Quarters

Here is a story from this mornings headlines. If only there had been 4000 quarters given to this man then he would still be alive. Everyday, tradgic things happen like this. People die needlessly because they are in a position where no help was available. People get refused medical care, people starve to death, people die because no one cared, no one helped. Just think 4000 quarters would have saved this man's life. I pray that this never happens again and that I can get my quarter coalition moving so I may be one of millions to help people like this man. Think about it, think about how many could be spared.



 Play Video AP  – WW II Vet freezes to death inside his own home

BAY CITY, Mich. – A 93-year-old man froze to death inside his home just days after the municipal power company restricted his use of electricity because of unpaid bills, officials said.

Marvin E. Schur died "a slow, painful death," said Kanu Virani, Oakland County's deputy chief medical examiner, who performed the autopsy.

Neighbors discovered Schur's body on Jan. 17. They said the indoor temperature was below 32 degrees at the time, The Bay City Times reported Monday.

"Hypothermia shuts the whole system down, slowly," Virani said. "It's not easy to die from hypothermia without first realizing your fingers and toes feel like they're burning."

Schur owed Bay City Electric Light & Power more than $1,000 in unpaid electric bills, Bay City Manager Robert Belleman told The Associated Press on Monday.

A city utility worker had installed a "limiter" device to restrict the use of electricity at Schur's home on Jan. 13, Belleman said. The device limits power reaching a home and blows out like a fuse if consumption rises past a set level. Power is not restored until the device is reset.

The limiter was tripped sometime between the time of installation and the discovery of Schur's body, Belleman said. He didn't know if anyone had made personal contact with Schur to explain how the device works.

Schur's body was discovered by neighbor George Pauwels Jr.

"His furnace was not running, the insides of his windows were full of ice the morning we found him," Pauwels told the newspaper.

Belleman said city workers keep the limiter on houses for 10 days, then shut off power entirely if the homeowner hasn't paid utility bills or arranged to do so.

He said Bay City Electric Light & Power's policies will be reviewed, but he didn't believe the city did anything wrong.

"I've said this before and some of my colleagues have said this: Neighbors need to keep an eye on neighbors," Belleman said. "When they think there's something wrong, they should contact the appropriate agency or city department."

Schur had no children and his wife had died several years ago.

Bay City is on Saginaw Bay, just north of the city of Saginaw in central Michigan.

Information from: The Bay City Times, http://www.mlive.com/bay-city

I have been trying and trying to make a better life for my family. We are a disabled household and we live on a small fixed income. We have a son who has ADHD/ODD/ Mild BIPOLAR disorder. I was the sole income earner as my wife was disabled. Three years ago I was involved in a car crash that has changed my life forever. It has been changed for both the good and bad. I can no longer work but when I first was injured I tried to keep working anyway.

My bosses who I had a hard time with anyway used my injury against me and laid me off from my job. My injuries are so severe that I am not employable and I finally had to concede and go on SSDI. Our expenses exceed our income especially when you factor in medications for three people and limited and no insurance. I write articles online when I can for small change, I do ever paying survey I can find, I have tried e-bay but have lost more than I have earned. I have held yard sales but they do not go over well here. I have sold scrap metal, I have and do whatever I can to help my family.

We have no credit card debt and we live carefully and as close to within our means as possible. We have tried to get help from everywhere but we are continually refused by an idea that we earn too much money; this is a fact I will never understand as we have to trade our mortgage payment for medications and then go without and catch up on our mortgage. We have to get an extension on utilities in a trade to buy some food and then try to find a way to meet the extension obligation. Our credit is ruined because of all of these factors.

I have finally given in to the idea of seeking help from strangers. I loathe this idea but desperate times call for desperate measures. I had an idea the other day and finally I am going to act on it. I am seeking help by way of .25 donations. I am going to ask everyone to donate a quarter to me. If my calculations are correct if 30 thousand people would help in this way I could pay our mortgages off and we would no longer struggle so hard. Then, I want to get more people to donate to someone else and if we all do this we can help so many people that are desperate and struggling like my family and worse.

I am NOT trying to scam anyone. I am just asking for help to uplift my family and get out of a very bad situation. In the end what I want most is to help more and more people and I want to do this by my "Quarter Coalition"  If anyone would like to donate just one quarter to my family; your blessings will travel far. I pose the question what can one quarter do or buy? The truth is in today's economy the short anwser is nothing but many quarters will save and change lives. If you agree with me; then please join me in the fight to help my family and then I/We will continue to help the rest of America. Please....I don't know what else to do and in my heart, I want to help not just my family but everyone I can.

Thank You!

If you want to help or donate please write to,

thequartercoalition@yahoo.com