Holding On

There have been lots of tumultuous things going on in my life which I will be sharing with you in my next blog post. With respect to my last post, I can’t tell you how touched I was by the response – it really meant a lot to me to see the comments and know that people understood that leaving A4cwsn has been a tough and painful experience for me. In my last post I strove to explain why it took me so long to break away from A4cwsn and the reasons why I ultimately resigned as admin for A4cwsn Canada. This post is a brief explanation of what has happened since (from my perspective) and ends with a request for action if you share the same concerns as I do and have donated money to A4cwsn.

As you may know, myself and a number of friends have submitted complaints about A4cwsn to the Department of Consumer Protection, which is a department of the Connecticut Attorney General’s office. One of the reactions from people in response to hearing about this is: “why not just walk away and leave A4cwsn alone? Why file complaints? Isn’t this just a personal vendetta?” This post is an explanation of why I filed a complaint, why this is not personal and why I am encouraging others to also file complaints (if applicable).

I am neither a lawyer nor a police officer so I am simply not qualified to make a determination regarding whether A4cwsn has been acting in a lawful manner. For this reason, some friends and I sent a letter outlining some facts about A4cwsn to the Attorney General’s office in Connecticut. We wanted someone to confirm whether or not our concerns were well-founded or just part of the huge emotional reaction to what had happened. I feel strongly that A4cwsn is run poorly and unprofessionally but I needed someone to tell me whether it was possible that A4cwsn was also operating illegally.

The Assistant Attorney General who reviewed our letter and the documentation we sent in confirmed that she had grave reservations with respect to how A4cwsn is being run and that our concerns were well-founded. Our file was assigned to the Department of Consumer Protection for review, which is a department of the Attorney General’s office. Myself and others have spoken with the officer in charge of the review, Terence Zehnder, and can confirm that he believes that A4cwsn has been promoting itself as a charitable organization and raising funds under those auspices. However, Mr. Zehnder has about 200 open case files and the ones that he receives the most complaints on are the ones that receive the promptest attention. As it is, the review process will likely take months to complete.

For this reason I am asking that those who donated to A4cwsn please join me in filing a complaint form if they now have concerns regarding how A4cwsn is organized and how donated funds have been spent. The form that should be completed is this one:

Consumer Statement – Charities

Please attach copies of receipts substantiating the amount of money you donated, raffle tickets purchased, etc.

Mr. Zehnder has confirmed that he would like to receive the complaints in hard copy. So, you can either fax them to his attention at 860-706-1315 or mail the documents to him at:

Department of Consumer Protection

165 Capitol Ave

Room 110

Hartford, CT  06106

I promoted A4cwsn on this blog. In all conscience I therefore have to share with you here the fact that the authorities have an investigation open because our concerns in relation to the legality of A4cwsn’s operations are genuine and not a symptom of any personal animosity felt towards its founder. If you have any questions regarding how to complete the form, submit your complaint or any other matter, please feel free to comment on this post and I will respond. Alternatively you can email me at babyomum@live.com

The title of the blog post was inspired by an REM song “Everybody Hurts” which describes well where I am at this point. Thanks to the friends I have (you know who you are) who are helping and holding me tight.