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CFES.org > News And Events > Press Releases > Help Your Neighbor Campaign to Assist Families in Need

'Help Your Neighbor' Campaign to Assist Families in Need
October 7, 2008

The Community Foundation of the Eastern Shore (CFES) has awarded $2,000 to support the Joseph House Center's utility assistance program for needy families. This funding is expected to assist 20-25 local families with utility bills or prevent utility disconnects. The grant was made from donations to the Foundation's Help Your Neighbor Campaign that provides assistance to nonprofit agencies on the Lower Eastern Shore providing critical support to families and senior citizens in meeting basic needs. Pictured (l to r) are: Spicer Bell, CFES President and Sister Connie Ladd of the Joseph House Center. Donations are still being accepted for the Help Your Neighbor Campaign. To contribute to the fund please click "Donate Online" immediately below, or send a check to the address listed at the bottom of this page.

Instead of conducting a traditional fall Annual Appeal for gifts, the Community Foundation of the Eastern Shore has started a special “Help Your Neighbor” campaign that will provide money to local charities that assist families and seniors struggling to meet day-to-day expenses.

This special fund raising appeal is in response to significant increases in calls for urgent assistance for basic human needs here on the Lower Shore.

The Foundation will match the first $10,000 raised from the community and all proceeds will be distributed to nonprofit organizations in Wicomico, Worcester and Somerset Counties that help families in crisis.

All donations to the “Help Your Neighbor” campaign will be directed over the next year to local charitable and faith-based nonprofit organizations that have a proven capacity to determine eligibility to assure financial assistance gets to the neediest families.

“Families across the Lower Shore are finding themselves in trouble,” said Spicer Bell, Foundation President. “Recent rapid increases in the cost of food, utilities and gasoline are presenting a triple threat to the well being of many families and senior citizens in our area.”

The challenges created by recent economic conditions are not limited to the chronically unemployed. “Families that traditionally have not asked for assistance in the past, find they have no choice as they teeter on the edge of financial crisis,” Bell explained.

“Remember that every dollar you give will help keep someone from being cold, from being hungry, or help someone receive the prescriptions they need to survive,” Bell stated.

Checks to support our local families in need should be sent to:

Help Your Neighbor Campaign

c/o the Community Foundation of the Eastern Shore

1324 Belmont Ave.

Suite 401

Salisbury, MD 21804