GUILFORD — The Windham County Heat Fund has completed its ninth year of funneling money from very generous Windham County residents to local people in need of an emergency Band-Aid of fuel assistance.
Donors, including 110 individuals, 15 businesses, grant funders, and those participating in one public event, raised a record $50,326 for the fund.
The fund helped approximately 100 families, paying for $47,318 in fuel. Some of those 100 families were helped twice because of unusual circumstances.
We all know that this was the never-ending winter from hell. It was cold, and it was very cold for a very long time. Even those of us who can afford to heat our homes without great hardship were beginning to worry about how many more deliveries of oil or propane we were going to receive before we could turn off the thermostat.
The fund generally helps people before fuel assistance kicks in for families at the end of November. This year, we also had to deal with an unusual number of people who got very meager amounts of federal and state fuel assistance and ran out of fuel in January or February.
Thank you to such a caring and generous community for opening your pocketbooks when you could have easily saved the money for your own fuel during this harsh winter.