Season for Caring s seniors still have items on their Christmas lists
His grandsons call Cline Meredith their superhero. His wife calls him her best friend.
For the 66-year-old from Elgin, who has stage 4 metastatic kidney cancer that has recently gone to his brain, this Christmas and every day after are important.
“His biggest thing he loves to do is go fishing, and he can’t do what he loves,” said wife Velma Meredith, 63. “We love to carry on conversations together, but now he feels so bad he sleeps most of the time. Or when he is up, his mind doesn’t work as well as it used to. He has to concentrate to say little things.”
Academy gives $2,000 shopping sprees to 4 Season for Caring families
Families chose shoes, clothing and socks with a few fun things thrown in
Kirstan Kemkaran had her whole weekend planned.
The Georgetown 8-year-old was going to practice hitting the ball with her new mermaid-colored softball bat and catching with her new pink glove. She was then going to go fishing in San Gabriel Park and shoot cans in her backyard using her pink Red Ryder BB gun. At some point, she probably was also going to put on her roller skates.
Kirstan s new gear was purchased during a shopping spree she and her family went on at Academy Sports and Outdoors. On Friday, the sporting goods store gave four Statesman Season for Caring families $2,000 each in gift cards to buy whatever they wanted.
Families hit hard by pandemic, illness need plumbing, remodeling work
Cancer spreading to the brain and then his wife losing her job.
The music industry going silent because of the pandemic.
For three of the Statesman Season for Caring families, these are the lasting scars from 2020. It s also the reason needed home repairs have fallen so far down their lists.
Every year, the Statesman Season for Caring program highlights the needs of 12 featured families nominated by local nonprofit organizations. Those families needs are taken care of first and then the organizations use monetary donations to help hundreds of other families with basic needs such as rent, utilities, transportation and food.