“Do your little bit of good where you are; it’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.” – Archbishop Desmond Tutu
By putting our “little bits of good” together, St. Mary’s was able to abolish over $768,000 in medical debt for Oregonians! This good news story began in the fall when St. Mary’s Outreach Council brought forward a new proposal: to spend $5,000 of our outreach allocation funds to buy medical debt for pennies on the dollar and then forgive that debt, working through the non-profit RIP Medical Debt. At that time, it was estimated that our donation would enable us to forgive about $450,000 in medical debt. We surveyed the parish and received enthusiastic support to proceed.
This month we received a detailed report from RIP Medical Debt on what our $5,000 donation accomplished. In total, we abolished $768,050.23 of medical debt for 220 families across Oregon! A county by county breakdown is attached.
On average, $3,491.14 was abolished per individual! To quote RIP Medical Debt’s letter to us “Your church's contribution is truly such a life changing gift for these individuals and we're so grateful for your efforts!” Every person who had their debt abolished by our donation received a letter informing them that their debt had been paid by St. Mary’s. These letters have an enormous impact. If you visit RIP Medical Debt’s website, you can read stories from people who had their debt abolished through donations like ours. Here is one such story:
I would like to express my gratitude to your organization. I was going through the worst year of my life when this letter showed up. I found a little hope through the darkness. This act of kindness has given me strength and raised me up. Thank you I cannot express my gratitude. God Bless. –A.S.
Thank you for coming together and making a difference in the lives of our neighbors.
