Evertonian in Need – How The Everton Forum proved community spirit is alive
The Everton Forum is a lively community of blues who come together to chat about all things to do with Everton. There are many disagreements, many differing views and some great laughs. Not everyone has the same opinion and the Forum gives fans a mouthpiece to the everyday supporter.
On the forum we have a thread about the CALM (Campaign against living miserably) campaign, which helps people with depression. The thread is there to give our forum members somewhere to discuss their feelings and get advice on how to deal with everyday life and in particular depression, which is a major problem in 2016.
One thread caught the attention of one of our users Dom and as a socialist Dom reached out to the Forum admin as he wanted to help. The thread was by a user called Bluefin. He was an Evertonian that none of the forum members had met, he was just a username, but what he wrote struck a bell with many of our users.
Bluefin was an Evertonian that had worked all his life and paid into the system. He had to finish work in 2014 due to illness and more recently he had trouble walking, which meant getting out of the house was becoming a real problem. Bluefin mentioned that all he was doing was thinking about the past and wallowing in his home. When he finished work, he immediately went to the council offices and a member of staff helped him fill out some forms for council tax allowance – for which he qualified.
Bluefin had been in the process of saving for a mobility scooter, when out of the blue he received a letter saying that he didn’t actually qualify for council tax allowance and he would have to pay back the £2000 – which wiped out his mobility scooter fund. This sent Bluefin further into depression.
Walter was an avid Evertonian
Anyway, Dom decided that he wanted to help and set up a GoFundMe page to help raise the £800 needed for a mobility scooter for Bluefin (Otherwise known as Walter Riley from Norris Green) and immediately members of the Forum and Evertonians across our social media platforms started to donate to a worthy cause.
Walter was so struck with the generosity of Evertonians he had never met that he contacted the Liverpool Echo and their reporter Phoebe Weston kindly ran the story: http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/everton-fans-raise-mobility-scooter-12099999
Amazingly, yesterday we hit our target and Walter will soon have the mobility scooter that he much needs.
Walter said: “Their kindness has taken me aback and they have raised my spirits no end”, said Mr Riley, who suffers from depression.
“One of the lads messaged me and he said we can try and help, and I said if anyone can help I’d be really happy with it.”
“The feedback from The Everton Forum has really lifted my spirits. Essentially they’re a group of strangers. The only thing we’ve got in common is our love of Everton”.
“There was a Lewis Carroll quote on the forum yesterday about extraordinary things happening to ordinary people and that’s how I feel, all the help and support these lads have given me has really taken my breath away.”
If you are struggling with life or feeling depressed, please contact the experts at CALM – http://www.thecalmzone.net.gridhosted.co.uk
Likewise, you can post in our CALM thread here: https://www.theevertonforum.co.uk/forum/threads/the-calm-thread-campaign-against-living-miserably-depression-etc.21410/
If you would still like to DONATE to the GoFundMe page please use this link – https://www.gofundme.com/mobility-scooter-for-a-blue-in-need-2vszcc9j