This month we’re rallying behind Melanie, a wonderful mother of four who recently got hit by a car while walking near her home outside of Boston. We are all so thankful she pulled through, but now the long road to recovery begins – and with that comes many unforeseen expenses.
Our mission is to help customize her home to her new physical limitations. The three things she could really use right now are a front-loading washer and dryer, as well as a new stove with front controls so she can continue providing for her family. She still remains extremely positive, but it’s going to be a tough time for a while.
Let’s surprise her with an AWESOME Love Drop this month!
Goal: $3,000
$3,129.13
Where Your Money Goes
Melanie is wheelchair-bound right now, and unfortunately can’t stand or even put any weight on her legs. This, along with her broken pelvis, makes it very difficult to not only get around her house, but also do some of the things she enjoys the most (like cooking – she’s a big foodie). Surprising her with these new appliances would be HUGE! She can get back to living as close to her “normal” life as possible, without having to rely on others helping her out as much.
If you can’t give a few bucks, perhaps you have a contact or two that could help get these appliances donated? Any money saved will go right to other improvements needed around the house :) Together we can make a bigger impact!
Why We’re Helping This Family
As a coupon blogger, Melanie is no stranger to giving back, often using her money-saving abilities to help out others in the community. This month we’re happy to be bringing together people who care to help get her house ready for the upcoming stretch of rehab and recovery.
It looks like it might be ten months to a year until she’s fully back to normal, so any investment we can make in getting her house usable during that time will be much appreciated. We’re surprising Melanie at the end of the month – join us!
Though Melanie is doing her best to try and regain a sense of normalcy for herself and her family, being confined to a wheelchair has made even the simplest tasks impossible, like cooking. Her husband Jeff has now become the family chef, though the kids tell us he’s only really good at making pancakes and toast. ;)
Melanie isn’t used to being taken care of because she’s devoted her life to taking care of others. She uses her online presence as a coupon expert and blogger to help the community, too: she donates to the local food bank, sends cases of care packages overseas to the military, and even keeps her basement stocked with a mini emergency pantry should someone need it. Though she’s still healing from some very serious injuries, Melanie remains focused on helping out others. Let’s do our best to help HER out now!
Even though Melanie wakes up every morning to face the pain and physical limitations of her accident, she’s trying not to let it get her down. When the tears come, and they do, she wipes them away and instead, focuses on taking care of her family and others around her. Melanie is using her task-oriented, independent streak to help her through this difficult time.
Melanie’s injuries were caused by a distracted driver. It was senseless and could’ve been prevented. When you drive, don’t text, don’t dial, and keep those hands at 10 and 2, people! Melanie is on the mend and you can bet she will use this experience as a teaching tool, especially for her 16-year-old son, Aidan. As a new driver, there is no doubt, his eyes will be on the road at all times.
Let’s help make this long road to recovery a little easier for Melanie :) Her Drop goes down next week – be a part of it!
Melanie’s Love Drop was a lot of fun, guys! We had yet another big turnout of friends and family who came to celebrate with us and provide extra help, gifts, and general goodwill. We were also able to do something we’ve never done before . . . we worked with Kim, Melanie’s sponsor, to live-stream the entire event! We had a laptop set up to watch all the action, with viewers taking part of the Drop from all over the country. Very cool.
Our goal was to provide Melanie with a way to get back some of her “regular” life during her recovery period, and we’re happy to say that you all made it happen! We were able to give her three brand-new appliances (washer, dryer and stove) with front-facing controls that she can operate from her wheelchair (with a fun little “move that truck!” cheer to boot). Check out the video to watch how it all went down :)
Total stuff given to Melanie: [To check out the pictures, click here.]
An $1,800 Washer & Dryer set!! – We did it guys! We raised over $3,000 to make this Drop special for Melanie and family! And part of that went to picking up this “sexy” (as Melanie called them) front-loading washer and dryer set so she can super easily do laundry again. We even got to shout “Move That Truck!” when we were presenting them to her, haha… it was brilliant. HUGE shout out to Lowes for hooking us up with a *crazy* discount too. They made it their mission to help us after hearing Melanie’s story, and really went above and beyond for us. Also props to Anthony for INSTALLING these after the Drop was over! We got a killer community my friends, way to go :)
A $1300 Slide-in Electric Stove! – With front-facing nobs so Melanie can now COOK again!! Something she is incredibly passionate about, and something she couldn’t do for the past 2-3 months because of her wheelchair. We hope you’re making great use of it, Melanie!! And way to go again, team, for pulling off that $3k goal of ours — that helped facilitate this purchase too.
$300 Grocery Store Credit – Since Lowes gave us such a discount w/ all the appliances, we had a few hundred dollars left over which we wanted to spoil Melanie with once her stove was installed all the way. So we got her $300 worth of credit at her local store so she can stock her fridge full of ANY food she wants! Kid-friendly, or not ;)
$200 MORE dollars at her grocery store! – The ladies of Galtime also had the great idea of stocking her fridge, and donated $200 more to her food passion :) Thanks Galtime! It was awesome seeing you at the Drop too – meant alot.
A brand new iRobot Roomba! – The folks over at iRobot were also moved by Melanie’s story and wanted to help out as well! So they donated a VERY cool top of the line Roomba to help out with vacuuming her house. Automatically too! Very cool idea – thanks iRobot!
A TON of wheelchair-friendly gifts – A few of our Love Drop members are in wheelchairs themselves (and also just love shopping for cool stuff!) and were kind enough to mail over some fabulous accessories for Melanie :) Including a cup holder (awesome!), lap-desk, saddle bag, and more. And when the Drop was all over, Melanie told us she will be donating ALL of her wheelchair stuff – including the chair itself and her entire electric system for her stairs – to another person who can use it once she’s out. She’s calling it her own “Mini-Drop,” Yay!!!
Bags full of Boston Redsox items ;) For all of her kids. Hats, jerzies, you name it. It’s a good thing they’re huge fans or that could have been troublesome! Haha… Thanks for doing this Jessica!
A ton of other gift bags. — Everyone who attended the Drop brought some goodies of their own to present – including snacks, gifts, and a whole bunch of other great stuff. Thanks so much everyone! And for being their in person too – that was incredible :)
6 Tickets to their IMAX Theater– Also courtesy of the New England Aquarium :)
$75 Gift card to Lowes – Awesome! Great job, guys!
$15 Gift card to Bed, Bath and Beyond – Always a great choice ;)
A Coach Bag!! – Sent in from our good friend, and Love Drop member, Trinnie Doo (Thanks!)
Family tickets to an outing of their choice! $100 worth – Courtesy of Goldstar.com (thx guys!)
6 months of meal plans courtesy of MealPlanRescue.com (Thanks for always participating!)
6 months of coaching services from JRRSEHopeCoaching.com – Solutions for midlife parents, troubled teens, single moms & career challenges.
A photo book from GroupStory to capture the entire Drop’s celebrations.
We also live-streamed the whole event! Out totally awesome friend, and sponsor of Melanie’s Drop, Kim from Mommycosm hooked us up w/ the technology to steam the whole 1 and 1/2 hour event to those online who wanted to participate but couldn’t be there in person. It was fun! Thanks so much Kim! (And if anyone ever needs help/advice with that stuff, make sure to give her a shout.)
Kim put together a VERY touching movie compilation too. Which we all sat around to and watched on TV as a handful of Melanie’s close friends wished her the very best in recovery. It was beautiful :) And at the end Kim’s daughter sang an *amazing* rendition of Lean On Me for Melanie too – an absolute highlight of the day’s celebration.
Great job everyone! We pulled through yet again, and really surprised Melanie and family with some incredible stuff. You all are getting good at this ;) See you next month! (Special thanks also to our two awesome photographers who came out and gave their time (and skills) for the event: Sage Brousseau and Isabel Furie. Y’all were great!)
We’d like to thank all 1,000+ members of the Love Drop community! It is each and every one of YOU that powers the project and enables us to touch lives and inspire others each month. THANK YOU for everything you do – together we are making a real difference.
Where Your Money Goes
