Mother turns to Share the Season to help daughter

Share the Season is an annual campaign that offers one-time aid to people affected by unforeseen hardships. The people are not identified to protect their privacy.

This story is about a mother’s wish to make her daughter’s life easier.

Five years ago, the family – two parents and two children – moved to the Wichita area from Iowa. The father is a veteran.

The daughter, a teenager, has been bullied in school.

She has been called names because of the appearance of her teeth, the mother wrote on her application to Share the Season. “She has only made one friend the entire time we have been here. She has been so depressed.”

Some nights, the daughter would throw up from the stress of being bullied, the mother said.

The mother wanted to get dental help, but the family was struggling financially. Both parents lost their jobs at one point, and the family lived in a camper and struggled for food. One of her daughter’s teachers helped the family find housing.

When the mother asked a dentist whether he could help her daughter, he said the work would cost $7,981.56.

The down payment was $788, with monthly payments of $188.

“The doctor donated $2,500 of the cost for the removal of four wisdom teeth and the cauterization (for the) removal of the extra skin under her top lip and under her tongue,” the mother wrote on her application. It “was a great help (and) took the bill from $7,981.56 to $5,481.56. I have paid $360 of the down payment but with all our bills and everything else going on I am struggling with the remainder.”

“I’ve tried to help my daughter the best I could,” the mother told The Eagle. “One night she cried for four hours over some Instagram comments. They bullied her pretty much the entire time. … I am trying to get my daughter the help she needs.”

Share the Season has been able to help pay utility bills and provide help for the dental down payment.

And for that, the mother is thankful.

“After everything we’ve been through, there are not enough words, not a big enough thank you card I could send to thank you to let these people know what they did for my family,” the mother said. “It is through the help and generosity of complete strangers. … This is my daughter I am trying to save.”

Share the Season is a joint project of The Eagle, the Wichita Community Foundation and the Salvation Army.

So far this season, it has raised $204,477.

Send contributions to Share the Season at the Wichita Community Foundation, 301 N. Main, Suite 100, Wichita, KS 67202. To donate online, go to www.sharetheseason.org. If you have questions about donating, call 316-264-4880.

This story was originally published December 24, 2015 at 1:27 PM with the headline "Mother turns to Share the Season to help daughter."