Mom turns to ESM for son’s medicine
Cynthia’s 10-year-old son takes $370 worth of medicine nearly each month to prevent grand mal seizures. He also takes daily medicine for attention-deficit disorder. The total cost of his monthly prescriptions is about $500.

Marian House gives more than food
After Dave lost his job in Oregon, friends in Colorado Springs urged him to move his family here, saying how wonderful the area is. Dave, his wife and their four children boarded a Greyhound bus about two months ago and headed to Colorado.

Red Cross volunteer heeds the call of those in need
George Cary immerses himself in tragedies. As a volunteer with the American Red Cross, he’s helped untold numbers of people try to make sense of life again.

ESM helps pay rent after life upheaval
Katie appeared to have it all: four children, a marriage of 20-plus years and her own business. Her husband was earning a six-figure salary and retired with about $1 million. But he carried a secret she didn’t find out until several years later.

Mom says amen for help from church group
Stephanie and her son moved from Nashville, Tenn., to Colorado Springs in 2005 to start a new life with her fiance, a Fort Carson soldier who had just returned from Iraq. Shortly after the move, though, Stephanie’s fiance of three years abruptly left her, leaving the unemployed mom to fend for herself.

Catholic charities responds to woman's plight twice
When Bea became pregnant seven years ago with her first child, she didn’t know if she wanted to keep the baby. She sought help at Catholic Charities of Colorado Springs, where a counselor talked to her about raising the child herself or putting it up for adoption.

Peak vista helps family take care of 5 children
Jonathon works several jobs to support his family, but he can’t afford medical insurance for himself, his wife and their five children. The family turned to Peak Vista Community Health Centers, the largest provider of primary medical and dental care for low-income, uninsured working families in the Pikes Peak region.

While he sought a steady job, ESM was there
As a single dad, Brendon struggled to take care of his daughter and find a steady, good-paying job. He went on food stamps and turned to Ecumenical Social Ministries, a charity founded by a network of churches to care for low-income, homeless and unemployed families.

Tri-Lakes Cares steps up for family dealing with difficulties Sarah was a stay-at-home mom with four kids. She’d never worked at a job or paid bills. All that changed eight years ago when the family’s Ford Explorer slipped off its jack while her husband was changing a flat tire and came down on his head.

Peak Vista gives woman the treatment she needs
Terrie’s allergies became so severe a year ago that over-the-counter medicine didn’t help. “It was awful,” she said. “I had massive earaches all the time and sinus headaches. It was really, really bad. My eyes were swollen and red. I missed some work from it. I couldn’t afford to go to the doctor. I don’t have insurance.”

Single dad down on his luck gets helping hand from ESM
Caring for his five young children and suffering from bouts of depression made it hard for Robert to keep a job. Money dried up as the single father was in and out of work. He couldn’t come up with the money to pay rent in November for the family’s three bedroom apartment.

To give, try on jeans or buy a tree
Women know this well: Trying on jeans isn’t a ton of fun. But a Colorado Springs business has found a way to make the experience less painful by turning it into a fundraiser for local residents who need a little help this Christmas.

A hot meal by teens, for teens
Sunday dinner is in the hands of the Price boys. Travis, 17, does the main dish. Thomas, 14, whips up dessert. Every other Sunday the brothers make supper for as many as 20 homeless youth at Urban Peak.

Car crash left woman unable to pay bills
It took Diane years to ask for help. Her world unraveled shortly after a car crash in December 2000 that didn’t seem that bad at first. She went on about her day, dropping one of her children off at school and then going to work.

YMCA a sanity-saver for mom
Linda’s family lived in a motel room for several weeks after her husband was transferred to Fort Carson last year. She was in an unfamiliar city with two young girls. She needed to get out of that motel room, so she headed to the Southeast Family Center/Armed Services YMCA, which she heard about at the post.

Charity helps pay rent, bills
Dennis was hoping that his job at a construction outfit would get him and his family back on their feet. Before that Dennis was working for various contractors, some of whom did not pay him for his work. And to make up for those losses, he worked small jobs even though it wasn’t enough to make ends meet.

Chins Up helps family, girl get back on track
Kat had a drug problem by the time she was 13. Her mother and stepfather, Andrea and Llew, tried treatment and therapy. Kat got worse.

Salvation Army helps with food, housing — and renewing faith
Dottie Roza and her daughter arrived in Colorado Springs four years ago from Texas with pretty much nothing.

Silver Key lends a helping hand and an attentive ear
Sometimes Renate needs someone to talk with, so she calls Silver Key Senior Services. It’s better to call in the mornings, she said, before others start phoning and the line can get busy. And sometimes, Silver Key calls her first.

For family, YMCA is more than a gym
Dominique needed a kid-friendly place to work out because, to save money, she doesn’t put her 3-year-old son in child care.

Single mother gets some healing help
Michelle can’t use one arm after injuring it while at work. She can’t get even a parttime job until it heals, and she has survived for months on workers’ compensation.

‘Grandma Velma’ offers an ear to at-risk kids
Eighty-year-old Velma has somewhere to be four days a week — a youth detention center, where she volunteers for at-risk children. She helps the kids, who call her “Grandma Velma,” with their schoolwork and serves as a role model. Only her first name is being used for this article to protect her privacy.

Teen earns GED, gets job This teenager had nowhere to go. Again. Things weren’t working out in Texas, where she’d lived on her own since age 16 after being kicked out of the house after telling her parents she was a lesbian.

From ‘gates of hell’ to ‘gates of heaven'
When Gloria and Richard moved to Colorado Springs from Las Vegas a few months ago, they arrived in town with nothing more than the Ford Escort they were driving and some clothes in the back seat. At a friend’s suggestion, they moved to Colorado Springs and sought help from the Salvation Army, one of 14 nonprofit agencies that receive donations from The Gazette/El Pomar Foundation Empty Stocking Fund.

Care & Share helped family escape abuse
Patti didn’t have a job when she left her abusive husband, and she worried about how she’d feed her 8-year-old son and 13-year-old daughter. She’d spent the past four months volunteering at the Care & Share Food Bank, helping with a back-to-work program for domestic violence survivors.

Chins Up helps keep family together
Makaila spent a month in the hospital after she was born, detoxing from her heroin addiction. Her parents spent that month in hell. Her mother, Amber, locked herself in the bathroom and sobbed. Her father, Marc, slipped into depression.

Westside CARES is there for man through various ills
Joe was too sick to work shortly after moving from Las Vegas to Manitou Springs a year ago. The illnesses kept coming — liver cancer, melanoma, an abscessed tooth and high blood pressure — and he had no medical insurance, which made getting treatment difficult. With no car, he had a hard time just getting to a clinic. One of the agencies he went to for help was Westside CARES, which offers assistance to residents in west and southwest Colorado Springs from Rockrimmon to Stratmoor Valley to Green Mountain Falls.

Jobless mom gets hospital bill help
When the family-owned business Karen worked for went out of business in May, she did what any 59-year-old woman with two daughters at home would do: She went looking for another job. Karen got on unemployment to make ends meet until she found a job at a car dealership, but soon found out the company wanted her to work a 60-hour week that included Saturdays. Karen’s 20-year-old daughter, Katie, has autism and cerebral palsy and requires constant supervision. It just wasn’t possible.

In two years, everything has changed for woman
Two years ago, Maria, whose life had taken a nose dive, was interviewed for an Empty Stocking Fund story. She was depressed, alone, a school dropout — a 42-year-old unemployed single mother from the Bronx with nowhere to go. The Salvation Army’s New Hope Center had offered her a new start and a temporary place to live.

Woman finds a way to repay charity
Nearly two decades after being hurt in a car crash, Kristen remains in pain. A car T-boned hers, leaving her in a drug-induced coma for seven months. The long-term injuries include nerve damage in one arm, hip problems and a shoulder injury.