[Fredslist] Opportunity For Greatness - looking for some Gotham "Sandy" Magic

[erikscheibe at optonline.net]

The other day I had driven some clothes and baby supplies into Brooklyn for a young family. It was through a woman who I knew from high school, who was coordinating collections. Through a series of connections, she had arranged for me to drive a 
car-full of "aid" into the borough of Brooklyn to give to a close friend of this family in need.

The man and I engaged in a conversation that expanded upon the plight of this young family. The young man is 28 years old and is a culinary school graduate. He lost his job cooking at a hospital the Friday before Hurricane Sandy. During the hurricane, his apartment in the Rockaways and car were completely destroyed. He, his wife and his young son now reside in a shelter in Harlem courtesy of FEMA. Now here is the biggest problem...his wife is expecting another child in just 4 weeks.

The tricky part is that I literally don't know a thing about this family. However the thought occurred to me that so many people are trying to find a way to help someone without having a clear cut avenue to make a direct impact on someone's life. Considering that a cooking position is not necessarily an impossible job to find (there is always a lot of turnover in the hospitality industry), is it possible that we might be able to help this family by guiding him to two specific needs: A job with access to city mass transportation and a place to live, if even only for maybe 6 months to let the mother have the child and then get them settled on their next path in life.

I remember when my wife was expecting and was ready to tear my head off because our baby room wasn't completely finished 6 months before the baby was born. That was when I learned about the concept of nesting. I can only imagine the emotional stress on a woman 8 months pregnant who loses everything they have, sleeping night after night in that Harlem shelter wondering what will/could happen when her baby is born.

This isn't a personal favor, but rather an opportunity for greatness. I don't know them and I can't vouch for anything about them. Perhaps though, someone could help to connect this young man with any type of a cooking job with access to mass transportation and some connection to an apartment where they might be able to get in without a security deposit and month down payment, at least until they can get a little more caught up financially. This doesn't seem like an impossible quest.

After all how often would we have the opportunity to make such a crucial impact on such a young family.


Please give me a call if there is anything you can do/contacts you can make on either the job or apartment side.

Sincerely, 

Erik Scheibe 
(631) 848-3452 

"Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to assure the survival and success of liberty. "  -  John F. Kennedy 

"Socialism is the philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance and the gospel of envy. The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings. The inherent vice of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries. Some regard private enterprise as if it were a predatory tiger to be shot. Others look upon it as a cow to be milked. Few realize it for what it is - the horse that pulls the whole cart."   -  Winston Churchill 


"Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have ... The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases."   -  Thomas Jefferson
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