Two Fridays ago on this newscast kidney patient and dialysis activist Jose Cruz appealed for help. Cruz, whose foot was recently amputated, is danger of losing his hands because of circulatory problems. And to save his hands, Cruz needs $15,000 for surgery in Guatemala. But in two weeks he has only raised $2,000 which means he still needs $13,000. The news tonight is that you can help Jose Cruz save his hand and it will cost you only a dollar. That is because a group called PROTO - People Reaching Out to Others - has launched a dollar drive. Mark Usher told us more.
Mark Usher, PROTO
“This afternoon over my lunch I went and got some used, you know the 5 gallon bottles, I got some that have holes in them that don’t hold water anymore and we are going to fix those up and we are going to drop off those as drop-in your dollar bottles at the different locations. And if anybody looks
at this report and wants to do the same thing where they work or where they are organization is, give me a call and we will be able to drop off a bottle and you fill it up and then we pass it on to Mr. Cruz. It is just $1, that’s all we ask.
I know recently a lot of the schools did what you call a rags day, they recently did it to help the Haiti victims and probably other fundraising. But that is a simple example where each child, anyone of the schools that we can get the principal to give us the permission, anyone of the schools through their student councils, it doesn’t have to be the teacher who does it or the principal, the student council can actually get out there and request that the class does a dollar drive where they don’t wear uniform for a day and they pay a dollar. That dollar will then be collected by members of the student council and then they can give any one of us in PROTO and we can come and pick up the donation and deposit it in the account.
For me Mr. Cruz just embodies the whole essence of the whole fighting spirit, the union spirit, and I just thought that me as a fighter and everybody else in the least, because I know recently did a lot of fundraising and people will probably say ‘not again’ and this and that but you know what, you can never run out of energy and time to help someone because at the end of the day it could be you.”
If you want a drop off bottle in your place of business – you can contact Mark Usher at 610-0363. He says they hope to have a fixed line by Monday and they may even have a telethon.
