With rent and utility bills due, single mom Jessica Huddleston was at her wit’s end in August when her bank account was cleaned out by debit-card thieves. Thanks to an assist from the Season of Sharing, she and her young daughter were able to weather the crisis
SARASOTA — That panicky feeling you get when you’re at the checkout counter and you reach for your debit card and it’s not there, anywhere — that’s what happened to Jessica Huddleston in August.
She went online to check her account and nearly freaked. It had been cleaned out overnight. Some 10 transactions logged over 10 or 12 hours, multiple thieves cashing in, gas stations, two giant chain stores.
She called to have the card frozen, but the damage was done. It was the end of the month. Rent and utilities were due. She dialed 211 for information on whatever help anyone could give her, but those services were either booked up or the waiting lists were ridiculously long.
Huddleston contacted the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office Victim Assistance Unit, and was ultimately connected with emergency-fund remedies offered by Season of Sharing. Working through SOS network partner Goodwill Manasota, Huddleston was able to pay her bills to the tune of $594.50. Without that, she says, “I don’t know what I would’ve done.”
The best Huddleston can figure, she reckons she lost her card somewhere between her job at Sarasota Square Mall, where she works as cleaning manager, and her home in Venice. Security cameras recorded several illegal transactions with her card, and the video trail led to the arrests of two suspects, both with priors.
Huddleston, 27, is a single mom with a 7-year-old daughter. She lives from paycheck to paycheck. If the economy is booming, those Wall Street bulls have yet to kick any gold dust on her or her colleagues at the mall. Huddleston also is in recovery, which maybe gives her a few insights into the scofflaws who ripped her off.
“I kinda know how these people think. I don’t sympathize with them,” she says, “but I know they have a problem. And I hope that they get help.”
Hoping to turn her own mistakes into something positive, at about the same time she was going through the debit-card ordeal, Huddleston had coincidentally enrolled in an online victims’ advocacy course at Florida Gulf Coast University. Among the things she learned was that there were community safety nets out there for folks who fall on hard times. The Herald-Tribune’s Season of Sharing was one of many, but most uniquely positioned to keep the roof over her head.
For nearly 20 years, SOS — a partnership between the Community Foundation of Sarasota County, the Herald-Tribune and other media — has sought to head off homelessness for people faced with some sort of emergency and impending bills.
Since its founding in 2020, the numbers speak for themselves.
Donors, 68% of whom contribute $100 or less, have contributed more than $21 million into the campaign to alleviate short-term financial burdens for thousands of people in Sarasota, Manatee, DeSoto and Manatee counties. Resources are coordinated by more than 280 nonprofits.
Jessica Huddleston may be one more number, but all those numbers have faces.
Grateful for the boost, the Sarasota High grad hopes to pay it forward someday. She got her advocate certificate last week, and her goal is to put it to work.
“You can teach people what you’ve learned, but I can actually relate to someone who’s been in trouble,” Huddleston says. “I’d like to coach girls, and I really want to speak in the schools — that’s a dream of mine.
“I’ve just got to get connected with the right people.”
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November 24, 2019 at 06:13PM
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Season of Sharing helps single mom survive debit-card ripoff - Sarasota Herald-Tribune
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