Request for Donated Annual Leave

To everyone who reads this blog-

Over the past few months I have been blessed with kind words of encouragement, food deliveries, books for Benton and many many offers of help.  While I normally try not to ask for a handout I felt the time was right to reach out to the many people who have followed Benton's journey and ask for assistance.  As many of you know the last few months have been very difficult on my family.  I am writing to you in the hopes of requesting donated leave.  While I know this program only exists in the federal government, I know that so many of you either work in the federal government yourselves or have friends that work in the government.  With everything that has happened over the past few months, almost all of my leave is exhausted and I would so appreciate even an hour of donated leave.  Any and all help would be so appreciated - be it you donating a small amount of leave yourself, or simply sharing this request with someone you know in a federal agency. 

If you or a friend is interested in donating leave please let me know and I can help to guide you through the process and send you the various forms.  Depending on which agency you are in there are different forms for donating leave.

• For those in agencies outside of HUD you need to fill out the OPM Form 630b which allows for donating across agencies.  Once you have filled out that form you need to provide it to your agency's voluntary leave coordinator.  Your agency's voluntary leave coordinator should either email or fax it to Virginia Spence (virginia.a.spence@hud.gov) and cc me (marika.m.bertram@hud.gov).  Virginia Spence's fax number is 202-708-6232. 
• For my HUD friends you need to fill out a HUD form 2060 and email it to Virginia Spence (virginia.a.spence@hud.gov).

The forms ask you for a lot of information so to help streamline the process I have posted it here:
Leave Recipient's Name: Marika Bertram
Agency: Department of Housing and Urban Development
Agency Address: 451 7th Street SW, Room 2168  Washington DC 20410
Organization: Office of Field Policy and Management. 
Work phone number is 202-402-4413.

To all of you considering donating leave I cannot thank you enough and you have my undying gratitude.  I hope that I can have enough leave to stay steadfastly by my son through his upcoming trials and tribulations and be able to be home with him when he finally and triumphantly comes home.  I cannot thank everyone enough for all of the kind words of encouragement over the past few months and all the love and prayers that you have sent to our lovely son.

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!