For the past 30 years, The Palm Beach Post has rung in the holiday season with a call to readers to help their neighbors whose lives have been thrown into chaos, by the unexpected.
“You make your world richer by making their world better. You can offer them Hope.”
The Post’s readers have always heeded that call and done so generously. The Season to Share project has raised more than $17.5 million for needy families and individuals in Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast since its inception.
This year, the Post’s staff writers and photographers we will introduce you to 8 more families and individuals who need your help.
We look forward to sharing their stories and also the stories of how the community — that is, you — gives back.
How Season to Share charity works
All Season to Share donations, which are made via the Community Foundation of Palm Beach and Martin Counties website, go to helping nominees via their nominating agencies. Once the nominees’ needs are met, the charitable agencies can use the funds to assist other needy families within their agencies. Season to Share funds are not to be used by the agencies for administrative purposes.
The reader-donated funds are managed and distributed to the agencies by the Community Foundation of Palm Beach and Martin counties, a respected philanthropic presence for more than 50 years.
Here are the 2025 Season to Share nominees.
Nominee: Jose Estrada – Belle Glade farmworker living in shed without electricity needs your help
One day last year, Jose Estrada woke up at 6 a.m. to head to the vegetable packing company where he had worked 10-hour shifts, six days a week for the last decade. But that morning, his legs felt stiff.
Estrada leaned on his left foot to get up but fell. He felt dizzy and his head was pounding, but he crawled out of his RV where a neighbor spotted him and rushed him to a hospital.
When Estrada woke, the left side of his body was paralyzed.
Read more on Jose Estrada.
Jose Estrada’s Wish
After suffering a stroke that paralyzed the left side of his body, Jose Estrada is on the verge of homelessness and needs a safe place to live, said The Glades Initiative, the nonprofit that is helping provide for him. Estrada lives in a tool shed he helped build years ago in the back of an RV park because he’s not been able to afford rent. The shed in Belle Glade is without electricity and water. The Glades Initiative said is seeking $13,000, enough money to cover a year of rent. They are also asking for $6,000 to secure transportation that can reliably take him to his medical appointments to treat the underlying conditions from the stroke that left him without strength on the left side of his body and unable to walk without a cane.
Nominating agency: The Glades Initiative
How to donate
To make a donation online, please click the DONATE button below and follow the instructions on the Community Foundation’s page.
Season to Share nominee: Estrada Donation
Nominee: Ella Frank – Parents are teen’s lifeline, but transport to medical care faltering
Most days, 15-year-old Ella Frank lights up her family’s living room with a quiet joy. Her fingernails are painted yellow, her hair clipped back with purple barrettes and small flower-shaped earrings glimmer beside her smile. She can’t say much, but her laughter fills the space between her parents, Amy and Tim, who have built their lives around that sound.
Ella was born healthy, her parents say, and for the first year of her life, she hit every milestone. But around 15 months, she began losing some of the skills she’d just learned — simple words, small movements, the ability to feed herself. Doctors eventually diagnosed her with Rett syndrome, a rare neurological disorder that affects about one in 10,000 girls.
The diagnosis changed everything.
Read more on Ella Frank.
Ella Frank’s wish
Fifteen-year-old Ella Frank has Rett syndrome, a rare genetic disorder that affects brain development but not Ella’s awareness of her surroundings. She can communicate through eye gaze, but is reliant on her parents, Tim and Amy, for her daily care from getting her in and out of bed to dressing and feeding her. While they’ve gotten some relief in covering some medical costs, Tim Frank recently lost his job, and the wheelchair-accessible van they use daily to get Ella to and from therapists and specialists from here to Miami is more than a decade old and beginning to break down. The Franks are asking for $65,000-$75,000 to purchase and convert a wheelchair-accessible van.
Nominating agency: Bella’s Angels, Inc.
How to donate
To make a donation online, please click the DONATE button below and follow the instructions on the Community Foundation’s page.
Season to Share Ella Frank donation
Nominee: Ashaki Sypher – Baby’s brain trauma lay hidden for months; Struggles persist 16 years on
Sometime in the womb, or shortly before birth, or possibly soon after Brooklyn Brewton came into the world as Ashaki Sypher’s fourth child, the white matter in her brain was injured, millions of bundles of nerve fibers damaged.
The invisible trauma left communication gaps between cells, the spinal cord and from one part of the brain to the other. It means muscles can be tight, sometimes spastic, always weak.
But the signs aren’t usually visible in the early days of a child’s life, and it wasn’t until Brooklyn was about six months old that Sypher, 49, noticed something was off.
Her baby, could sit up, hold her bottle, but then she would slouch.
Read more on Ashaki Sypher.
Ashaki Sypher’s wish
Ashaki Sypher is a single mom caring for 16-year-old daughter Brooklyn, who was born with a brain injury and suffers multiple other medical challenges that prevent her from walking, talking or living without assistance. Although Sypher works full time and has insurance, she falls through the cracks when it comes to aid programs and doesn’t make enough to cover all of her daughter’s medical costs. Roughly $40,000 in donations would cover rent for a year and help Sypher catch up on bills, giving the mother an opportunity to create a small savings she could build on for herself and her daughter.
Nominating agency: Chasin’ A Dream Foundation
How to donate
To make a donation online, please click the DONATE button below and follow the instructions on the Community Foundation’s page.
Season to Share Ashaki Sypher donation
Nominee: Elizabeth Curiel-Hernandez – Palm Beach County mom helping children through trauma
Most evenings, Elizabeth Curiel-Hernandez trudges home too exhausted to cook dinner for her children, drained from an 18-hour workday — all to keep a roof over their heads.
This wasn’t how she imagined her life would be.
Years ago, in her early 20s, Elizabeth fell in love and married. She became a mother to three children and dreamed of working in the medical field.
But the marriage she hoped would flourish over time instead became something caustic that she silently endured. She says the emotional abuse began in 2019 and the invisible wounds turned physical a few years later.
Read more on Elizabeth Curiel-Hernandez.
Elizabeth Curiel-Hernandez’s Wish
Elizabeth Curiel-Hernandez has been working since she was 16. Now, at 34, she is raising three children on her own while juggling full-time and part-time jobs, often putting in 18-hour days. She is now the sole provider for her family after leaving a mentally and physically abusive marriage. She and her children, who witnessed some of the abuse, are attending therapy to work through the trauma. In addition to struggling to pay the bills, a recent car crash drained her savings. Elizabeth is seeking short-term financial assistance to cover her mortgage and car payments for the next three to six months. Eventually, she hopes to have enough money to take her kids to Disney World, but for now, she wants more time to spend with them.
Nominating agency: HomeSafe
How to donate
To make a donation online, please click the DONATE button below and follow the instructions on the Community Foundation’s page.
Elizabeth Curiel-Hernandez donation
Nominee: Marisol Gomez – Accident, illness stole peaceful interlude from domestic abuse survivor
Marisol Gomez’s smile conceals miles of pain she’s traveled — including escaping a cycle of domestic violence — and the rocky path that lies ahead because of an accident that broke her spine and an autoimmune disease that weakens her muscles and threatens her every breath.
In addition to the daily physical agony, the 43-year-old mother of four is facing financial catastrophe.
Gomez, whose children range in age from 9 to 26, was already feeling the pinch of being a single mom in a time of skyrocketing rents when in 2021 a work-related accident made everything that much harder. She was working as an independent contractor on a bathroom drywall project when she fell from a ladder and slammed into a marble sink below.
She returned to work, performing light duties 18 months later, but hasn’t felt well enough to put in more than a few days a week.
Now, the pain and medical expenses resulting from the fractures to her hips and spine threaten to sink her family’s financial future even further.
Read more on Marisol Gomez.
Marisol Gomez’s Wish
Marisol Gomez, 43, a longtime resident of Palm Beach County who works in construction, was severely injured in an accident and then diagnosed with a rare and potentially fatal autoimmune disease only a few months after getting her first taste of stability. Escaping domestic violence, the mother of four was nearly homeless when she got some shelter through Adopt-A-Family of the Palm Beaches. Seeking treatment after the accident, she’s been left with $13,000 in medical bills. And now the two cars she owns are inoperable. Donations could help her get ahead of the bills. Repairs or a car donation could get her back on the road to a less stressful life and a new, orthopedic bed could mean an escape from the relentless pain.
Nominating agency: Adopt-A-Family
How to donate
To make a donation online, please click the DONATE button below and follow the instructions on the Community Foundation’s page.
Gomez donation
Nominee: Robert Hall – She’s no longer able to make ends meet for her, teen grandson
Robert Hall sat quietly next to his grandmother, Beverly Shaw, as she explained the tough times she and her grandson face.
The 16-year-old 10th-grader at Park Vista High is his grandmother’s sole caretaker, a weight that elicits few complaints. Not even when it’s combined with the limitations that come in a household that relies on his grandmother’s Social Security income and donations from a local food bank. Not even when their small home in Lake Worth Beach is in desperate need of a kitchen remodel so its cabinets can be replaced and the dishwasher, sink, stove and refrigerator can be functional again. Not even when the bed he sleeps on is a mattress and box spring sitting on a frame that leans hard left.
“I like this quote: ‘Your dark times are your best times,’ ” Hall said.
Read more on Robert Hall.
Robert Hall’s Wish
Robert Hall, 16, is the primary caretaker for his 63-year-old grandmother, Beverly Shaw. The home they share is in need of substantial repair, including a new kitchen, light fixture and electrical repair, mold removal, an adjustable bed, bedding and a bathroom with safety rails for Shaw. Hall needs a bed, bedding, clothes and shoes for school and basketball. Shaw needs a lightweight wheelchair and a motorized scooter to Hall can help her get around.
Nominating agency: Take Stock in Children Palm Beach County
How to donate
To make a donation online, please click the DONATE button below and follow the instructions on the Community Foundation’s page.
Robert Hall donation
Nominee: The Ortiz – De Leon Escalante family – Palm Beach County couple raising tot with Down syndrome needs help
Tiny Milan Ortiz De Leon is “a gift from God,” his father says as he bounces him on his lap. Milan, not quite 2, gazes up at him, at the stuffed bear dangling before him, at the bare drywall just behind.
His father, Milton Ortiz, installed the drywall himself, a makeshift privacy barrier in the duplex where Milan’s family has been staying while they look for a stable home. Booted from their apartment west of West Palm Beach, they crammed into a small abode with acquaintances as they searched.
Stability has become ever scarcer in the lives of Milan’s parents since he arrived in November 2023. Really, since even before his birth, when his mother received the paralyzing news at a medical checkup that Milan had Down syndrome, a genetic disorder that causes intellectual and physical disabilities.
Read more on The Ortiz – De Leon Escalante family.
The Ortiz – De Leon Escalante family’s wish
Two-year-old Milan was born with Down syndrome. He’s already had to undergo tonsil and ear surgery and each week brings multiple sessions of physical therapy, speech therapy and food therapy. He makes regular visits to a cardiologist. Parents Yeyme De Leon Escalante and Milton Ortiz say Milan is a ‘gift from god,’ he’s also the little one they must regularly battle for. Ortiz works renovating homes and installing drywall, but the work is not steady. De Leon spends her days caring for Milan at home, shuttling him to therapy sessions and medical appointments. As the family navigates a difficult job market and Milan’s many medical needs, the family is asking for $14,400 in housing support to cover a year of rent in a clean, safe home for him to grow up in, $1,000 for toys and clothes targeted to his developmental needs, and $960 to support his prolonged need for diapers.
Nominating agency: Children’s Case Management Organization aka Families First of Palm Beach County
How to donate
To make a donation online, please click the DONATE button below and follow the instructions on the Community Foundation’s page.
The Ortiz- De Leon Escalante Family donation
Nominee: Dilsia Glover – Hobe Sound foster mom, retiree can’t afford to repair broken roof, appliances
Dilsia Glover turned her little gray house into a safe haven, not just for her own children, but for more than 50 foster children over 13 years.
Their framed photos fill every corner of the house, which Glover infused with sounds of hip-hop music, smells of homemade mac and cheese and countless bedtime stories over the years.
Now, the house is falling apart — and Glover, at age 81, retired and living on Social Security alone, can’t fix it.
Glover’s income covers her basic needs, but not much more. Nearly three years ago, storms pummeled her 30-year-old house in Hobe Sound, and the roof caved in.
Read more on Dilsia Glover.
Dilsia Glover’s Wish
Dilsia Glover is an upbeat 81-year-old retiree and former foster mom with a big heart and history of helping others. But the home she shared freely is in need of repair. The roof caved in during a storm about three years ago and remains tarped. Her washing machine, dryer, stove and doors are also broken. Her refrigerator is on its last legs. Glover lives on a fixed income from Social Security that covers her basics, but the repairs needed to keep her in her home stretch are beyond her budget.
Nominating agency: Council on Aging of Martin County
How to donate
To make a donation online, please click the DONATE button below and follow the instructions on the Community Foundation’s page.
Glover donation
How to mail in a donation
To mail in a donation, please download and print the form below.
Please contact Keely Gideon-Taylor if you have any questions – ktaylor@pbpost.com
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Season to Share 2025, How Palm Beach Post readers can help families, individuals in need
Reporting by Laura Lordi, Palm Beach Post / Palm Beach Post
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
