Keep Linda Plumlee Safely Housed Through College

Article Link TL:DR- The following linked article features my adopted niece, Linda Plumlee. “https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-09-14/rural-california-high-school-students-disadvantaged-aces”.

This fundraiser is for her future.

Linda Plumlee of Alturas, in Modoc county Ca, has been a homeless emancipated minor since she was 15 years old. Linda has earned her way to UC Berkeley and has had to leave her 'village' behind.

After couch-surfing through highschool getting into college was revelatory. “College for four years — that means a stable place for four years,” she said. “I’m not moving for four years!”

She is double majoring in Marine Biology and Psychology. While Linda has never lived near an ocean, she has expressed “…I’ve always felt very drawn to the ocean. There’s so much unknown about it.”

Being the resilient and independent young woman she is, she is often reluctant to reach out or ask for assistance.

Due to impacted Berkeley dorm housing Linda has indicated that the university does not typically offer dorm-living beyond Freshman year. Linda will need housing through school not having any family in her immediate area. Despite her tremendous scholarship accomplishments life requires funds: new glasses, dentistry, medicine, books, food, utilities. The risk that she may be forced to sacrifice academic achievement and her health attempting to support herself through the next 3 years of intensive college study is a worry.

As well, Linda’s scholarships are dependent on her academic performance and by all means necessary I (read below for more details if so desired) mean to find a way to help keep her safe and securely housed so she can prioritize studying.

Thank you for caring about disadvantaged kids!

-c

More:

My name is Chari Pavlos (Public Health RN, BSN, Home Health RN Case Manager, Diabetes Educator, Type1 Diabetic, and proud “Auntie”), my Dad was Andrew D. Pavlos, owner of small business “Handy Home Services” and Linda’s “Papa” in Alturas, Ca.

Dad used to say Linda was “the kid I got to watch grow up” with great pride. We lost him to prostate cancer in 2019 at only 68 years old as Linda was trying to finish 8th grade. I lived thousands of miles away and for Linda, Alturas was her home. Through a series of discordant events after Dad's death Linda found herself homeless through high school.

“She’s SO smart,” he’d always say with awe and warmth, “she has SO much potential!”

Dad was the son of Greek immigrants with grade-school educations. He grew up on a 5 acre chicken farm in Roseland, outside of Santa Rosa, Ca. He was a high school graduate. Dad never had any interest concerning his own kids going to college (some of us found a way nonetheless in time) but with Linda his perspective altered.

Linda has always emphatically asserted college was her goal after high school. I think Dad meant to help her get there by any means necessary. He worked through 2 years of cancer treatments and surgeries until 2 months prior to his death. He was her household’s primary income earner. He was unable to secure Linda life insurance benefits with his cancer diagnosis discovered and was in bankruptcy at the time he passed due to healthcare costs.

Even after everything heaped upon her after her Papa's death, Linda certainly wasn't going to let go of her dreams without a fight.

She's tougher than nails, that one.

(Aside: Linda got second degree burns to her feet at the senior celebration the day before she walked with her class. (We've talked about the importance of sunscreen :) it was an accident) Despite the beating her feet took from the sun, she walked with poise and great grace onto that stage for her diploma. I'd honestly expect no less from her.)

Personal and professional experience teaches me that generational poverty and financial barriers to education perpetuate destructive cycles and are not easy to scale, especially alone. These barriers indeed take a village to overcome and I am grateful to the people of Alturas for being that village for Linda through her high school career. Service to eachother and to our community is a core value Linda and I share with the people of Alturas.

Now I'm endeavoring to build a broader village for Linda to help continue the support of her efforts through college. She earned her way against so many odds not just to college but to UC Berkeley. Earned her way to scholarships, to a chance to reach her full potential despite poverty, despite adversity, despite loss. I'm determined that her human potential will not be limited by her or her family's financial status.

Her Papa was no perfect human but he provided what he knew how to provide and he did it with pride and integrity. Even if he didn't know how to do the dishes, how to remember to say "I love you and I'm proud of you" or even how to stop talking about work long enough for anyone else to have an opinion, he believed as a core value that children should have homes. In turn for a time he got to see Linda begin to sprout and bloom and play and learn and begin to grow into the amazing human that she always was.

My generation is the first in my immediate family to have college graduates and our generation will not be the last. But we’re still rising up through our challenges individually. And this is why I'm reaching out to my community now: to ask for help.

Help for Linda and all the others who will rise with her as she rises, including the turtles she has helped to cross the road.

In honor of her Papa who took her in because it was the right thing to do. Because it is as important sometimes to offer help as it is to ask for it.

If you've read this far, thank you.

May the road rise up to meet you. May the wind be at your back.

Always,

-chari