With few jobs out there, Santa Fund seeing more first-timers

t“The Old Farmer’s Almanac” is predicting a rough winter. But those who work with the impoverished in the Nashua area already know that, and not because they’ve read it. They know it’s going to be a bad winter because so many more people than ever before are calling them for help, and we’re not talking about with shoveling snow. They are worried about keeping a roof overhead, heat turned on, food in their children’s bellies and hopefully getting a gift or two under the Christmas tree.

Thirty-six-year-old mother of three, Tracie is one of those asking for help the first time this year. She was at the Salvation Army on Thursday, applying for Telegraph Santa Fund assistance. She was proudly telling the intake volunteer that her 11-year-old would like books for Christmas. “She’s my reader. She’s read all four of the ‘Twilight’ books. She’s also my sports girl. She likes to play soccer.”

Then, more solemnly, she told the volunteer that her whole family has no warm clothes for the winter, since they just returned to the area from the South.

In many ways Tracie symbolizes the financial nightmare facing many working class families. Originally from Nashua, she and her husband of 20 years and their three daughters, moved to the Orlando area eight years ago because the home building market was booming. With the help of a subprime mortgage, the family bought a house in the Orlando area. Tracie’s husband worked as a carpenter contractor, and she helped with his business while raising their girls.

But over a year ago their whole life changed. Home construction in Florida dropped off dramatically. Tracie’s husband ended up taking a maintenance job at one of area’s theme parks that paid a fraction of what he was making in construction. And they began getting more and more behind in their mortgage. Eventually he lost that job and the family’s health insurance, and they lost their home. “We lost more than that,” said Tracie. “We lost everything. We were down to eating Spam and macaroni and cheese that people up north were sending us in care packages. Up until the last minute we tried to keep our house. Some agency who promised they’d arranged for us to keep it, took our last $1,700. Our house was sold to another mortgage company for $100. We had to borrow the money to come back here in April.”

Tracie is living in her mother’s small apartment in Nashua. Her mom is on the list for a kidney transplant. Her husband and children are staying with her mother-in-law in another part of town.

“We’ve never applied for help before. My husband and I are out there every day looking for work. I’m keeping my fingers crossed. I have a job interview at Toys R Us today. Things are looking up a little. Two of our teenaged daughters have gotten jobs at fast food places. We’re hoping that’s a good sign.” Tracie was one of nearly 600 people to talk to Salvation Army and Nashua Pastoral Care workers and volunteers during the first of two, three-day intake sessions for those applying for help from The Telegraph Santa Fund, the annual drive by The Telegraph, Salvation Army and the Nashua Pastoral Care Center to collect money and gifts for needy families in Greater Nashua.

Last year more than1,000 people signed up for help with the fund. Now, with another six sessions of intake still scheduled for November, more than 600 families are asking for help – a record 10 percent of which, like Tracie, are first-time applicants. In fact on the first day of intake, lines in front of the Salvation Army snaked around the block. “We’re worried that we won’t be able to help everybody who needs it,” said Nashua Pastoral Care Center, Director of Business Operations, Kim Rodrigues. “There will come a point where we’ll have to cut people off.”Rodrigues and Salvation Army Social Worker Rosemarie Dykeman, both are worried that with the economy still so bad, that not only the need for services is rising, but the ability for people to donate will also be diminished.

With the employment rate running about 9.8 percent nationally, a 26-year high, and foreclosure filings reported on more than 1.5 million properties in the first six months of the year, a 15 percent increase over the same period of last year, the economic climate still looks grim. Oh and yes, the weather is supposed to be bad, too.

AccuWeater predicts this will be a particularly cold and stormy winter in New Hampshire, with 101 inches of snow likely to fall. That means more people needing to turn up the heat.

Folks at the Salvation Army and Nashua Pastoral Call Center say they have gotten more calls sooner than ever from people asking for help. That means a challenging holiday season for the Telegraph Santa Fund, started in 1962 to help struggling parents provide gifts for their children during the holidays. For more than a decade, the Salvation Army and Nashua Pastoral Care have been helping to register families and distribute gifts.

“We’re worried we will be way up over last year,” said Nashua Salvation Army Major Barbara Carvill. “We’re seeing so many first-time applicants, families losing their home to bankruptcy and all their health insurance. I talked to a husband and wife who both lost their jobs, are filing bankruptcy and are just about to lose their home. They have five children. These are hardworking people - your average working class family. And we are seeing more and more people coming in who have lost jobs, home and insurance and were seriously sick. A single dad was in here who was diagnosed with cancer, was fired and has no insurance.”

Rodrigues said she is seeing the same thing, too.

“A man came in here whose wife was just diagnosed with a very serious heart condition and he just got laid off. They have two children and no health insurance.” And Dykeman said she spoke to her share of people with similar stories. “I was talking to a single mom today with cancer. She is so sick she doesn’t know how she’s going to make it in here to ask for help. We have to see people in person. So we’re arranging something. But people like her are really, really hurting.”

The next Santa Fund intake session will take place at the Salvation Army on Community Center Annex, 6 Dickerman Ave., Nov. 2-5.

The Telegraph is sponsoring its 33rd annual Santa Fund Run on Saturday, Oct. 31, at 10 a.m. at Nashua High School South. Registration for the race, which will be held rain or shine, will take place between 8-9:30 a.m.

Stacy Milbouer can be reached at stacym34@gmail.com.