry’s efforts to end hunger. We also provide emergency food assistance for the hungry people Sal visits. A hot meal and several bags of groceries are often the most appreciated assistance, supplied almost immediately when those suffering in hunger are found.

We continue to help the handicapped with wheelchairs, walkers, and ramps, home repair projects and more. The assistance they receive elsewhere is never enough to cover these expenses. They live in fear each month of not having enough to pay for food, housing and utilities. The handicapped also usually have medications, car repairs and other necessities they need. We help to alleviate their worry and stress by providing items that make their lives easier, by removing their pain and suffering of desperate financial distress.

There were many other areas of assistance this year that would be too long to list here. Where ever Sal saw need we stepped in to offer our helping hand. We made sure your donations were put to good use at every step of the way. We have heard a few comments from people doubting what The Time Is Now to Help does. They say we may be enabling people to be lazy and not help themselves. I ask every one of them if they would expect an 82-year-old gentleman with health problems to go out and get a job? Or a mother with three young children whose husband just died after a long expensive illness? Would you expect a man that became a quadriplegic in a car accident to get a job and support his family? Are these fellow creations being lazy or are they in need of our caring and sharing compassion? Almost every physically capable person we have helped this year has been able to move on and now support him or herself thanks to our helping hand up. That is why any negative comments hurt us here as we see these poverty-stricken people as human beings, fellow creations, and part of our communities deserving all our help.

We hope every one of you can feel their gratitude and ours for the assistance we have been able to give this year. They share their love and thankfulness through cards, letters and sometimes-even pictures. We are sending all that love and thankfulness out to all of YOU. Together we accomplished a lot. Only through your caring and sharing, and your prayers that give me strength, can we together continue to do God’s work. We wish all of you a blessed and healthy New Year. God Bless all of you.

Please, please stand together to help us fight this war on poverty. Together, we make our world a better place doing God’s good works. Thank you for caring and sharing.

Health & Happiness, God Bless Everyone, W.C./Sal

Fox Charities $25,000 Matching Grant: Please remember the Fox Charities $25,000 Matching Grant. Every dollar you donate will be matched by another.

Please Help: Make checks payable to: The Time Is Now to Help, P.O. Box 70, Pell Lake, WI 53157. The Time Is Now to Help is a federally recognized 501(c) 3 charitable organization licensed in the states of Wisconsin and Illinois. You will receive a tax deductible, itemized thank you receipt showing exactly what every penny of your donation provided for the poverty stricken.

A Very Special Thank You: Richard H. Driehaus Charitable Lead Trust, Ziegler Charitable Foundation, Paul Ziegler, Schawk Family Foundation, William H. & Lois J. McEssy Foundation, Kunes’ Country Auto Group, Geneva Lake Developement Corp., Phil & Sue Hagenah, Lake Como Youth Coalition, Community Foundation of Southern Wisconsin, Carolyn Gable/New Age Transportation/Expect A Miracle, Scrappers Quilt Guild, First English Lutheran Church, Dr. Mark & Cynthia Brower, Eye Physicians & Surgeons Staff, George & Lauretta Clettenberg, Richard & Ruth Hanson, Barbara Spiegelhoff, Terry Savage, Harry & Lois Niese, Barbara & Lee Zuzanek, Charles & Penny Gruetzmacher, John & Judith Kemp, Phebe & Doug Watson, Lake Geneva Lioness Club, Martin & Karan Kearns, Nancy Hayes, Vanya Moritz, S. David & Julie Stern, Sloan Bona, Anna Guske, Marilyn Heiden, Dennis & Marcia Counihan, Herman & Elizabeth Gudeman, Stephen & Lynne Railsback, Marcia Madaus, Donald & Serina Sovick, Carolyn May Essel, Charles & Barbara Taylor, Mike Moran, Yvonne Morgan, Marshal & Susan Ketchpaw, Sid & Patty Johnson, Gerald & Joyce Byers, Mary Kay Ring, Ken & Joyce Pagel, Robert & Shirley Lipinski, AB & T Sales, W.C. Family Resource Center/Food Pantry volunteers, and all the God loving volunteers of all our caring food pantries, ALL of you who support The Time Is Now to Help donation boxes, and the businesses that allow our donation boxes. Anyone who would like a Time Is Now donation box in your business, please call (262) 249-7000.

Memorials: Corinne Moore in memory of her dog Sarie. Philip & Mary Lou Esmond in memory of her mother Mary A. Leonard.

Honoraries: Sue Williams, Melody Fehling & Jim Gage in honor of Randy Thelen’s Birthday & Christmas. Kevin & Michele Batz in honor of Linda Katzmann, Calan Olson, Jake Olson and Ava Olson.

Open Arms Free Clinic: In this season of holiday generosity, we hope that you will consider Open Arms Free Clinic, Inc. among your favorite charities. Your commitment and generosity will make progress at the free clinic possible. The need for free health care in our communities is great. Donations should be mailed to: Open Arms Free Clinic, PO Box 560, Fontana, WI 53125 www.openarmsfreeclinic.org.

Chris Ann’s Resale Shop: I will continue to ask Chris Ann’s Resale shop for furniture and household necessities to help our poverty stricken fellow Americans. If you have anything you would like to donate please call (262) 348-9088. They are located at 406 Hwy. 120 North, Lake Geneva in the old Floor Store building across from the Shell gas station and Next Door Pub. “Look for the American Flags.”

We Desperately Need Cars: Please donate a used car to help our fellow American’s get to work and other daily necessities.

Goodsearch for The Time Is Now: Search the web with www.goodsearch.com and help to raise funds for The Time Is Now to Help. Just make www.goodsearch.com your homepage and pick The Time Is Now to Help as your charity.

Please visit: www.timeisnowtohelp.org