‘We are all sleeping on the floor.’ Mom who fled abuse needs help from Goodfellows

The only thing Stacie could think of at the time was getting herself and her children to safety. She left an abusive situation in the middle of the night, taking very little with them.

“I am in need right now. We are all sleeping on the floor just with a few blankets,” she wrote in a letter asking for help from the Goodfellows Fund.

She came to the right place. The Star-Telegram charity has been helping children in need in Tarrant County for well over a century. This year Goodfellows is hoping to help 12,000 children in need in Tarrant County this season by providing a $50 tax-free gift certificate for each child for new trendy clothing from Old Navy Stores.

The scars of abuse aren’t just physical. They can leave a person feeling insufficient and unworthy, even children. New clothes can provide a renewed self-confidence, and in this case, a reassurance that someone cares, that someone does believe in them.

“I would just really like to see some joy on the children’s faces. Please do help me with this it would be such a blessing to me,” Stacie added.

About the Goodfellows Fund

The story on the Goodfellows website describes its beginning as an offshoot of the first newspaper charity drive in the United States, started by the Chicago Tribune on Dec. 10, 1909. A Chicago city attorney wrote a letter challenging his friends to donate the money they would have spent on holiday partying to charity.

A couple years later, the Advertising Club of Fort Worth staged the first local Goodfellows campaign. On the day after Thanksgiving in 1912, Publisher Amon G. Carter brought the tradition to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

To find out more, visit goodfellowfundfw.com. The new post office box for donations and correspondence is P.O. Box 149, Fort Worth, TX. 76101.