Single Momathon

I have another friend in need. This time it is someone from my class of ‘99 Lone Peak High School.

I'll never forget the night a few of us took one of those traffic cones with an orange blinking lights on top and put it in the window of Cami Christensen’s room our senior year. We always did stupid stuff like this because in Alpine, Utah there only Mormons and that makes for very little access to drugs and alcohol. Teenagers back then had to get their fix by doing lite vandalism and pranking each other. There was no purpose in putting the cone in the window other than to disturb her and her friends who may have been doing a sleepover.

Cami went on to marry an athlete on the BYU basketball team and have 3 kids. This week I got a photo from a mutual friend telling me she could really use help. Her husband has abandon them and she lost her job as a web designer. She is now working at 7/11 making $12/hr. The home she is renting just gave notice yesterday that she has to be out this month because they sold it. Her parents have both passed, and she lacks support from family that many of us might have to fall back on.

I did the math and it’s just not possible in today’s economy to support 3 kids and yourself with that type of job. I asked a lot of questions in text to see how I could help. I fed the text conversation to GPT4 and here is the summary:

• Cami Scott reaches out to Scott Paul, expressing excitement about seeing a photo of him with Matt.

• They banter a bit about Scott Paul's past involvement in cryptocurrency and his current interest in AI.

• Cami shares some personal struggles, including financial difficulties, job insecurity, and housing instability, especially after learning their landlord is selling the property they rent.

• Scott Paul offers support and suggests sharing Cami's story to potentially garner assistance.

• Cami discusses their efforts to find work, their children's struggles, and moments of joy amidst the chaos.

• They express uncertainty about their living situation and discuss options like seeking social services or church assistance.

• Scott Paul plans to include Cami's story in an email to his audience and expresses hope for better circumstances.

• Cami shares their experience with government assistance programs like Section 8 housing and the support received from the church.

• They both express hope for help and support (referring to it metaphorically as "angels coming") as they navigate through tough times.

I asked her if in all of this stress if she is having moments of joy, and this was her response:

As for moments of joy, I am surprised to say there are many. We have been shocked by how happy we can find ourselves. I gave them no presents for Christmas. We just didn’t have anything. Some people gave us money a week before Christmas and we used it to catch up on utilities and such. So we wrote each other notes as presents. We laughed so hard.

This is her family Easter time 11 years ago. This is all very private, but she said she needs a miracle and this is a Hail Mary. I feel that someone in my newsletter could help Cami out in one of a few ways. Let’s do what I call a Momathon, a help beacon and fundraiser for a mom.

1. Job opportunities making more than $12/hr. (Her LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/camielizz)

2. Affordable housing anywhere in SLC or UT County, or maybe anywhere.

3. Help with what services and programs are available for single mothers in such situation.

4. Financial support in the interim.

5. Send her an email letting her know she’s got this

I want to match whatever people can offer. I have @scottpaul at Venmo or my Ethereum wallet address 0x74553df5a87b9ce368c71352d8656140538d7c85. Her email is camielizzi@gmail.com if you have any opportunities or leads.

I wish we could use technology to solve these problems that face single parents and the underemployed. I wish we could solve housing. I know many think technology is replacing us and making the problem worse, but I am not willing to make that the answer if I have anything to do about it. I believe we will see an age when technology makes it so we don’t need much money to live a good life. I really want to help in all the ways this could happen by supporting solutions. Amazing affordable houses like Zenni Homes. Food that is healthy, fast and affordable. We should be able to eat for less than $20/day and have all the nutrition necessary in a day. Healthcare should be done by computers aided by humans who get paid well and cost little when we need it.

We have lots of problems in our current world, but it’s these problems that I look for as a seed investor. There are entrepreneurs trying to solve all of them right now. Below Is a robot that will soon do most of our work. It’s amazing. We will all enjoy life more when robots are helping us more. I know it’s sounds hard to believe, but why would we do anything but believe, when what we believe comes true.

SP