Personal Stories

From a hardship recipient who has been battling cancer for 9 years…”I don’t know where to begin to thank each of you for the blessing you have bestowed upon me. With a lot of faith, and a merciful God, I have been fighting this awful disease for 9 years. I’ve been blessed to have so many prayer warrior friends and family , but here in Tennessee I am alone with just my elderly mother and my 2 boys. I’m thankful to have gotten them to adulthood. That was my prayer. Now ending my days on this Earth, the Lord has blessed me yet again with people who don’t even know me, but feel compelled to lighten this heavy load. Your most selfless & gracious gift is so appreciated and needed and will not go unnoticed.Thank you and may God bless you all!”

“Share It Forward has given me a healthier outlook on my circumstances in addition to providing a window of opportunity from which to grow and prosper.”

“Your help in a much needed situation has given me renewed faith and hope in humanity and inspired me to move forward with more patience, discipline, and grace (inspiration). Thank you again for making a real difference in my life and outlook as I regain my strength.”

“I have no other words other than THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart for helping me with my recent unexpected medical bills. It’s one thing to be fighting for your life, it’s another to win the fight only to face financial hardship for the foreseeable future. I honestly didn’t know what to do. I tried my best to “get by”, but it wore me out mentally and physically. When I returned form medical leave, Dollywood and HFE welcomed me back with love. A few coworkers mentioned applying to SIF, but I feared I wasn’t worthy. Everyone should be made aware of the good you all do to help us employees. I’m truly blessed to be employed by HFE. A place that really does treat their hosts like family. Thank you again.”

Share It Forward was able to come alongside the Dollywood team to serve those impacted by the recent wildfire. One of our hosts lost their home, and several were temporarily displaced. We were able to make direct distributions totaling nearly $6,000 to 12 employees.  The SIF SMC team described their role as “a beautiful opportunity to serve our work family.”

A Dollywood Host shared “I’m living fear right now”, when asked how he was doing during the recent wildfires. After SIF was able to help meet his short-term needs, he broke down in tears with thankfulness and was able to pray with Chaplain Joey Buck.

I first met my applicant when she came to Share It Forward in September of 2021. Earlier in the year, she had moved to Tennessee from where her foster family lives in the Northeast. She wanted to come back to her birth state. My heart broke, because I realized she had aged out of the foster care system and was seeking to connect with any sense of her past heritage. When she first moved here, she did not have a place to live so she slept in her car. After securing a job at Dollywood, she was able to save enough money to move into an apartment.

This applicant continued to do all she could on her own and asked very little from Share It Forward. Her first request was only for her electric bill, as she said her Dollywood earnings covered her other monthly expenses. SIF was pleased to help pay that. I learned of the desperate state of her car though and connected her with Joey Buck, our Dollywood chaplain. Joey was able to find someone in maintenance to volunteer to look at her car, and also gave her Dave Ramsey’s book, Financial Peace.

The second time we connected was after she suffered the loss of her biological mother. She was working 30 hours a week at Dollywood, going to night school two evenings a week, and was looking for a second job. She once again was only asking for her electric bill to be paid. She had suffered a setback after a minor car accident, so I did my best to encourage her and point her to other resources to help, and recommended she consider applying again soon. She did apply again, and this time she shared her very comprehensive budgeting worksheets. She secured that second job, and was able to pay to have her car repaired. Again, she informed me she only needed her electric and water bills paid. I asked about her rent. She responded, “Well, you told me to do all I could”. She had blown me away! The effort she was making to help her own situation was exceptional. She was putting into practice so much of what she was learning through Financial Peace, while holding down two jobs and attending school. The SMC committee that reviewed her need unanimously agreed they wanted to bless her with not only her utility bill, but also her next month’s rent. Calling to tell her of the committee’s decision was my favorite phone call I’ve ever made in this job. She was overwhelmed, in tears and incredibly thankful to Share It Forward for loving her so extravagantly. She kept growing since that time, graduated and secured an incredible job in her field at a doctor’s office.

Thank you so much for helping us when our son was injured.  My husband always speaks so highly of your company, his coworkers and the philosophy of the company.  He is right!  When our son was recovering from a fall, the last thing I could think about was how we were going to make ends meet.  Thank you for stepping up and taking some of that burden.  We will be forever indebted.    Thank you again!

I called one of the Child Assistance Program (CAP) recipients to follow up on her reapplication process. She’s a single mom with a 10 year old boy.  She told me she had his parent teacher conference last week and the teachers went on and on about how well he is doing and what a delight he is to have in class.  She said after the conference there was the school book fair and he wanted a whole stack of books, all science books about space & rocks.  She used the CAP money from October to pay for the books as a reward for him doing well and wanting to continue to learn through books.  She wanted me to know how thankful she was for our program and how it was able to bless their family this month.

Honestly, I don’t know how to say thank you adequately.  This started out with me trying to “tough it out” until I could get the money but the way my hip has digressed I’m not sure how I would have made it.  Share It Forward has been there for my family and me in several ways over the years and we are always humbled by the culture of generosity the Herschend family has created.  You know this already but in the midst of pain and bad news the magnitude of SIF alleviating the financial strain is immeasurable.  Thank you.  May God continue to bless the Herschend’s and our company for His glory.

I appreciate this so much!  Thank you…words cannot describe how much this really helps me.  I’m thankful to work for such a helpful and generous company.

I am so grateful for this organization and its mission and values!  I will be forever thankful for the scholarship I have received from SIF; it will help alleviate the burden of expenses and aid in my progress towards my dreams!  Thank you for everything and for all you are doing for others!

Thank you so much for the assistance with our electric bill.  It was truly a blessing and lifted a load off of our shoulders.

I just want to say thank you for helping me in a time of need.  You all have always been there for me as I will be for you.  I can not thank you enough.  I look forward to many more years with you!

We can’t thank you enough for your time, hard work and consideration for our situation.  Living here and working for Herschend Enterprises has given us hope.  And, thanks to your efforts, we can keep hoping and work towards a better future.  Thank you so much!

I just want to say thank you to the Herschend Enterprises family for all the love poured into the company.  I seriously believe I could never find a company so caring and loving as this one.  Thanks to all who generously and selflessly give to Share It Forward in order to assist with people such as me.  Also, a big thanks to the coordinator who took great patience in assisting me.  Thank you!

This is to thank all who made it possible for my wife and I  to receive our wood stove for winter heating.  The stove company installed it wonderfully and it is a daily blessing in our lives, providing that traditional heating so comfortable… and minus the tremendous electric bill.  We will continue counting this blessing through Thanksgiving, the Holiday season and throughout the years.  May the greatest blessings be with you now and always!

I know most people send a thank you letter right when they have received the scholarship. However, by sending this letter within this year, I can tell you all the ways this money has helped my life. It has not only helped me financially, it has helped me grow spiritually too.

In the beginning of January, it was very hard, I was laid off for the winter and I had so much fear inside of me. Just thinking, if I was doing the right thing by going to school and doing without a paycheck. Was I smart enough for school? I never felt that I was during high school and with a learning disability, it gets very difficult and I have to study more trying to do the same as others. Then I remember, this is God’s plan for me. He would not have opened the doors for me to have this great opportunity to challenge myself to be a better person. He has blessed my life with never doing without. We made it through January and the money came in early February. My property owner did not charge me a late fee on rent and now we are back to work.

What the one thing this scholarship has done in my life, is make my faith in the Lord the strongest it has ever been. I feel Him with me every day and if I had doubt, it is gone. Therefore, in my life, this scholarship helped me to live knowing that my Lord, Jesus Christ will make all things work for my good, and God’s love never fails. Thank you again for everything.

I would really like to thank you for helping me fix my car. No one has ever shown such kindness and willingness before in my life and I can’t stress it enough how much I appreciate you guys for helping me. Through this program I had an eye opening moment. Growing up I was taught to handle things myself, to never depend on anyone, to take care of my own, and that if I wanted something hard work was going to get it. So with that I always felt ashamed to ask others for help, because it made me feel incompetent…as if I wasn’t working hard enough. But through this program you guys have taught me a valuable lesson. That we are all in this together as human beings and everything can’t be done alone – sometimes you need to depend on others and to not be ashamed to ask because this is what God called us here to do. With that being said I would like to say thank you again for being my blessing this summer. I know fixing a car might not seem like such a big deal to many but to work for a company that truly cares for their employees and can assist and teach them lessons such as the one that I learned from this experience is unheard of.  I am so grateful for this program and for all of you. Thank you!

This is our house payment!  Thank you so much for everything. We appreciate everything you do.  This has been and is a very hard time for us.  I truly don’t know what we would do without Share It Forward.

We want to thank you all very much for your helping hand in our time of need.  It is very much appreciated!  May God bless you all and the Herschend’s for their care and love for the people who work at HFE.

It is hard to express how grateful we are for the help that you gave us during this medical struggle we have been dealing with. Thank you for supporting our family! We are so thankful.

The Share It Forward program was a big help in allowing me to afford to move into my current residence. Without its help I would not have been able to get my children out of a mentally and verbally abusive environment. The Child Assistance program is also a big help in keeping my children from returning to that environment and helping to purchase clothing for them to grow out of! I am thankful both programs exist.

My family and I would like to say how grateful we are to the generosity of the Committee to help us in a time of need due to my wife’s illness. I had hoped to have an amount given to us to help a little for the bills coming in… but the amount given is just overwhelmingly generous. I was speechless to the amount and will be forever grateful for it.

I want all the employees to know that the money that they put in does go out to help other employees when they may need it.

I would hope that this program will continue to touch the lives of many other people in HE.

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

My sincere gratitude and thanks to the wonderful people of the Share It Forward program. As a single parent of an adult disabled son, I often find myself a little short on money toward the end of the month, but up until now I have always managed to “scrape” by.

Sometime in November, my water heater (located in basement) rusted through, causing the heater to work 24/7 trying to heat the cold water that was constantly running through it. This left me a utility bill at the end of December of over $700. The utility board in my city worked with me to adjust the water and sewer charges and credited my account $25 upon proof that the water heater had been replaced. The remaining bill was still far beyond my ability to pay.

I contacted the representative of the SIF program and she could not have been any nicer. Just talking to her made me feel so much better. I got her the information she needed, my case was presented to the committee and it was approved. Thank God that this program is in place for the employees of Herschend Enterprises.  And, thank God for the wonderful people who contribute to this fund. I would urge every employee to contribute to SIF no matter how small the contribution. You never know when you might need help, as I did. It was there for me – when I needed it. It will be there for YOU. Please support SIF – you are helping so many people in honest need.

God bless you all.