From The Island Packet

Annie came in to Bluffton Self Help with her daugh­ter, Sarah, a teenager who had a can­cer­ous tumor on her leg that needed to be removed.

Sarah had been referred to the Med­ical Uni­ver­sity of South Car­olina in Charleston, which pro­vided an esti­mate for the pro­ce­dure, but the fam­ily couldn’t afford it, and pay­ment was required upfront.

Bluffton Self Help part­nered with two other local orga­ni­za­tions to help, and vol­un­teers hosted a garage sale to raise money. The tumor was removed, and Sarah is under eval­u­a­tion to ensure her recovery.

Bluffton Self Help pro­vides a broad range of social ser­vices for poor work­ing fam­i­lies, the dis­abled, the sick and the elderly.

Read more: http://www.islandpacket.com/2011/11/29/1879751/bluffton-self-help-provides-support.html#ixzz1fCwuO29J

From The Island Packet

Taryn was in her sec­ond trimester when she was rushed to the emer­gency room with chronic pain and vio­lent nausea.

She was put on manda­tory bed rest for the remain­der of her preg­nancy and could no longer work. Strug­gling to pay her expenses on a lim­ited income, Taryn called Bluffton Self Help after she received a dis­con­nect notice from the elec­tric company.

Fol­low­ing the inter­view and ver­i­fi­ca­tion of infor­ma­tion, Bluffton Self Help was able to pay her elec­tric bill to avoid an inter­rup­tion of ser­vice. Fam­ily mem­bers soon arrived to help Taryn with other expenses dur­ing the remain­der of her pregnancy.

Bluffton Self Help pro­vides a broad range of social ser­vices for poor work­ing fam­i­lies, the dis­abled, the sick and the elderly.

Every day, our Bluffton neigh­bors expe­ri­ence sit­u­a­tions that can break your heart. In these sto­ries, we have attempted to cap­ture dif­fer­ent sit­u­a­tions that we learn about, and what we do to help out. We hope you will enjoy them here…

Did you know that every Thurs­day of every week, Bluffton Self Help provei­des fresh meats, bread and pro­duce to 18 home-bound dis­abled seniors on fixed incomes? Every Thurs­day, after receiv­ing a deliv­ery from the Sec­ond Help­ings truck, the ded­i­cated vol­un­teers of BSH pack up 18 bags of both fresh and non-perishable food items, tak­ing care to note spe­cific dietary needs of each senior. Then a vol­un­teer from a local church comes to Bluffton Self Help, gath­ers the bags and deliv­ers this pre­ciou cargo to each
and every person.

Maribeth’s daugh­ter, was born with sickle cell ane­mia.  After years of learn­ing about the ill­ness, Mari­beth thought her daughter’s con­di­tion and health care were man­age­able.  At 4 years old, the lit­tle girl devel­oped hor­ri­ble and large open sores all over her torso and thighs. After sev­eral doctor’s vis­its, there was still not a clear diag­no­sis. After even more doctor’s visit’s, Mari­beth lost her job due to exces­sive absences.

With funds dry­ing up, and bills con­tin­u­ing to come in … finally a diag­no­sis was dis­cov­ered. Maribeth’s small child had chronic sickle cell ulcer­a­tions and required sev­eral days in the hos­pi­tal, intra­venous antibi­otics and exten­sive fol­low up care.  Mari­beth han­dled it beau­ti­fully, but still there were no pay­checks com­ing in and the bills were pil­ing up.  There would sim­ply not be enough money for upcom­ing rent.

Mari­beth came to BSH with pic­tures of her daughter’s ulcer­ated body and exces­sive doctor’s notes.  BSH quickly learned that her daugh­ter would make a full recov­ery.  Mari­beth was assisted with her rental pay­ment and was referred to a local non-profit employ­ment ser­vice orga­ni­za­tion.  She attended the work­shops, and after one week — secured a full time posi­tion and arranged child care with a fam­ily friend.  3 months later — both mom and daugh­ter are doing well!

Bluffton Self Help answered a call for help from a local church. Melanie came from Colum­bia, SC to Bluffton six months prior to care for her very sick mother. Her mother had suf­fered a heart attack and an aneurism. Bills were paid from her mother’s social secu­rity check. Unfor­tu­nately, her mother’s con­di­tion did not improve, and after six months of care, she passed away. Melanie did not have the funds to pay for funeral expenses. She was told that Social Secu­rity gave a small por­tion towards cre­ma­tion ser­vices, but quickly learned that Social Secu­rity no longer offered those funds. The local church agreed to pay for a por­tion of the cre­ma­tion and asked Bluffton Self Help to pay the rest, inform­ing us that Melanie’s mother had passed two weeks prior and a deci­sion was of crit­i­cal impor­tance.
After a board-approved excep­tion, Bluffton Self Help agreed to assist Melanie who, after loyal ded­i­ca­tion to her mom, was relieved to have the assis­tance. She did not leave the office with­out hug­ging the staff.

Clara, a sin­gle mother of two, called in from the wait­ing room at the Children’s hos­pi­tal in MUSC. Her son, with severe kid­ney dis­ease, receives dial­y­sis at MUSC 3 times per week, every week. She is very famil­iar with that wait­ing room. She just learned that her elec­tric­ity was due to be dis­con­nected in 2 days! Clara has a Mas­ters degree in Edu­ca­tion and is employed as a teacher in the Bluffton school sys­tem. She has missed sev­eral days of work due to her trav­els to Charleston on behalf of her son, and
although her job is still secure for the fall sea­son, her pay has been greatly affected and caused her to get behind with her elec­tric bill. She is fear­ful of the health of her child, espe­cially in the blis­ter­ing heat of the south with no air con­di­tion­ing! After a brief inter­view and ver­i­fi­ca­tion of infor­ma­tion the fol­low­ing day, Bluffton Self Help was able to pay her past due elec­tric bill and keep her elec­tric­ity on! In addi­tion, she was referred to other orga­ni­za­tions to help with med­ical trans­porta­tion
and other ben­e­fits avail­able to help her and her family.

Ethan’s teacher lis­tened as he com­plained of headaches. She noticed that Ethan was hav­ing trou­ble read­ing his books and wor­ried that his aca­d­e­mic advance­ment was imper­iled by a seri­ous eye prob­lem. The par­ents were sum­moned to the school, but with­out insur­ance, Ethan’s prob­lems could not be addressed. The school coun­selor called BSH, and Ethan vis­ited the eye doc­tor. He received eye care, as well as glasses, all paid for by BSH.

Bluffton Self Help pro­vides a broad range of human ser­vices for poor work­ing fam­i­lies, the dis­abled, sick and elderly. Dona­tions FROM our com­mu­nity fund ser­vices TO our community.

To donate to Bluffton Self Help’s fundrais­ing cam­paign, which sup­ports the organization’s char­i­ta­ble activ­i­ties, mail con­tri­bu­tions to BSH, PO Box 2420, Bluffton, SC 29910, or drop by 1264 May River Road in Bluffton.

Linda sought assis­tance from CODA when her husband’s con­tin­ued phys­i­cal abuse became intol­er­a­ble. Unfor­tu­nately, CODA’s hous­ing facil­ity was already at capac­ity. No clothes, no food, no money, and no place to live, Linda and her chil­dren came to BSH dis­traught and fright­ened. BSH pledged to pay for one week’s lodg­ing at a local hotel to ensure everyone’s safety until CODA was able to pro­vide hous­ing for Linda and her children.

Bluffton Self Help pro­vides a broad range of human ser­vices for poor work­ing fam­i­lies, the dis­abled, sick and elderly. Dona­tions FROM our com­mu­nity fund ser­vices TO our community.

To donate to Bluffton Self Help’s fundrais­ing cam­paign, which sup­ports the organization’s char­i­ta­ble activ­i­ties, mail con­tri­bu­tions to BSH, PO Box 2420, Bluffton, SC 29910, or drop by 1264 May River Road in Bluffton.

Help Mat­ters… The promise of a new job didn’t pay the elec­tric bill that was due at 5pm, but BSH did! From Frank, BSH received the fol­low­ing: “I would like to take a moment and thank you from the bot­tom of my heart for your help. Our fam­ily is hav­ing a bit of a ‘rough patch’ this year and when all hope was lost, you guys were there. I didn’t think that there was any nice peo­ple left in the world until I encoun­tered the peo­ple of BSH. Thanks again… You have restored my faith in community!”

Bluffton Self Help pro­vides a broad range of human ser­vices for poor work­ing fam­i­lies, the dis­abled, sick and elderly. Dona­tions FROM our com­mu­nity fund ser­vices TO our community.

To donate to Bluffton Self Help’s fundrais­ing cam­paign, which sup­ports the organization’s char­i­ta­ble activ­i­ties, mail con­tri­bu­tions to BSH, PO Box 2420, Bluffton, SC 29910, or drop by 1264 May River Road in Bluffton.