 When Sherrill W. Mosee, founder and president of Family Care Solutions received a call that Tandeka (Tandy) Turner, a heart transplant patient and her fiancé Devon, a full-time student at Drexel University needed emergency child care for their one-year-old twin girls, Mosee went into action.
Mosee explained to the caller, a social worker at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, that Family Care Solutions was unable to award any new child care scholarships because it was experiencing financial woes due to the economy. Since 1998, Family Care Solutions has awarded nearly 400 child care scholarships and grants to low-income student parents enrolled in higher education. The Scholarships, valued upwards to about $6,000 per family pays child care expenses to help student parents stay in school and earn a college degree. "In spite of our current financial situation", Mosee says, "I couldn't ignore the call, I wanted to do something". She remembered Moneek Pines-Elliott, a former Family Care Solutions Scholarship recipient and 2002 graduate of Moore College of Art & Design. Family Care Solutions helped Moneek pay child care for her twin boys while she was enrolled in college. Pines-Elliott now owns and operates ARTrageous, a family home-based child care facility. "When we called Moneek about helping Tandy and Devon, she was ecstatic about the opportunity to give back", says Mosee. "My first reaction was a tearful one. My heart instantly went out to them and I knew I wanted to help. I remembered when I was in college and being unsure of how my twins' child care tuition was going to get paid, until Family Care Solutions came to our rescue", says Pines-Elliott. ARTrageous will offer a full scholarship at no cost to the parents for one of the twins. The in-kind contribution is valued at $4,160.
Family Care Solutions' goal was to provide child care assistance for at least six months of care. "We knew it would be weeks before Tandy could hold her babies again and months before she would regain her strength", says Mosee. Through the generosity of individuals and a local Philadelphia based foundation, Family Care Solutions was able to raise the additional $4,160 needed to cover the cost of care for the second twin for six months. "We are so elated that even during these hard economic times, people are still willing to give...this is what Christmas is all about", says Mosee.
Tandy and her family are so grateful for all the help everyone has contributed. "I've never met Tandy", says Mosee, "I've only spoken to her a few times over the phone, and in her weak voice, she repeatedly says thank you... please let everyone know I said, thank you". Thanks to a community with a heart, Tandy can now take care of her heart knowing her young twins are in good hands. Mosee hopes to be able to extend the care as needed until Tandy has fully recovered.
Donate today to help those in need.
In the News
|
