My Neighbor In Need fulfills 5,000th request- GF Tribune Article
When Angela went to My Neighbor In Need, she was looking for a way to help others.
Instead, she became the 5,000th need request filled by the organization in its three years of operation.
“What a great day!” Dave Snuggs, the founder of My Neighbor In Need, said in a media release. “Originally I thought that if we could fulfill 200 need requests per year that would be wonderful. I never thought that we would be celebrating the completion of our 5,000th need fulfillment in just a little more than three years of operation.”
Angela, who did not want to use her last name because she works in a sensitive social services field, said at a news conference announcing the 5,000th fulfilled request that she was blown away by My Neighbor In Need.
“You have dignity when you come here,” she said Tuesday. “There isn’t all that paperwork that scares you off.”
Angela moved with her husband and 16-year-old son to Great Falls from Orange County in Southern California in May. They left most of most of their belongings behind to start their lives over. Angela and her husband both work, and she said the family makes too much to qualify for assistance but not enough to afford extras such as beds, so she and her husband had been sharing a couch, and her son was on a mattress on the floor.
“It just became too important to get better sleep,” she said.
When she explained her plight, she was amazed at how helpful the people at My Neighbor in Need were.
“They don’t make you feel less than,” she said. “You feel blessed.”
When My Neighbor In Need verified Angela’s need and decided to fulfill it with a king-size bed for her and her husband and full for their son, the staff members gave her a list of places she could help to “Pay if Forward,” the concept that My Neighbor In Need was built upon.
“It’s such a neat place,” she said.
Snuggs said Angela’s request was significant because the first need fulfilled on the site was a bed, “And beds always have been No. 1,” he said. “And that’s sad.”
Angela encourages everybody to think of My Neighbor In Need, even those who make “basic livings” and are not in desperate poverty, and she also wants to make sure people think of donating to the organization when planning that garage sale that never happens.
The organization was launched on March 20, 2012, in Great Falls. The project provides services to 44 cities in two states and My Student in Need is in 70 schools throughout Montana. Both services are free of charge.
Those looking to fulfill or request needs can go to www.myneighborinneed.org. Needs are verified before being placed on the site. Those who are helped are asked to fulfill someone else’s request before putting in for another request.
People who do not have access to the site can call 406-750-2542 or visit My Neighbor In Need at Times Square at 525 Central Ave.
Scott Thompson, sthompson@greatfallstribune.com 12:08 p.m. MDT July 14, 2015
http://www.greatfallstribune.com/story/news/local/2015/07/14/neighbor-need-fulfills-th-request/30140313/
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