Joe and Paula Smith spend their lives helping people in need and sometimes they get help from Neediest Cases.
The fund assisted a single mom with an intellectual disability to keep her home. The Smiths helped the woman keep her son.
“We don’t really know what another person is going through all the time,” Joe Smith said. “We might see a person begging on the street. But we don’t know why they’re there. We don’t know their story.”
Smith is among dozens of local caseworkers who have referred clients to the Neediest Cases Fund when they had no place else to turn.
Chattanooga Times Publisher Adolph Ochs started the fund in 1914 to help local people. The newspaper publishes stories highlighting the needs of residents and readers respond with financial contributions to meet those needs.