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By Dave Schafer In her hours of greatest devastation, Lisa Norwood met some new best friends. They knocked on her door three days after a car struck and killed her husband, Public Works & Engineering employee Harold Norwood, while he was cleaning debris from Sabo Street near Almeda Mall. These strangers at her door introduced themselves as members of the Houston Employee Relief Organization, a new nonprofit that helps the survivors of municipal employees killed on the job. It’s like a 100 Club for nonclassified employees. “We understand that you’ve had a devastating loss and it’s impacted your life,” they told her. “We want to see what we can do to assist you.” Within a week of her husband’s death, HERO gave Norwood $2,500, which, along with money from workers’ compensation and his life insurance, she used for his funeral. “We give money, but that’s not just what we’re here for,” said David Miller, HERO’s secretary and a Public Works & Engineering assistant real estate manager. “We offer comfort and are a resource to help grieving spouses navigate the system and their loss. Not just right when it happens, but for a long time afterwards. “We don’t just put down the money on the table and say, ‘See ya.’” “When you’re going through something like that, you need someone there to help you,” Norwood said. “You’re not thinking clearly about what you need to do. So having that help meant so much.” Over the last 20 years, 14 municipal employees have been killed on the job. In workers’ comp benefits, their dependents receive 70 percent of the deceased employee’s pay. If there are children, half that amount would be divided among them until they are no longer dependents. The spouse will receive the other half, or all 70 percent if there are no children, until death or remarriage. If the deceased employee was a member of pension groups A or B, the spouse also receives 100 percent of the employee’s pay for the rest of her life or until she remarries. “The city does take care of its own,” said Bob Lawrence, HERO’s chairman. “But you just never know what those employees leave behind, if there’s debt or whatever. This is a way we can help their survivors right then, in their time of need, because they deserve whatever we can do.” Because Mayor Bill White wanted to do more for employees who risk their lives every day, he dedicated $10,000 from an August fundraiser to jumpstart HERO’s coffers. “City employees are all about service to our fellow citizens,” White said. “In that spirit, we created HERO. It’s about family helping family in a time of need.” HERO, which is an independent organization funded by donations, got 501(c)3 status in November. City employees and the public can contribute. (See “How to contribute”) “HERO is for city employees, and we need their support,” Lawrence said. “It could be as easy as contributing a dollar to HERO out of every paycheck.” “We hate it when HERO has to come into play,” Miller said. “But if it has to, we want to be there, and to have the money to help.” Norwood was grateful for that help. “It’s the best thing they could have done for city employees,” she said. “I can’t imagine what it would have been like to not have HERO there to help me.” |
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