Helping hand

When they first got the call from Patricia Gibson, Michael and  Yolanda Fletcher were truly skeptical.
“I didn’t believe it,” said  Michael. “I thought it was one of those things where people get you to  invest money in something. There’s a lot of that around here, especially  to military members. They want you to invest in their organization. We  get that so often.”
But the call the Maryland-based couple got from  the Legacy Ladies Inc. was indeed very serious. And what convinced the  couple was looking at the organization’s web site to see what they had  done for the three other families the group had assisted.
The Los  Angeles-area nonprofit organization had researched the Fletchers and  determined that the young military couple could benefit from assistance  through the group’s Adopt-A-Family program.
“Because our organization  is so small, we wanted to focus on one family and one individual at a  time. We felt that was a great way to make an impact–to work with one  family, support the parents as well as the children. That way the  outreach could be much greater,” explained Jacqueline Castillo, founder  and president of the four-year-old organization.
What made Legacy  Ladies select the Fletchers to help was in part the group’s desire to  help a military family. They were also impressed by the spirit,  character and inspiration the couple gave to others despite their own  very trying situation.
Michael, 23, and Yolanda, 26, first met when  they were stationed in Alaska in the Air Force.
“They called her Ms.  99 in the squadron because she was the only one to score a 99 on the  test,” explained Michael. “I wasn’t dumb but I needed someone to help me  study, and I thought who but the best. I studied with her, and I made a  97 on the test. I took her out to dinner to celebrate, and from then on  it was just us.”
The two married and while they were still  newlyweds, Michael, who was a military policeman (as was Yolanda), was  shipped out to Iraq. In 2005, the military humvee he was in flipped over  and the first roll ripped off his arm, said Castillo. “On the second  roll it crushed his face–the whole midsection. His teeth were  destroyed.”
As a result of the accident, Michael lost an eye, and arm  and his nose. At the time, medical personnel gave him only 21 hours to  live, and they had to resuscitate him twice because of the blood gushing  from his severed arm, recounted Castillo.
But Michael was not ready  to die, and through sheer strength of will that he calls a blessing from  God, and the surgeons at Walter Reed hospital, he survived. In the  process, he made medical history, because instead of getting the  customary prosthetic nose, he was determined for his son’s sake, to have  a nose reconstructed of skin and cartilage from his body.
A team of  40 surgeons, working 40 hours and performed six surgeries to rebuild his  nose.
In order to take care of her husband, Yolanda, who was six  month pregnant when the accident happened, asked for a discharge from  the military after serving only two years of her three-year commitment.
It  would take nearly eight months (Aug. 2005 to April 2006) for Michael to  recover, and during that time all his bills went into collections.  “When I got hurt, it was hard for (Yolanda) to take care of my finances,  because we had just gotten married, and she didn’t know much about  them,” Michael said. “There was so much treatment and therapy I went  through that I forgot about some things. . . Everything started to pile  up, and when I saw it was so much, I said how can we even come close to  paying so much?”
That was where the Legacy Ladies stepped in. After  researching and talking with the couple. Castillo and Gibson flew out to  meet them and get a sense of what their needs were. Then the group went  to work.
Castillo said they gave the young couple a more fuel  efficient car to use in place of the gas guzzling SUV they had; gave  them the keys to a house, where the rent would be paid for a year, and  convinced Dale Carnegie to offer Michael a scholarship.
“At an awards  ceremony, they said everything they were going to do on stage, and I  almost choked up. I fought the tears,” remembers Michael. “I was so  overwhelmed. I haven’t felt that way since I was in middle school, did a  play and got a standing ovation.”
Castillo also urged Yolanda to  write a letter of appeal about her own educational situation. She had  been denied her educational benefits, and said she was told she could  have been discharged as a hardship case.
“I did serve two years in  the military, and I got out because Michael was hurt. I had invested in  the Montgomery G.I. Bill but since I got out at the two year mark  instead of three years, they wouldn’t help me with school,” explained  Yolanda, who said she also lost all the money she had invested from her  own salary to pay for school.
Currently the fees for her classes at  the University of Maryland comes from the family budget, and the Legacy  Ladies are looking to help with that, if the appeal of her benefits  denial is unsuccessful.
The organization will assist the Fletchers  for a year, and the goal is to help them become self sufficient.
Castillo  said the ability to help families like the Fletchers is made possible  because of their major corporate partners like United Parcel Service  (UPS) and Walt Disney Company; through the contributions from members,  and because of the annual fundraiser they hold.
“We focus on African  American families, because if we can’t help one another, who can we  help?” asked Castillo.