Florida business owner Michael Esmond is covering the utility bills of 114 families that were facing disconnection.
Last year Esmond paid the utility bills of 36 households in his community and this year he upped the ante.
"This year to me probably is more meaningful that last year with the pandemic and all the people out of work having to stay home," Esmond said. "Hurricane Sally slammed us pretty good and hurt a lot of people. We still have a lot of the blue roofs here, where they're just covered with tarps."
Esmond donated $7,615.40 to pay for the past-due bills of 114 households, about three times as many households. That's because many residents had bills due of $100 or less, so he was able to help more people.
"That really impacted me -- that people can't even afford to pay a $100 bill on their utilities and things are so bad," Esmond said. "That's why I was able to pay for 114 families."
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