Col#256-9/6/25
SAVE A LIFE
By
Richard Davis
The Windham County Heat Fund is presenting a concert on Sunday, September 14 at 7:00 p.m. at the Heart Rose Club (formerly Shriners’ Hall), 11 Green Street in Brattleboro. It might seem that the title for our event is an exaggeration, but it is not.
Earlier this year Trump fired all of the people who administer the funds for the federal Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP). The funds, about four billion dollars, were thought to be available but there will be no one to administer them. I have contacted state and federal officials and no one knows what the status of the LIHEAP program is.
Our local heat fund has operated for over 20 years to supplement the funds that people receive through LIHEAP and when we learned of the possibility that there will be no federal fuel assistance we decided to do something about it.
In a normal year the heat fund tries to raise $50,000 and we always use every penny raised to pay for all kinds of fuel. When we realized the impending fuel assistance disaster we submitted a grant to the Thomas Thompson Trust. They have helped us a number of times over the years and we have not applied for grants recently because we have been able to meet our goals without their assistance.
When the trust realized how bad things could be they gave the heat fund a $20,000 matching grant. We created a Go Fund Me Page with a goal of $100,000 and every dollar raised of the first $20,000 will be matched by the Thompson Trust.
When we heard about the possible loss of federal fuel assistance we put together a concert to raise awareness of our Go Fund Me Page. It is our hope that attendance will be good at the event and everyone who shows up will spread the word about our efforts.
The possibility exists that there will be a last minute change in Trump’s attitude toward vulnerable Americans and he will rehire people to distribute LIHEAP funds. Don’t hold your breath.
Having provided fuel assistance to people in Windham County for over 20 years we know how reliant people are on federal fuel assistance. Vermont received about $21 million in LIHEAP funding last year and my rough estimate indicates that Windham County will see about a one million dollar shortfall.
If people apply for fuel assistance, as they do every year, and are told no funds are available what will they do? Some people will freeze to death and many people will suffer through a winter like they have never suffered before.
I want to believe that the state of Vermont will be proactive, but I have not been able to get an answer from the number of officials I have contacted. The only concrete answer I got was from Senator Welch’s office and they confirmed what I already knew. I was not comforted when they asked me to let them know if I find out anything new because I seemed to know more than they did.
Come to the concert on September 14 and donate to our Go Fund Me Page at:
https://www.gofundme.com/f/windham-county-heat-fund
Admission is by voluntary donation. The lineup of performers include Daniel Kasnitz, Jennie Reichman, Duane Young, Stan Davis and the trio of Patty Carpenter, Jeremy Gold and Verandah Porche. For more information contact me at wcheatfund@comcast.net.
