Mom seeks help from Goodfellows after move to Texas in search of a safe environment
Theresa moved to Fort Worth from Chicago in 2019 to get her children out of a crime-ridden situation that included danger and harm to her family.
”My family became a product of the crime where my brother was shot 18 times. After experiencing that I decided it was time to relocate so I can save my children and give them a better chance at life,” she said. “We moved to Texas with just our book bag and faith.”
And while she said God has provided them peace of mind that comes with safety, such a move brings great challenges. She and her family are facing eviction and it’s hard keeping up with the bills, so of course there’s no money left over to buy Christmas for her children.
”I understand storms don’t last always, but I can’t see the rainbow right now. But I know it’ll be here soon,” Theresa said.
Goodfellows is here now to help. As they have been doing for over a century, the Star-Telegram charity has a goal of helping 12,000 children in need in Tarrant County have a joyful holiday by providing a $50 tax-free gift certificate for each child for new trendy clothing from Old Navy Stores.
There’s no pot of gold, but there is the reassurance to folks like Theresa that they are not alone facing their troubles, that someone cares.
”I do have faith that everything will eventually come together for me and my children,” she said.
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.