(Editor’s note: The names of the individuals appearing in this
story were changed to protect their identity.)

When a family needs help getting by during an illness, “an elf”
can become as big as Santa Claus.

Last year, that’s what one family found out when using The Era’s
Less Fortunate (ELF) Fund, and this year, before financial help can
be obtained, they’re looking for Santa to come again through the
ELF Fund.

Jerry and Danielle Carter were reluctant at first to use the ELF
Fund, but with Jerry Carter sick and unable to work, they really
didn’t have a choice.

Danielle Carter said when her husband got sick last year he was
started on oxygen 24 hours a day, seven days a week as well as
having a lot of other problems for which he needed a lot of
medications.

“He can’t go outside when it’s cold because of his lungs,”
Danielle Carter said. “He feels like he’s in jail. It’s just
killing him. He used to be the bread winner, but now he has no
income at all. (With the amount of money he was making), I didn’t
have to work. So when he got sick, we lost everything.”

She said the state stepped in to help them with the cost of
medication and doctor’s appointments. The family filed for
bankruptcy and started renting. Danielle Carter also had to find a
job, but that didn’t guarantee the family would make enough money
to get by.

“I only make about $800 a month,” she said. “First, I had to
find a job, though.”

Danielle Carter said she used to pick up an ELF Fund tag to help
out in previous years, but she never thought about getting help
from the program when they had financial difficulties.

“We went from helping people to people helping us,” Danielle
Carter said. “It hurts that I can’t pick up (an ELF Fund) tag and
buy one for the kids. We were the kind of people who were brought
up to be independent. We read about the ELF Fund in the paper, but
we thought we could take care of ourselves.”

Jerry Carter applied for Social Security after he got sick and
couldn’t work, but the doctor forgot to put he was on oxygen on the
application so he had to wait until the Social Security office got
caught up with backlogged work before he could get approved under a
new application.

“The deadline for the (ELF Fund) applications to be in passed,
and we thought we should have signed up,” Danielle Carter said.
“When you have everything and it gets pulled away from you, you
have to swallow your pride and think of the kids. I went on the ELF
Fund Web site and e-mailed Chris (Minich) and Art (Steinhauer), and
they knew how hard it was for us to ask for help.”

The family was accepted under the ELF Fund despite the passing
deadline, and they worked through it discreetly so their children
would be surprised on Christmas.

“It was the best Christmas ever,” Danielle Carter said. “I
couldn’t believe the gifts we got last year. Our kids really
believed that Santa Claus came. It shocked us. I was crying when
the kids came down (and saw all the gifts) last year.”

Danielle Carter said James Carter, her 14-year-old son, knew the
family had no money and asked to go without gifts last year, adding
that the money be spent on his 5-year-old sister, Charlotte.
Danielle Carter said they even had James Carter believing that
Santa came.

“It’s hard on the kids, (but) we found out we brought our kids
up right,” Danielle Carter said. “We just want people to know how
great the ELF Fund is. The ELF Fund helped us out for the two years
we desperately needed it.”

This year, the family is asking for a new computer since they’ve
been having problems with the one they have.

“It’s all (my husband) has to do (since he’s sick), and the kids
need it for homework,” Danielle Carter said.

She also said the children could use a membership to the
Bradford Family YMCA or movie passes so they can get out more and
get involved with other children. She said Charlotte likes the
Bratz dolls, and James likes CDs and computer games.

Danielle Carter said she was very grateful there is such a thing
as the ELF Fund.

“I hope it goes on for years to help people,” she said. “I don’t
want to see it stop. My (daughter) wouldn’t believe in Santa (if it
wasn’t for the ELF Fund. They) go out of their way to help the
kids.”

She said she heard people mention that $30 is too much to spend
on a child, but she said those people haven’t seen the children’s
faces when they get the gifts.

“When you don’t need help, you don’t realize what these
charities do for people,” Danielle Carter said. “You don’t realize
what the other person’s going through.”

She added that she hopes the people that will be donating to the
ELF Fund to help her family have as good a Christmas as her
family’s and that their children’s Christmas is as good as
hers.

Danielle Carter said she is pretty sure her husband will get the
financial help they need from Social Security in the near future
with the new application. When they do, they plan not to forget who
helped them in their time of need.

“Next year, we want to help two families like us through the ELF
Fund,” Danielle Carter said. “We want to help people in the same
boat as us – the people that didn’t want to (ask for help) but did
anyway. Everything (the ELF Fund has) done for us we want to do to
make sure someone else gets it.”