Seasons of Hope family in need of help during illness

Johnson City's Seasons of Hope is seeking donations to help one of its low income working families through an illness that has thrown them behind on their bills.Executive Director Katy Hicks said, like most of the families Seasons of Hope assists through its HOPE Family Program, "They live paycheck to paycheck." And due to illness, there was no paycheck this week."They have experienced a loss of income due to an illness in her family," Hicks said, and her immediate need is for $240 to get them through the end of the month.A small nonprofit organization with limited resources, Seasons of Hope's focus is on working families that earn too much to meet the standard guidelines for assistance from other charitable organizations and too little to meet all of their children's needs. Its mission is to empower families who are committed to improving their own situations.Its HOPE — Helping (and) Offering Personal Empowerment — Program is a two-year course of mentoring, key life skills classes, encouragement and incentives that together help families harvest the rewards of their own hard work.Space in the program is limited and families selected to participate are those who pledge to apply themselves to its educational courses, to going to work or to college if they are not already there, to meeting monthly with a HOPE Program mentor, and to giving back to their community through volunteering.Of the HOPE family in emergency need, Hicks said, "This family does a lot of volunteer work for Seasons of Hope (and) the community. And this month, they are struggling to make ends meet."Her request is for donations earmarked for "HOPE Family" that can be made on the Seasons of Hope website at www.seasonsofhopetn.org or by mail to Seasons of Hope, 706 Antioch Rd, Johnson City, TN 37604.Ways to help the HOPE Family Program include volunteering as family mentor or sponsoring an incentive reward for a family such as a free haircut, manicure, pedicure or massage, or even more helpful, a grocery, gasoline, clothing or restaurant gift card.HOPE families are also included in Seasons of Hope annual back-to-school distribution and its Secret Santa Christmas outreach that over the next month and a half will be gathering gifts and clothing for children and teens and food boxes, blessing bags and a modest Christmas wish for each of the families.Seasons of Hope kicked off its holiday drive this week with its Christmas Morning Breakfast Box in the spotlight.THicks said that Seasons of Hope believes "Every child deserves to wake up on Christmas morning to a gift under the tree, a stocking hung with care and food on the table."And to get the ball rolling, it has put out its call for donations of pancake mix, syrup, cereal, oatmeal, muffin mix, canned fruit, juice, hot chocolate mix and a $5 gift card for milk and eggs to go into a Christmas breakfast box for each of its families.Those who wish to help may donate items for the boxes, fill a box or multiple boxes to donate, sponsor a breakfast box food drive, or make a $25 donation to sponsor a box for one family.More information about the Secret Santa project and HOPE Family Program can be found at www.seasonsofhopetn.org or may be obtained by contacting Hicks at 423-724-7398.• If there is a need or a project in your neighborhood the Good Neighbor column can assist with, contact Sue Guinn Legg at 423-722-0538, slegg@johnsoncitypress.com or P.O. Box 1717, Johnson City, TN 37605.