Have you ever made the mistake of trusting someone when you shouldn’t have?



Maybe it was a younger sibling, who promised to return a borrowed object. Or maybe it was a significant other, who promised to do some chore. Or maybe it was a teacher, who promised not to quiz you on the one thing you knew you should’ve studied. Regardless of who and what it was, we’ve all made that mistake. And yet, there are people we expect to be able to trust.

We expect to be able to trust when a financial professional tells us, “X is the amount this will cost,” that X is the amount we will pay. We trust that there isn’t going to be another bill further down the line after we pay X. And yet, some people are taken advantage of, due to that trust.



Enter James Pluid, an EMT from Washington State, who took it upon himself to enter a paramedic program in McCook, Nebraska, in order to save more lives and help more people than he already had. He confirmed with the financial officers that the bill would come in one lump sum that could be paid for by his GI fund, and they lied to him. Even before he stepped on campus, he was taken advantage of. Once on campus, they saw his desire to help people, his need to protect life and his dedication to preventing death, and they decided to take him for several strenuous, savage, viciously exploitative rides- including, but not limited to: illegal questioning and restriction of his service dog, unequal and unfair grading of his assignments, presentation of bills after the initial “lump sum” that they had claimed was everything- the list goes on and on.



We need your help. James is unable to progress onto the next stage in his training as a paramedic student without paying his “outstanding bill,” which consists of $5000 in room and board that was mysteriously absent from the promised lump sum, effectively eliminating James ability to use his service in our Army to help him pay. Elie Wiesel, an author and survivor of the holocaust, once wrote: "There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.” While we may be powerless to reverse the injustices that James has already suffered, we are not powerless to prevent this injustice. We have the power to help James save lives, and continue in his passion. Let’s help James move forward in his passion of saving lives. Please, give what you can.



Every dollar is one step closer to James back on our streets, saving lives.

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