001We founded the emergency fund in 1987. Seven families came together, threw 500 bucks each into a pot, and with the assistance of an attorney here in Ashland, Steven Whites, we uh organized and incorporated the the charity as a 501c3, which is reportable to the IRS as tax-free. So, yes, it's a charitable organization. We discovered the need for some uh funding for folks who were having some issues and that's the the genesis of the Ashen emergency fund. Why did I personally become involved in the emergency fund? Couple of reasons. One was an incident where a young girl was badly injured in a she was riding her bike and she was injured by a trailer truck in downtown Ashland. severely injured. The town came together and raised a huge amount of money at a special day in
002her honor on uh in in Stone Park and it was on the order of 100 grand in one one day we did it and the family needed it. The other reason is that meeting with Isabelle Harrison and the director of of highway at the time, Ben Montenegro, I came to understand that beyond Suz's needs, there was a broadscale general need in the town of Ashland for help. and and the the desire was to provide a source of funding for folks who had a problem that they weren't responsible for generating themselves. That something that they couldn't fix readily, but that a little bit of money would get them out of trouble. And that's been the foundation stone for the emergency fund. Without the good citizens of Ashlin, we have no fund. It's very simple. All of
003the money comes through donations and the donations are either direct through our our our uh website or they're indirect through the corporation that the various people here in town work for and have this giving charitable giving combination of uh funds match at the corporate level and we get money that way. But it's all directly resulting from the charitable operations of citizens in town. I just I'm just so grateful to have have seen the support of the town and the town's people in general to turn us into what we've become. Something that people can fall back on if they have the need for reasons for which they had no control over. That's the key fact. Something happens to a family or to a human being or to or to a whatever they had no no control
004over the disaster and we can step in and help [Music]