Riding to the rescue with help
for a homeless family
for a homeless family
In his spare time, Tom Sheridan —
the western sales manager of Union Drycleaning — enjoys
riding his horse on a forest preserve trail in Elgin, IL.
Between the beautiful view of nature and the kind comfort of
his equine companion, he always manages to find some inner
peace.
Sometimes, he finds other things. During
the first week of August, two young girls of a local homeless
family approached him on the trail and wanted to pet his horse.
At the time, Sheridan had no idea of their situation.
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“We go to their campsite and they
have a tent pitched and I saw some clothes on the line,”
Sheridan recalled. “People don’t wash their clothes
in the forest if they are just camping out for the
weekend.”
With a little prodding, Charay Mazzeri
relayed to him the tale of her family’s recent woes. Her
husband, Luke, had lost his job at a photo processing lab. It
seems the demand for such services had fallen dramatically as
the general public’s use of digital cameras surged.
Soon, the couple could no longer afford
to pay rent, so rather than wait to be evicted, they set up
temporary quarters at various campgrounds, including the one
where Sheridan found them. It charged only $10 a day but
didn’t have any shower facilities.
The family of eight (including children
Kelly, Giovanna, Raven, Genevra, Ollie and Max, all between the
ages of two and 12) had tried for a long time to disguise their
homelessness.
When Sheridan arrived home after meeting
the Mazerris, he couldn’t get their plight out of his
mind. He contacted his neighbor, Mike Perrin, who had a very
large garden on his property, and they returned to the campsite
with four boxes of vegetables, canned food and other supplies.
They were joined by Sheridan’s
wife, Pat, who was approached by the clan’s youngest
daughter, Genevra.
“She’s seven,” Sheridan
noted. “She came up to my wife and said, ‘The food
we don’t use — we’re going to give to the
poor.’ That really broke my heart when she told us
that.”
At that point, he knew that he wanted to
help the family as much as he could.
Sheridan’s neighbor, Perrin,
offered the family temporary shelter in his home’s
construction garage (complete with a sink, toilet, small
kitchen and shower). The plan initially was for a two-week
stay. However, it turned into eight weeks.
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Sheridan also began to ask for donations
from friends and even strangers to help the Mazzeris get back
on their feet.
For the short term, he wanted to help
Luke Mazzeri find a full-time job. Previously, Mazzeri had
applied online for 150 jobs in one week without any replies. He
eventually found temporary work as a tree trimmer, but the
seasonal job was inconsistent.
As luck would have it, Sheridan stumbled
onto a job opening when he called Fox Valley Internet while
searching for a high speed Internet connection. After several
days of not having anybody get back to him, he talked directly
to the boss of the company. He was told that Fox Valley was
severely understaffed.
“I told him, ‘I have the
perfect guy’,” Sheridan explained. “Luke is
very computer savvy. I sent him over and they hired him
immediately.”
One problem was solved, but still many
loomed on the horizon. After contacting several charity
organizations and community support programs, Sheridan realized
that he wasn’t going to find help at any of them. Many
had long waiting lists or weren’t set up to help an
entire family (with both parents still in the picture) out of a
rough patch.
“After eight weeks, I wanted to
blow my brains out,” he said. “I got so desperate
at the end I think I actually wrote a nasty letter to all my
best friends saying, ‘You should have given more
money.’ I just couldn’t get anywhere.”
Sheridan was frustrated because he knew a
cold Illinois winter was fast approaching. While this was going
on, Luke Mazzeri struggled to do everything he could —
putting in 80 hours a week at his new job. It still
wasn’t enough. The family needed to find housing.
Finally, Charay Mazzeri found a
vandalized four-bedroom house in her family’s price
range. It took a bit of maneuvering, but the family managed to
convince the owner to let them rent it on a month-to-month
basis. The family moved in during the first week of October.
“There was no running water, no
refrigerator, but at least it was warm in there,”
Sheridan noted. “It got really cold that night. They
moved their air mattresses from the tents into the house. The
kids were so happy.”
The Sheridans soon donated some of their
bedroom furniture that had been stored in their attic, which
made the Mazzeri children even happier.
Now, Sheridan is quite content to see the
family moving forward, but he is even more amazed at how the
children fared during the family’s stressful ordeal.
“I’ll tell you one
thing,” he said. “I’ve never seen any kids
happier through thick or thin. It’s really a wonderful
testament to the parents that the kids were in such great
spirits every time I saw them. They couldn’t see what a
dire situation they were in.”
While things are certainly looking up for
the family, Sheridan still worries about the high heating bills
that will pile up in the next few months. He is seeking more
donations that will put the Mazzeris on solid financial
footing.
Anybody interested in helping can send a
check payable to “Luke Mazzeri” to the following
address: Tom Sheridan, 37W780 Big Timber Road, Elgin, IL.
60123.
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