In December 2008, I was enjoying a glass of red wine and watching tv. I was hearing about companies planning to layoff workers just before the holiday. Unfortunately, 2008 seemed to have wave after wave of corporate layoff announcements. In August 2008 Lehman Brothers went bankrupt over a weekend and chaos seemed to take over the financial sector. I just remember thinking that night about the families of people who were being laid off. Please understand that I was working as an investment representative at the time, ShareBuilder. The days were wild as the stock market in the fall of 2008 would literally lose 300 points one day, gain 100 the next day and lose another 200+ points the following day. Nobody knew what was happening on a day to day basis. The news stations (CNBC, CNN, etc) highlighted the rollercoaster and downfall with unbridled enthusiasum though. Back to that evening, I was thinking of, basically visualizing, the families in where the main person bringing home the income had been laid off and realizing that no corporations were hiring. People were losing good paying jobs. How does a person replace the $80,000/yr income delivering pizzas and expect to keep paying their bills, mortgages, put food on the table for their families and themselves? I was envisioning families that were sitting in their homes feeling the walls of bills and debt closing in around them. All of sudden it was like a lightbulb went off in my head, someone needs to be there to throw families a lifeline. Some type of funding that would not require families to pay it back just to get their families through for 1-2 yrs. Millions of families were about to lose their homes on top of already losing their jobs. I came up with a possible solution. I mean why not me. I had been in banking for 5+ yrs then passed the series 7 and 66 test and had been working in the investment field for 3+ yrs by that point in time. I understood how the financial community worked and knew there was not going to a rescue coming from the financial corporations especially when they could barely keep themselves afloat at the time. Literally, I went to my computer and purchase the website payoffthemortgage.org that night not knowing what I was going to do or how to proceed. Needless to say, but the recession worsened in early 2009 and the stock market was crashing. The train had officially come off the tracks. I went on to create the initial website myself for payoffthemortgage.org and marketed it as a gifting website. I tried advertising on craigslist until I got my posts deleted so many times that craigslist banned my email address. Dead end until December 5th 2011. My employer, Pacific West Securities (independent broker-dealer), was having the best year ever revenue wise. We had a staff meeting that day and the owners of the company announced they were closing the company. Basically, the owners signed an agreement with another larger independent financial company to help recruit their reps and move over client assets. Everyone had until mid-March 2012. While I eventually stayed until June 2012 one of about 6-7 employees out of the original 44 from December, I knew what I was going to do. Now was the time. I can always go after another job. I just want to make that difference and Building America's Foundation is the dream realized. Please join me on this journey. Contribute generously and we, together, will help families all over America. Thanks for your support, Todd Schuerman Founder CEO Building America's Foundation