When a major financial emergency comes up, some families wonder if they can afford to continue homeschooling. Mike and Elizabeth Smith talk about the answer to that dilemma on today’s Home School Heartbeat.
Mike Smith:
Part of the Home School Foundation’s mission is to provide assistance to needy homeschool families. Elizabeth, what are some of the ways that the Foundation actually does this?
Elizabeth Smith:
Well, we have a Compassion Fund that allows us to meet unexpected needs and perhaps needs that don’t fall directly into one of our other category funds. Emergencies come along in families that can be just the thing that pushes them over the edge. We had a family—the father had developed a situation with seizures and it was worsening. In fact, the doctors told him that it was not likely that he would survive that. However, the years passed and he did survive and began to improve. About that time, their son developed a tumor behind his eye that required surgery. They were coping with this situation, but when their house burned down, they just couldn’t do any more. And that’s when the Foundation stepped in. We took care of curriculum for the family and detailed some of the things involved with a temporary stay in the hospital—children could have curriculum that they could do at the hospital; we provided that. And so we met the very specific needs of a family that had a situation that was not ongoing.
Mike:
We know that some people that are listening today are actually donors, and I want to thank you, donors, for helping out these needy families. And until next time, I’m Mike Smith.
