Charitable Group Helps a Family to Pay for Housing, School Supplies

For Penny Breshears, the spiral into poverty began when her truck took its last pitiful breath.

Twelve years ago, Breshears, her husband and her daughter were hopscotching the West Coast in search of a better life, selling oil paintings and T-shirts from the back of an old trailer. At Lake Elsinore, the truck’s transmission went.

At about the same time, Breshears had a stroke and the family had to sell everything, just to get her into a hospital. After a long recovery, her husband left. Unable to afford rent, eventually she was evicted.

The years had taken their toll. By June, Breshears, 48, and her 17-year-old daughter, Chantel Decker, were homeless.

Enter the Children’s Fund of San Bernardino County, an organization dedicated to serving the needs of people who fall through the cracks.

The Children’s Fund is being featured as part of the annual Los Angeles Times Holiday Campaign, which granted the organization $15,000 from last year’s fund-raising effort.

After spending four months in shelters for the homeless, Breshears finally scraped together enough money to move to an apartment.

But life isn’t easy. In lieu of curtains, sheets of cardboard are taped over the windows. Mother and daughter live on $719 a month -- benefits Decker receives because her father is dead, a suicide.

Rent eats up most of it, and Breshears has $25 in the bank.

But they have a roof over their heads, largely because of the Children’s Fund.

The organization got them a refrigerator and a bed. The group helped get Decker enrolled at a local high school, where she is earning good grades.

It bought Decker’s school supplies and the uniform she needs to carry a flag in the marching band.

And an advocate for disadvantaged families whom Breshears met through the Children’s Fund gave her a ride recently to the San Manuel casino so she could apply for a job.

“They are with you for the duration,” Breshears said. “We’re living on less than a shoestring, I guess you could say. They’ve been a real blessing.”

Last year, relying largely on about $1 million in private donations, the Children’s Fund helped 33,000 children, said Executive Director Bonnie O’Connor.

Assistance comes in many forms, from a donated crib to emergency rent aid.

The fund also operates a school for homeless kids. During the holidays, the fund acts as a clearinghouse for donated toys. Each year, it sets up shop in a donated collection point.

This year the Loma Linda University Medical Center offered part of an old laundry facility.

In conjunction with other organizations, including the Marines, the Children’s Fund distributes the toys to poor children.

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HOW TO GIVE

Donations (checks or money orders) supporting the Los Angeles Times Holiday Campaign should be sent to: L.A. Times Holiday Campaign, File# 56986, Los Angeles, CA 90074-6986. Please do not sent cash. Credit card donations can be made on the Web site: www.latimes.com/holidaycampaign.

All donations are tax-deductible. Contributions of $25 or more will be acknowledged in The Times unless a donor requests otherwise. Acknowledgment cannot be guaranteed for donations received after Dec. 18. For more information about the Holiday Campaign, call (800) LATIMES, Ext. 75771.