We'll call the head of the household Sheila. When she sits down to pay her bills, her first check goes to her mortgage of $650/month. Sheila has four kids and her house has two bedrooms, and she's proud to own her own home. Her ex-husband pays child support, but is an erratic payer. So when it's winter, she first pays the gas bill because she heats with gas. The electricity can wait for the next bill. But a couple of winters over the last four years, she got behind. Most recently, she owed $238 on her electric bill and was facing additional charges of $92. The cut-off notice would be in the mail within a few days. Sheila asked Project Share for help. She agreed to pay $70 toward the new electricity bill, and Project Share cleared up the back due. That's how Sheila and her kids made it through another winter in their own house.

Another customer, Loretta, is single with no kids and for about four months -- earlier this year -- she had no job. Her unemployment check wasn't enough to cover all her obligations. She got way behind on her bills, even with the new job she found. Project Share also cleared up half of the $307 she owed and helped put together a payment plan with Seattle City Light for the remainder before her next bill was due. Once her bill was paid in full, Loretta was then able to get on the Budget Billing program to help her even payments across the seasonal peaks of the electricity bills -- easier especially for those who heat with electricity. These actions cancelled the shut-off notice that Loretta had received and she's current with her electricity billl today.

Sheila and Loretta are only two of 1,474 customers which Project Share served last year. So far already this year, Project share has served 1,108. We'll likely assist as many as 2,000 customers this year given the higher rates now in place.

Here's how Project Share works. Several times during the year you'll receive an insert in your City Light bill that asks if you would like to add some amount of money to your bi-monthly bill. About three thousand people a year respond. A few write a check around the holidays but most use the bill payment method. In the year 2000, Project Share raised $358,000. Along with your energy charges, each bill contains a line item indicating how much has gone to Project Share. You can give as little as a dollar every two months or more. What you decide to give goes a long way to help people in need pay their own electric bills.

Seattle's utility tax revenues increased because of this year's higher rates, so the city council invested the "windfall" in energy conservation to low income households and to bill payment assistance like Project Share. As an incentive to contribute to Project Share, the city is matching dollar for dollar all public contributions to Project Share up to $400,000. We hope the combination of the city's match and your generous heart will meet the increased demand of people who have trouble paying their electricity bills.

Watch for the Project Share inserts in your bill. I encourage you to help to the extent you can.

Heidi Wills is Chair of the Seattle City Council's Energy and Environmental Policy Committee.

For more information or to donate to Project Share, call 206.684.3000 or use the online Share donation form at https://www.seattle.gov/light/help/share/form.asp.