January 2021

With a new year and the promise of COVID vaccines, there is hope for better things in 2021. Yet we all know that for many people, “after COVID” means the end of the eviction moratorium, unemployment benefits, and aid programs that have kept them afloat. For those not eligible for these benefits, the light at the end of the tunnel looks dimmer and dimmer each day.

Once again, COVID relief checks are flowing into our community. Once again, they partially fill a critical need for some, and completely leave out others – particularly some of our immigrant neighbors.

So we (Paul and Karen) are pledging our new COVID relief checks to directly help families for whom this money will make a significant impact as they recover from this crisis. And we’re creating a new partnership between Centro Hispano of Dane County and the Lussier Community Education Center to expand our impact together.

Here’s how it works:

  • Donate part or all of your COVID relief funds on the special Pledge My Check giving page.
  • Together we’ll randomly draw from among eligible families.
  • Together we’ll give those families the money. No strings, no limitations. Just as it was given to us

Last year, 59 donors sent more than $60,000 in COVID relief funds through Pledge My Check, providing $1200 each to 51 families with young people in the LCEC’s children/youth programs. After the surprise wore off, families used these gifts to cover back rent, pay for essential car repairs, buy groceries, and much more.

This year, in recognition of our organizations’ partnership and deep needs among our immigrant neighbors, the LCEC and Centro are coming together. Eligible families will include those connected to Centro through its immigration work and those connected to the LCEC’s children/youth programs whose names were not drawn in 2020.

There are still plenty of families for whom this kind of timely financial boost would make a very big difference.

For some of us, this is a relatively painless way to make a concrete difference in a specific family’s life. To redirect your check, donate on the special Pledge My Check giving page.

And if this is not a way you can give, please know that all of the other ways you contribute to this community are deeply appreciated.

Sincerely and in community,

Paul Terranova and Karen Menendez Coller