A veteran and single mother will celebrate the holidays with her four children at the Salvation Army’s homeless shelter.
Adriane Mayfield is an honorably discharged United States Army veteran and single mother of four children ages 2, 4, 6 and 7.
Mayfield served for seven years and started suffering from PTSD and seizures about two years ago.
“I lost my job, my car and my house because of it,” Mayfield said. “Since then, all of my stuff was left in my house, I was evicted while I was in the hospital and basically I had to start over from scratch and not being able to get a job because of my seizures… It’s kind of hard.”
Mayfield said the Salvation Army is helping her work toward finding a more permanent place.
“It’s a really good program, it’s the only program I know of that will take a person in my situation,” Mayfield said. “Most of the veterans program are designated for single mothers or fathers that have two or less children. Being that I have four children, the disabled homes really won’t take me because they have a two kid per room limit. So it’s a lot harder for a person like me to find help and not really knowing where to go from here.”
Mayfield said she’s working on getting social security cards, birth certificate and other necessary items.
“I’m working on it, I already have gotten proof for HUD-VASH housing,” Mayfield said. “I’m trying to work on having a significant income because you have to be able to afford utilities in order to get a place. So I’m trying to piece everything together to get things rolling on that.”
Mayfield said the Salvation Army offers a program that helps families like hers enjoy Christmas.
“People donated so many different gifts,” Mayfield said. “They had a whole layout that you can go through, it was organized by age group and female and male. It was pretty nice and the kids got a nice variety of things that I think they’ll enjoy since we didn’t have the opportunity to get them from anywhere else.”
The Red Kettle Campaign fundraiser to benefit the Salvation Army is still underway. As of Monday morning bell ringers raised around 50-percent of its $349,000 2016 goal. Funds raised help to sustain operations for the entire year.