The "Helper" now needs your help to survive!

Have you heard that saying, no good deed goes unpunished? I'm living that now, as a couple of the homeless people I gave rooms to are not treating my home well -- I can't even keep up with the mess, the breakage, and the problems. The problems I was helping them get through were at an end, and the family members they were helping us with have died, but even though I gave them an adequate time to move, and a legal notice, they have dug in, and even called the police when I looked in one of their rooms -- filled with debris!. i can literally hear furniture being thrown at night! So now I'm faced with new costs, repairing broken equipment, replacing stolen objects, and trying to hire someone to remove them legally and safely from my home so I can have a family of caregivers move in. Yes, now I need my own caregivers. I'm still working, but I'm having more trouble walking and have to be helped in and out of bed so I won't fall. It's not safe for me to be alone at night but the new family won't move in while these now unwelcome non-paying guests are here. So once again, since it costs money for an eviction lawyer, I am asking for help.

I'm Sharon, and for most of my life, I've been the "helper." And now I need help to survive, to live here peacefully myself until I die. When I started this fundraiser, I was caring for my husband Tosh and my friend Darlene. I had helpers living here free of charge to help me -- some of whom would have otherwise been homeless -- and was trying to feed everyone, fix this old house so we didn't have to climb stairs and keep the sign business Tosh had started 70 years ago alive. Sadly, Tosh and Darlene died unexpectedly within a week of each other. Since then, things have gotten worse, and I'm sorry to say, we still need help here. I am so grateful for everyone! Here is my story -- a little different now with the deaths of Tosh and Darlene:

Even as a young child and grade school and high school student, I was constantly on the lookout for ways to help others and organize children's groups like summer reading programs and 4-H clubs. After winning a trip to the United Nations, I organized children in our town to collect for UNICEF at Halloween and then thanked them with a party where I provided all the games, prizes, and treats. I also entered a contest sponsored by President Eisenhower for disabled veterans, which I won, and after traveling to Washington, became active in the field of disability. Even though my first child was born with multiple disabilities, I then, named Sharon Sircello, with my first husband, took four abandoned children into our little apartment in New York City to raise as our own family (initially with the help of some foster care funds). Our family grew and we moved to Portland, where I volunteered to teach adults to read, and eventually, through a Poverty Grant, organized and directed a city-wide literacy program, which became the official Multnomah Literacy Program. For that work, I was chosen as the youngest over "Portland Woman of Accomplishment" in 1965. We then moved to Irvine, where my husband became a professor at the new University of California at Irvine. I sprang into action, helping to organize many things in the community for children and adults, becoming the first President of the Homeowners Association, and a member of the first Irvine Unified School District. I also organized the first city-wide recreation program for the City of Irvine and served as a Community Services Commissioner. With the advent of the Americans with Disabilities Act, and after a second marriage to Tosh Toji, which brought me from teaching and organizing performing arts activities and arts after-school programs for children and young people in the community into the signage industry, I was appointed nationally to the Disabled Access Committee of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) in 1992. That is a very time-consuming, but volunteer position and I am now the oldest and one of the longest-serving members of that Committee. Until COVID, it also meant spending a lot of personal funds traveling to Washington DC for meetings. I currently represent, as a volunteer, the Hearing Loss Association of America.

I have continued to help out here in Irvine, opening up vacant rooms in our home to some people who would otherwise be homeless. They helped with our caregiving tasks for my husband of 42 years, Tosh Toji and one housemate, who came to us five years ago after being evicted.

So I need help. Because Tosh was not able to supervise the sign business closely, it has been neglected,, and I could lose the house. I am currently working many hours a day just trying to save the business he started 70 years ago after he was released from Manzanar.

I have been here for more than 57 years (I am now 88), working hard most days of my life, even as a teenager, and using much of my time to help others. The "helper" needs your help! Thank you!