Joseph Gross, National Mortgage Expert and President of Qualified Mortgage Inc. got a phone call that a house he owned in Paterson, NJ had burnt down along with two neighboring houses. Joseph Gross was extremely thankful to hear that all of the nine families had escaped the fire unharmed. He literally cried when he saw a CBS report that week that told of a nine year old girl, Shyra Torres, from a neighboring house, who awakened her mother and then got all the families out before the fire spread. Joe decided that something needed to be done to help these families.
On September 12th Joe Gross reached out to all the families involved, with the help of CBS news. He set up a website http://www.patersonfirehelp.com and toll-free number to locate the displaced families. Over the next few weeks, Joe worked on locating the families and then spoke to them about what their needs were. Most expressed a need for clothing, specifically for the children, as everything had been destroyed in the fire.
On October 14th, Joe set out to Paterson, NJ with a team of volunteers. He met all of the residents of the three homes and spoke with each family individually. Each family received boxes of groceries and produce, a $400 Target gift card, a $500 grocery coupon card, Dunkin Donuts gift certificates and 2 free movie tickets. At the end of the day, Joseph was even able to distribute additional food to the families. People were excited by the gift certificates but when they started packing up boxes filled with groceries their faces were beaming. Not expecting so many goods, some of the residents had to call friends to come help them bring all of the food home.
The residents thanked him and told him that they had reached out to many organizations and until this point had received very little help. Louise Campagna, the mother of Shyra Torres exclaimed, "(Its) heaven sent. Nobody would help us and he went out of his way to help people that weren't even in his building. Words can't even describe. He's just a wonderful person."
One little girl who celebrated her birthday, smiled and said "Thank you for all this stuff, this is the best birthday ever". Her mother agreed and said, "It is a blessing", she said "You guys helping everyone is wonderful."
Joe Gross was extremely touched by the gratitude of the families. After meeting all the children affected by the fire, he hopes he was able to bring some joy back to a very bad situation. The joy of the children was overwhelming. When one of the children saw the movie tickets she jumped for joy, "Yay, now we can go to the movies".
When asked why he had distributed such a variety of goods and services, Joe answered, "They need help to get back on their feet but they also need to start feeling good and enjoying themselves again. They need a break to get away from the stress of this disaster. I chose the Target gift card because more important than showing up with some bags of clothing, is letting people shop for the items they need, make their own decisions and choose their purchases."
Joseph Gross loved seeing the smiles on everyone's faces, especially the children. "It's heartwarming to see people so happy. It's exactly what I love about my job." Joseph Gross is a National Mortgage Expert who specializes in helping people save their homes during this Mortgage Market Collapse. "When I help someone get out of debt and keep their home, the American dream, it makes my job worthwhile."
Joseph Gross can be reached at: 201-591-6031 or at: www.patersonfirehelp.com
The story of the offer to help was first reported on CBS2 News on September 12, 2007
http://wcbstv.com/local/local_story_255194410.html