Everyone on my mailing list,

I sincerely hope you will read this email in its entirety. Normally
it's not my style to hit people up for charities because we all have
a different soft spot for various social concerns. However, in this
case it's hard for me to imagine not being affected by the following
story (from the website of KXTV channel 10 in Sacramento).


"Sheriff's investigators in Carson City are gathering evidence
against three people charged in what deputies say is the worst case of
child neglect they have ever seen.

A 16-year-old girl said she escaped from her family's apartment where
she and her little brother had been imprisoned for five years. When
deputies found the girl Thursday, she was pushing a shopping cart and
weighed just 40 pounds. She told investigators she was running away.
Investigators then went to her apartment and found her 11-year-old
brother hidden under a bed. He weighed just 30 pounds, about the weight
of an average 3-year-old. They were taken to a local hospital.

Carson City sheriff's deputies arrested the children's mother,
33-year-old Regina Rios, their 33-year-old stepfather Tomas Granados,
and their 56-year-old grandmother Esther Rios. They have been booked on
suspicion of felony child abuse. Three other siblings, ages 9, 12 and
17, appeared to be well cared for but were taken into protective
custody.

The girl told authorities she and her brother had been sleeping in the
master suite's bathroom cabinet for years and that her grandmother had
beaten her and withheld food after she and the boy had been caught
talking last month.

The two children reportedly were given only bologna to eat.
Investigators' photographs of the apartment's refrigerator show it was
stocked with a variety of food.

A pediatrician at Carson Tahoe Medical Center said the children remind
her of concentration camp survivors. "When I see pictures of the
holocaust, this is exactly what these children look like," said Dr.
Kathi Amrhein. Both children are expected to remain in the hospital for
several weeks under a controlled feeding program to gradually increase
their weight."


After reading about this case I decided to call the Carson City, NV
child welfare services to find out how a person could make a donation
to the children mentioned in the story. I was directed to the Carson
City Sheriff's department (775-887-2500) where I was told the
department did indeed have a fund set up to help pay for the
children's medical, educational and basic needs. It is aptly named
The Second Chance Fund and the Bank of America account number is
005011351167. You can go to any Bank of America location and give a
teller the name of the fund and account number and they will verify
that any deposits will go to those children. You can also mail
donations directly to the following address:

Second Chance Fund
c/o Carson City Sheriff's Protective Association
901 E. Musser St..
Carson City NV 89701

Gifts for the children may be sent to:

Division of Child and Family Services
Attention: Crystal Main
1572 E. College Parkway
No. 161
Carson City, NV 89706

If you made it this far into this email I hope you will help these
kids get their "second chance", but you don't need to reply and
give me any details about whatever you decide to do. I'm not doing
this for a pat on the back or public recognition, and I don't think
any of my friends would either. And if you want to help but don't
feel you're in a good financial position to do so then perhaps you
can just pass this along to someone else that you know so that they
might be able to.

Like I said at the opening of this email, I don't normally do this
sort of thing. I don't want my friends to think I will be routinely
spamming them with emails of this nature. Terrible things happen
throughout the world every day. But this story touched me even more
deeply than most, and I'm encouraged to know that there's still
hope for these kids.

Thanks for your time and consideration.

-Paul Thomas

wrote:
Everyone on my mailing list,

Paul, don't think I am on your mailing list, but thank you for bringing
this to my attention. I am always shocked that someone could do this to
another human being, let alone their own children. I hope they lock
those 3 up for good, and let em' starve for a while, too.

Anyway I sent some money with hope the kids survive this ok.

This is a daily occurrence. It isn't abnormal. There are hundreds of
thousands of people who should NOT have children and do. Yesterday it was
the mother of 14 children, pregnant with another.. tomorrow it will be
someone else. Give what you can but the problem is extensive.