This week’s Pay it Forward is in York Township, York County, where a Dallastown teen surprised a woman she calls an inspiration and a great role model.

Like most 16 year olds, Rachel Church is just trying to find her way in the world, and she’s getting inspiration from an unlikely source.

“I dated her son for two years and I got to know her pretty well,” Church said about Maria DeFelice.

Though things didn’t work out romantically for Church and DeFelice’s son, DeFelice continues to have a profound impact on Church’s life.

“She has five children, two of them with mental and physical disabilities,” Church said. “And they are the nicest and sweetest people I’ve ever met. Her whole family.”

Already dealing with a lot, the DeFelice family was hit with another blow, when Maria lost her job over the summer.

But on this day, Church hoped to deliver some good news to DeFelice with a $200 surprise from Pay it Forward.

“I’m just really grateful that I can help her out because she’s a role model for me,” Church said. “When I grow up, I just want to be a lot like her.”

DeFelice was floored when Church surprised her with the money.

“Is this, like a news crew?” she asked.

Once the shock wore off, DeFelice explained that all of the hardships she and her family have faced over the years have made them better people.

“We’ve really learned what is important in life is family and taking care of family,” she said. “No matter what.”

Before we left for the night, DeFelice offered up a pitch for a new FOX43 segment.

“Is there any way that I could pay it backward?” she asked.

DeFelice said the money couldn’t have come at a better time. Her unemployment just ran out.

She’s currently back in school, pursuing a Master’s degree at Millersville University, so she can become a licensed therapist.

She’s planning on using the Pay it Forward money toward books for school.

Polly Charaker of Dover Township, York County met FOX43′s Pay it Forward crew in a church parking lot down the road from her house.

It was to make sure her dear friend and neighbor, Jess Little, wouldn’t see us and suspect she was up to something.

Charaker said Little is in desperate need of a Pay it Forward surprise.

“She’s a single mom, and she’s had it rough for the past couple months, but she’s really had it rough recently at the loss of her employment,” Charaker said.

Little lost her job as a paramedic in January. In both her professional and personal lives, she has always been there to help others.

“She’s helped another family live with her temporarily until they could find a place of their own,” Charaker said. “She’s just that kind of person, she opens her home to you and her heart and everything else. She’s just a wonderful, all-around person.”

Little was overcome with emotion when Charaker surprised her with the $200 gift from Pay it Forward at her doorstep.

“You have no idea what good timing this was!” she said.

Charaker had worked in emergency services for more than 20 years. She said losing her job has been tough, but she has been getting by.

“Faith and patience, which is hard to have,” Little said. “And friends and family. It’s all I can do, just taking it one day at a time.”

Her seven-year-old daughter Kayla keeps her spirits up.

“This is my angel girl,” Little said. “I believe things happen for a reason, and this happened at a perfect time.”

Little has been applying for jobs and said she’s looking to change careers after more than two decades in emergency services as an EMT and paramedic.

She plans to use the $200 to pay bills.

Every Sunday morning, Jennifer Smith and other parents with teenagers gather at Country and Town Baptist Church just outside of Mechanicsburg for class.

The close group is now coming together for another cause, to help one of its members through FOX43′s Pay it Forward.

“Our teacher, Jeff Speese, lost his job the day after Christmas,” Smith said. “His loss of a job hit all of us hard because it could happen to any of us and we wanted to do something for him.”

Jeff Speese is a father of four who was the primary breadwinner for his family before he lost his job as a plant manager. Smith said he’s a shining example of what it means to be a giving person.

“Would do anything for you, would give you the shirt off of his back,” she said. “If it were one of us in this same situation, he would be doing all he could to help us out.”

Smith asked Speese and his wife Gigi to meet her at the church. When they arrived, Smith presented Jeff with the $200 from Pay it Forward.

The Speeses’ said they thought Smith was plotting something.

“About five minutes before we arrived, we thought something’s up!” Gigi Speese said. “We don’t know what she’s doing, but something’s up.”

“‘Meet me inside at the lobby’ and I’m like, ‘Ok, something’s going on,’” added Jeff.

But they are grateful for Smith’s fib and all of the help they’ve been getting from their church family.

“We have a lot of wonderful supporters here at this church and it’s just great to be here,” Jeff Speese said.

FOX43′s Pay it Forward crew started the day in York Township,  York County just outside of Red Lion, in search of people who want to nominate someone they know for a $200 surprise.

Judy Shaffer of Dallastown was one of the people we stopped.

She told us about her close friend and neighbor, Anna Mae Ehrhart, an elderly woman raising her two grandsons.

“She really takes good care of them and she could use a little bit of help for herself, she never, ever does anything for her,” Shaffer said.

Whenever Shaffer needs her, Ehrhart looks after Shaffer’s husband, who can’t be left alone because he suffers from Alzheimer’s.

“We sort of rely on each other, if she needs something or if I need something, you know, then we sort of help each other out,” Shaffer said.

Just a short walk a few houses down from Shaffer’s house and we were at Ehrhart’s doorstep.

“I’m so glad!” Ehrhart said. “I never thought this would ever happen with me!”

But Ehrhart is not at all surprised that something like this would come from Judy.

“Can’t explain it,” she said. “She’s just a great friend, like a sister to me.”

Ashes and debris are all that’s left of Karen and Michael Schmit’s Glenville, York County home.

A space heater caught fire Monday afternoon, quickly engulfing the more than 100-year-old home in flames.

“They lost everything, so I want to do everything I can to give back to them because they’re just wonderful people,” said Danielle Fitzsimmons, who has dated the Schmit’s son Brandon for nine years.

Fitzsimmons’ wish is to pay it forward to them to help them rebuild.

But starting over won’t be easy, the Schmits didn’t have insurance.

“They had to choose back in July between paying for food and their medications and paying their homeowners, so with the economy being the way that it is, they had to make that unfortunate decision,” Fitzsimmons said.

With her fiance Brandon and their son in tow, Fitzsimmons hopped in her truck to surprise the Schmits, who are staying with family.

“She surprised us! She is one special girl,” said Karen Schmit, after being surprised with the $200.

The Schmits’ home had been in Karen’s family for generations. Her grandmother was born in one of the rooms.

Though their loss is painful, the Schmits are grateful to be alive.

“You can always fix stuff,” said Michael Schmit. “It’s not easy, you can always fix stuff, but you can’t fix dead.”

They’re giving thanks to the many friends and family who have taken them in and offered them support.

“Our health is not good at all, so to try and get through it on our own, like I said, I just don’t think either one of us would get very far,” Michael Schmit said.

Anyone who wants to donate to the Schmits can go to any People’s Bank Branch and contribute to a fund in Michael and Karen Schmit’s names.

You can also donate online here: www.gofundme.com/rebuildtheschmithouse

For donations of food, clothing, toiletries or household items, you can e-mail: danielle.fitzsimmons@hotmail.com

This week’s “Pay it Forward” took us to Mt. Holly Springs, Cumberland County.  It’s where Lisa Goodridge hoped to help out a dear friend, Gloria Schell.  A woman who was there for her through the most difficult times of her life.

“She helped me out when I was down and really hard on my luck. And she’s just really been there. Left and right. She’s now like mom, since my mom passed away.”

Lisa Goodridge describes the close relationship she has with Gloria Schell, whom she met about a decade ago.  Goodridge says she was homeless when Schell took her in.  Now it’s Schell who’s down on her luck, in recovery from major back surgery she had several months ago.  Doctors still haven’s cleared her to return to work and her bills are piling up.

“I just want to help her out. And my husband and I have been, but it’s just, money’s tight for her, and she’s just a wonderful person.”

“Ok Lisa, here’s the $200, are you ready to go Pay it Forward to Gloria? Yes. Are you ready to give this to Gammy? She’s ready.”

So it was off to Mechanicsburg for Goodridge and her daughter Kylie to go surprise the woman they affectionately call “Mimi.”

“It’s open! Hi mom! I am here with FOX43 News. What for? To pay it forward to you, $200, because of everything you have done for me, and Kylie. I love you! I love you too! You stinker! Hi! Thank you!”

Schell’s surgery and other health issues make it difficult for her to get around and take care of things.  But Goodridge and her husband have stepped right in to take care of her needs.

“They are absolutely great to me and we’re thinking about getting a place together where we could all live together and not have to be doing steps and things like that.”

In the meantime, she’s still getting over the shock of our surprise visit.

“I’ve seen this on TV and I thought, aww it can’t happen, that could never happen to me. Oh thank you!”

Schell says she definitely plans to Pay it Forward in some way to someone else once she’s back on her feet.

This week, FOX43′s Pay it Forward crew headed to the city of Lebanon.

We eventually found Sherry Owens, Director of Programs at the Martin Luther King Family Life Center in Lebanon. Owens said she knew a single mom who could really use a $200 boost.

“She became homeless around Christmas Eve, either the day before Christmas Eve or actually on Christmas Eve,” Owens said. “She’s a single parent and currently cares for her four children,
four boys actually and they’re all very beautiful, very smart kids.”

Yveliz Cortes lost her job in August and has struggled to stay afloat ever since. She came to the Martin Luther King Family Life Center for help.

“The main thing is like I said, is to get them somewhere where they’re warm and safe and out of harm’s way,” Owens said. “She’s going through a little transition, it’s just a bumpy patch, not a way of life. Once she gets herself back together and back on her feet, I think she’ll do well.”

We followed Owens to a home where Cortes and her kids are staying with a friend.

“Very surprised! Thank you Sherry!” Cortes said after Owens presented her with the gift of $200.

Cortes is adding the $200 to the money she’s saving to rent a home for her four rambunctious sons, who are eight, seven, six and five years old.

“It’s a struggle, day by day,” Cortes said. “It’ll all work out though, by the grace of God.”

The Cortes family is starting from scratch and will need furniture, housewares are more. The Martin Luther King Family Life Center in Lebanon is accepting donations of their behalf. To find out how to help, you can call the center at (717) 272-8000 or e-mail info@mlkflcenter.org

Braving some wintry weather, FOX43′s Pay it Forward crew took to Main Street in Ephrata, Lancaster County. There, Dave Kolenski told us about his best friend, Joe Sweigart, a family man living with muscular dystrophy and heart failure.

“He chugs along pretty good for his disabilities,” Kolenski said. “He still goes to work, he refuses to not work and he loves taking care of his family. He loves his family very much and he’s just an all-around great guy.”

Dealing with mounting medical bills, a broken-down car, and just everyday living expenses, Sweigart could use a little help.

“Everybody deserves a break every once in a while, you know what I mean? Life can get really tough and if you have somebody there with a hand out to help you along a little bit, I think it makes a world of a difference,” Kolenski said.

When Kolenski surprised Sweigart with $200 at his doorstep, Sweigart was floored.

“Oh man! You didn’t have to do that Dave,” he said. “I really appreciate it. Thanks a lot man.”

Sweigart suffers from Becker muscular dystrophy, a slower progressing form of the disorder.

“Basically a slow deterioration of your muscles in your body over time,” Sweigart said.

On his most difficult days, his wife and daughter give him the motivation to keep going.

“Some mornings I wake up and I can’t and it hurts to get up and go and I try and I just think of my family and my little girl that I’ve got to support and I do as much as I can to help her out and be there for my family,” he said.

Seeing the devastating images out of Breezy Point, New York, in the aftermath of Super Storm Sandy is enough to make Shannon Medich tear up. But knowing she knows someone who is helping the community clean up and rebuild, fills her with pride.

“All of us, when it first happened, we gave and we thought about it. I think what’s remarkable about him is that he keeps giving,” Medich said about Tom Jones, a fellow church member that she considers like her older brother.

Jones has led a half-dozen volunteer trips to Breezy Point since Sandy hit, helping homeowners salvage and clean out what’s left of their flooded and damaged homes, and distributing care packages.

“Tom hasn’t forgotten,” Medich said. “He’s going every week, sometimes multiple times a week when he can get off work and he has four kids of his own and he’s still going.”

When Medich surprised Jones with $200 at his doorstep, she explained why she thought of him.

“I just wanted to honor your efforts to help the hurricane people and we’ve been talking in Community Bible Church about living incarnationally. And you’ve been the hands and feet of God to so many. Here’s 200 bucks!” she said.

Jones said seeing coverage of the destruction urged him to act.

“The fact that the hurricane did hit us and our lights didn’t even flicker, and just a few days later, I saw people diving in dumpsters to feed their kids, while we were sitting here eating our supper,” he said.

Jones plans to continue the trips as long as he’s needed, even taking along his wife and children to do their part.

“There are still 30,000 people in the New York area alone that are staying in auditoriums and shelters on cots,” he said. “Those people still need our help.”

He has trips scheduled through February and is working in conjunction with a group of churches through the Spread of Grace Ministries. To find out how to donate to their relief efforts, visit their website here.