Warming Hearts

Your Support Matters: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUqyURZ2iL0&feature=youtu.be

Have you ever had a conversation with a mother of two children who works full-time and is barely able to cover her monthly bills?  The cost of heating has taken a toll on this mother’s ability to keep her family warm in this cold season. She heats her home with an oil furnace. ‘My kids are in school all day so I reduce the heat to 55 until we are all home in the evening. I hope the pipes don’t freeze. I turn the heat on so we have heat for doing homework, family time, dinner and showers, I turn the heat down when the kids go to bed.’

What about the Army veteran, who served his country for two tours of duty, only to find himself back home without enough money to heat his house?  Each month, he asks an inconceivable question, ‘Should I pay for my medicine, my meal, or my heat?’

Finally, there’s the family with a dual income that can barely pay their bills.  They may have established an annual payment agreement with local utility company to cover heating and/or electric services for the year, but how could they anticipate how very cold this winter would be? They couldn’t - and they are cold.

These families are our neighbors in our community. They live in urban and suburban communities including Wilbraham and Hampden and in the hill towns of Monson, South Hadley and Westfield and in cities and towns throughout the Pioneer Valley.

Warming Hearts is a program of the United Way of Pioneer Valley, providing a natural response to a critical local need: Funding for fuel and heating assistance so these families, and many others like them, stay warm.

Your neighbors are cold. Let's warm their hearts and homes. Make your donation to the Warming Hearts program on Valley Gives Day.

Thank you for your support!