Our Artisans in Crisis, What it means.

I'm sure you have noticed the "Donate to our Artisans in crisis" button and have wondered what it's about.

Here is what is going on...

In early 2010 my sister and stepfather and I lost our jobs (we all worked in different companies). Even though I don't share the same roof as my sister, mother and stepfather, it was devastating none the less. We are a very close family, and are used to supporting each other through rough times. However, how do you do that when everyone has fallen on rough times at the same time?



My stepfather had worked in the same factory for 25 years. It was a hot, rough, labor intense job, but it paid the bills and more. He was the main 'bread winner' in the house, and the majority of the larger bills were paid by his income. One day, he went into work to be told the new owners of the company, overseas investors that had purchased the company less then 2 years ago, have decided to shut the plant down and move the manufacturing overseas. That was bad enough but then my sister, Crystal (shown below, and the photographer and graphic artist behind our 'Serenity Shots' and logos), got sick.

She had kidney stones which caused her immense pain when she moved, stabbing pain in her lower back, and an inability to work for weeks at a time due to the symptoms. The doctors did what they could to get her back on her feet quickly, but just as she was starting to recover she was forced to quit her job. Another income was lost in the house. As if this wasn't bad enough, she ended up with gall stones the size of shooter marbles, making her incredibly sick again. Over several more weeks, she was in and out of the hospital until they were able to schedule a surgery to completely remove her gall bladder.

It was a wreck of a time, but we are all resilient and made it through with our creativity intact.

My parent's home was down to one part time income. My mother (shown on the left, and the creator of many of our beautiful pieces including the guardian heart necklace and dragonfly earrings), whom suffers from a chronic pain syndrome, was forced to pick up extra shift which caused her daily pain to increase. The woman is amazing, and she's endured with very little complaining.

Why doesn't the step dad get work you ask? The same reason I, myself have had a hard time finding a permanent "9 to 5", the economy in our area is exceedingly poor. A position I applied for at one point had 1200 (that's right twelve HUNDRED) applicants. I know this because I saw them at the 'job fair' they held. There was a 6 hour wait just to fill out the application paperwork. Add to this the fact that my step dad, ironically, also suffers from a chronic pain disorder. One that has symptoms much more severe than my mom's. Finding someone hiring is tough enough, finding someone that will hire you with a multitude of health issues is more than a challenge.

Couldn't get worse right? Well, tell that to my mom! Two months ago she was pulled into a meeting at work with her bosses and co-workers. They are selling the company she works for, and outsourcing the jobs. She's loosing her job too. They will bring in nurses from another state to replace her. She'll get unemployment if she can't find another position before they close, but she will get 50% of her part time wages. It's not enough.

Whats worse than all this? Add a sewer line break. That is what happened 2 weeks after my mom found out she was loosing her job. The pipes in the city are old and not maintained, and the one on my parent's property broke. She woke up to find the basement flooded with raw sewage. It had backed up from the street, and was burbling up from the drain in the floor (covered by plywood in this post repair picture, to keep down the smell). 3 to 4 inches of smelly, nasty, hazardous water and muck coated all of the laundry area, and was flowing into the carpeting covering the majority of the basement floor. The city was notified, and took 10 days to respond with a crew to fix it. And only after my parents went without running water for 10 days, and paid to have someone come out and diagnose the obvious problem on a holiday weekend. They were then told they had to also pay for half the repair bill (due to multiple breaks in the line) and all of the 7 tons of stone needed to fill the repair holes. Not cheap, let me tell you!

They had insurance. It was the one bright spot we thought would come through. However, when the insurance adjuster wrote out a check on site after seeing the damage, with the statement "I'm sorry. I'm giving you the maximum that the policy will allow, but you have significantly more damage than this amount will cover. Good luck." we knew it was going to be bad.

Here is the bottom line... they don't have enough to cover the professional cleaning and disinfecting that has to be done, and have the walls repaired, and drywall and carpeting removed and replaced, not on one part time income, unemployment, and a "significantly less" insurance check. As their daughter, and co-owner of Serenity in Chains, I am contributing as much as I can to help them get the mess cleaned up. However, hours of bleaching and scrubbing, and removing years worth of memories and other stored items isn't enough (you can see in the photos on the walls where the water lines are, even after we cleaned). There is to much damage and not enough capable people, or the right equipment to do the job properly. The health risk are growing from bacteria that came in from the sewage.

We can't move product fast enough to raise the $6,000 they really need to get the job done. So we are accepting donations on our blog via the Paypal. Anything helps. All donations are going directly to them for the clean up crisis. The money will be used to hire a professional crew to come in and do a hazardous waste cleanup, seal the basement, repair the walls, remove and replace damaged drywall, and remove the carpeting (it will only be replaced is the funds are available to do so).