06/25/2024
Good morning all you wonderful people,
I have had the privilege to get to know one remarkable person over the last couple of weeks, our organization plans on continuing to build our relationship with him so that we can do what we can to help him. Honestly it is because of him that we are working aimlessly to get our new program up and running, but more on that later. With his permission we are going to share his story, my hope is that you will take the time to read this and understand that we all have problems, and for us to judge people because of there situation without knowing their story is just wrong, but I see it all the time. Now with out further ado let me introduce Jason.
Jason was born on February 17th 1973 at the hospital in Cadillac Michigan. He then went home to his house in Manton Michigan with his parents. Jason grew up in a home with an abusive father, but a loving mother. As he grew up and went to school his school life was great, he was a straight A student. Jason loved sports and was into track&field, baseball, & basketball as his main three options. Jason broke the discus record for Manton schools while he was there and competed, he also played baseball at the same time. Jason graduated high school in 1991 and went to continue his education at north western community college in Traverse city Michigan for criminal justice. Jason attended college for a year and a half before deciding to go into the Marine core on December 13th 1993. He went to Camp Pendleton in San Diego California. Jason made it through all of boot camp up until deployment and then got honorably discharged due to entry level separation in 1994. After being honorably discharged from the Marine Core Jason went back to northwestern community college in Cadillac Michigan for two semesters to continue his education, but did not continue after those two semesters. Jason then went on to work at Cadillac rubber and plastic for the next four years while living at home with his mom. After four years at Cadillac rubber and plastic Jason decided to change jobs and went to work for Cadillac delta truss as a general laborer. After putting in some time he got promoted to run the saw and drive the equipment. At age 23 after throwing a party at his mom’s house, she kicked him out and he had to live on the streets through out the summer. After that summer Jason moved in with a girlfriend and lived with her for a year until his mom wanted him to come back home and live. Jason stayed living with mom in Manton Michigan until she sold the property when he was 26 years old. After they sold the property they moved to the U.P where Jason attended bay mills community college for Tribal business administration. Jason stayed living in the U.P for the next four years. In 2000 Jason moved back to Traverse city Michigan when his son was born, Jason also started working at eagle picher durning this time. Now everything seemed to be going good that is until his mom passed away in 2003. Jason had struggled in the past with drugs & alcohol, but after his mom passed he got really heavy back into it. That is until he got his son on December 7th 2004, this is also the same day his dad passed away. When Jasons son came back to live with him right then and there he knew he had to quit the drugs and drinking so that’s exactly what he did. Jasons son lived with him from 2004-2008 when he lost a bad drawn out custody battle. Jason then sold the house, but never got paid for the sale. Jason then moved back to the U.P to stay with his aunt, all while doing everything he could do to make sure he stayed in his son’s life. Jason stayed at his aunts house for just under a year until he decided to move in with a girlfriend. Jason stayed at bay mills reservation for a year with his girlfriend, but then got picked up on a warrant from the police from something in his past. Jason has not had any other incarceration since then. Jason got out of jail and moved into the T-house, while in the T-house he worked as a grave digger until he got a full time job in Cadillac Michigan at a factory. Jason then got injured in winter of 2013, Jason tried to keep working but ended up finding out that he had crushed discs in his back due to the injury. After this Jason moved into a friend’s house until some things happened when he decided to move to the cabins on the west side of cadillac. Jason stayed in the cabins for a year before moving In with another girlfriend, stayed with her for a year. After that year Jason moved into a bad living situation and had to stay in this situation for ten years. While living in this situation Jason got diagnosed with scabies. After getting that diagnosis Jason left that situation and started living out of a tent until it got too cold. Jason then went and lived in a motel over the winter, during this period Jason went to the doctor and got diagnosed with parasitophobia on December 6th 2023. After receiving this diagnosis they sent him to a facility, from there he got sent to Butterworth in Grand Rapids due to health reasons. Jason had to stay in Butterworth for a week before getting released. After getting Released from the hospital he moved back to Traverse city in the winter of 2023. Jasons living situation in Traverse city is one that nobody should be living in. Jason ended up filing a police report where nothing came of it until later on. Later he found out that the place he was staying was infested with bugs. That is when he had enough and moved to the pines in Traverse city for three days. After these three days Jason was able to go stay with a friend for two weeks. After getting all new camping gear Jason was able to stay at the Lake billing campground in Manton Michigan for a week. After that first week a friend of his paid for another week stay for him. This is where we Care Package Outreach Program Inc. came into his life. We proceeded to provide Jason with a care package that included items like a tarp, pillow, clothes, socks, underwear, lots of food, water, and necessities to be able to survive. I spent time getting to know Jason and ended up learning a lot about him. Jason is a faithful follower of our lord and savior Jesus Christ. Jason told me that he wanted to get baptized, Jason told me he tried to before but ended up being not able to. So after talking with him about it I offered to baptize him, I told him to give it some thought and prayer. After a couple days Jason came to me and told me he would love it if I would baptize him, so we took a walk found a perfect spot and well we got him baptized. We plan on staying in Jasons life and helping him in any way we can. As of right now Jason is very optimistic about his future and putting in all the necessary steps to try and get off the streets. We here at Care Package Outreach Program Inc. Are working to try and find him housing and to make sure he gets the proper care needed to not only survive but thrive as he pushes ahead in life. Jason gave us permission to be able to share his story so that it can possibly help others in believing that no matter the situation there can be deliverance. We are very happy and excited to be working with Jason to try and get him out of this situation he is in. We here at Care Package Outreach Program are also very optimistic about his future and believe that he will find healing from the trauma of his past as well with a light at the end of the tunnel he is in.
With best regards President of CPOP.
Now do you see that not everyone just chooses to be in this life, a lot of the times its a series of unfortunate events that lead to this, but I know that there is a God who is bigger than every situatuion, with the love and support of the community we can make a difference for not only Jason but so many countless others!! The photos are of the care package we provided to Jason, along with some other items I was unable to get photos of but you know what his favorite item was? The Bible!! He was so happy to receive the Bible.
