Hello, I’m Keith Hatchett, CEO and founder of a brand new 501C3 charity called The Elease Project. The Elease Project began activity and research in 2009, totally funded by Keith Hatchett and his family trust. Over a period of eight to nine years, The Elease Project was built slowly and methodically through research and action in the field. When Phillip Allen and myself rented a massive 26 foot truck in April 2009, we were able to coordinate and receive donations from 21 individual families and churches all over the state of Florida. By the time we left West Palm Beach, FL and traveled all the way north on Interstate 95 to Jacksonville and then on to Pensacola via Interstate 10, our truck was now filled to the brim with amazing donations. This truck had flat screen TV’s, couches, lazy-boy chairs, lamps, end tables, dining room tables/chairs, bed frames/mattresses, floor model TV’s, pictures, silverware/dishes, dressers/mirrors, toiletry items, and clothing of every sort for men, women, and children. In addition, we had many boxes full of canned goods and food items. After traveling from West Palm Beach to Pensacola Florida we began our journey by traveling across the United States to San Diego California. The reason we traveled to San Diego is because that particular city has more homeless people on the streets and under the bridges than any city that I had ever traveled to. When I traveled to San Diego I met a wonderful family and a man by the name of Carlos Martinez. Mr Martinez and his family were single handedly trying to feed and clothe thousands of people each month in downtown San Diego. When we arrived in California, the amount of supplies and success that we had on our trip was overwhelmingly received with excitement and joy from the Martinez family. After unloading the entire truck into a storage warehouse with help from 10-15 family members and church members, we had completed two thirds of our mission. The final piece of our mission was to get out on to the streets and get the people the help that they needed immediately. The first day that The Elease Project began its initial research work, we decided to go under the interstate bridges of San Diego and interview the homeless. It was at this point that we discovered that these homeless people all had different levels of problems and none of their situations were the same. We created an intake form to get these peoples basic information, medical information, military experience information, and contact number information. We were shocked to know that there were actually families that we interviewed under the bridges of San Diego that were unnecessarily homeless. Two of these families had a unique situation different then the rest of the homeless but were still living underneath the interstate bridge just like all the others. These families were in the off shore oil business in Louisiana and were making approximately $40 an hour. They were told if they transferred to San Diego to a different company that their salary would be nearly $80 an hour. These families quit their jobs in Louisiana and moved to San Diego. The new job, after only two weeks of work, laid them off due to a corporate merger. These people had lost their jobs and now their home in San Diego. Carlos Martinez knew of two vacant apartments that we could furnish with furniture from our storage and we were also able to get them on unemployment very quickly. In one week these two families went from having nothing to having a place to live, furniture, food, toiletry items, and unemployment income. In addition, over a period of time we were able to help them financially so that they could get jobs and get back on their feet totally. To this day, Keith’s Magnavox floor model TV still works beautifully in the living room of one of these family’s apartment in San Diego.

When Keith and Phillip started working underneath these interstate bridges and interviewing other people, they took action to help these people immediately with toiletry items, underwear, three inch foam mattresses to sleep on, and clothing. We went to the warehouse and spent one day loading up station wagon automobiles with t-shirts, pants, jackets, socks, shoes and, hats. The next morning we drove to the inner city and passed these items out like candy to all the homeless and needy. It was at this point in our research that I realized all homeless people’s situations were not the same. That next day, I created MissionPAL to help with homeless peoples immediate needs and then PovertyPAL to help people who had a roof over their head but yet had nothing else. The total cost of the trip was around $6,800 for the truck, hotels, and airfare back home. The total donations valued at around $20,000.

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In my conversations with Carlos Martinez, I also discovered that Carlos and his family were suffering financially due to the overwhelming amount of money needed to continue this program. It was at this point that I decided to create the third piece of The Elease Project known today as MissionaryPAL. This third piece provides dollars and funding for missionaries on the streets in the United States and countries around the world. The next day I was invited to speak at a San Diego city council meeting concerning the homeless problem in San Diego. I explained that my new company LeasePAL would allow renters an opportunity to move in at a much lower cost due to LeasePAL’s new insurance program. I explained to the city council that we were also working on a program that would help people that had no place to live due to their dire conditions. I explained to those council members that The Elease Project would provide funding to them in three areas upon it’s completion. Those areas are immediate help to the homeless (MissionPAL), financial housing help for the homeless and those in section eight housing that run out of money each month (PovertyPAL), and financial help to the preachers and to the missionaries that are carrying out the work to solve these horrific problems (MissionaryPAL). The council members were very thankful and excited about The Elease Project and begged me to please get this program up and running as fast as possible.

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Next I noticed that many of the homeless people had medical and dental problems as they could not afford proper medical and dental care. Many of these destitute laden people qualify for medical and dental help but had no one that knew what they were doing to get them enrolled into their veteran benefits, and medicaid benefits, and medicare/social security benefits. We were able to provide a toll free number that these people could call in on to reunite with their family members and also to enroll them into medical and dental help programs. It was at this point that pieces four and five were created for The Elease Project. These Programs were named MedicalPAL and DentalPAL.

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Some of the people that we helped on the streets of San Diego were elderly in age. We were able to assist these people by enrolling them into government assisted programs that include hospital and nursing home care. This program which is the sixth piece of The Elease Project was appropriately named AdoptionPAL. Many years later in 2017 we added a second piece to the AdoptionPAL Program. With the hurricanes in Florida and Texas, many animals had no place to go nor anyone to help save them. When the last hurricane hit Houston Texas our team headed up by Sandy Carter from Daytona Beach Fl raced to Houston and along with many other volunteers and veterinarians. We were successfully able to rescue dogs, cats, horses and animals of all kind. We are currently working on combining abandoned animals with visits to the elderly and to young children’s schools so that both the animals and the young and old people can experience a loving family atmosphere from each other.

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From 2009 all the way through 2017 I had the pleasure of meeting two of the most wonderful people in the world. Their names are Scott and Velma Dawson. Scott and Velma have been in prison ministry now 27 years. With their jail ministry/prison ministry program they have gotten over 1,000 people saved and to know the lord. Countless amounts of other people have had their lives totally restructured due to Scott and Velma’s bible based life foundation program. They were very successful in getting people on the right track so that they do not get themselves in trouble and have a great rest of their lives. These inmates have an impossible task of finding work, a place to live, and anyone that will help them. Once they are released from jail they will be sent to the PrisonPAL transition center. In this facility the former inmates will receive a haircut, medical care, dental care, and a place to transition back into society. They are also given an 800 number of which they can receive messages from their family members and make arrangements to be picked up after the three day PrisonPAL transition center stay expires. After I reviewed the wonderful work of Scott and Velma Dawson it was at this time that I decided to make PrisonPAL the wonderful seventh piece of The Elease Project.

I have an extensive background working with athletes over the last 23 years as both a teacher, a coach, an umpire, and an accomplished basketball official. My reputation in sports as an official and as a league and tournament organizer were well known. At one time I had seven basketball and baseball leagues in which I hired all the officials, completed all the scheduling, and organized the events. These leagues range from five and six year olds, elementary and junior high age groups, high schoolers, all the way up through college and pro players that played in my summer leagues. I built my reputation of teaching fundamentals and building peoples foundations through their life. The eighth piece of The Elease Project I named AthletePAL. This program is designed to keep players and coaches on track with good morals and great foundations that will be built by us through sports. We will bring in many of the top successful coaches and players and also we will have guest speakers from some of the players and coaches that lost their way and nearly lost everything due to poor decisions and very costly mistakes.

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The ninth program of The Elease Project is called ForeclosurePAL. This program will take people in foreclosure and help them save their homes all while rebuilding their lives financially. For those people who have already lost their homes, the goal of this program is to get people back into home ownership through Keith’s amazing rental credit building program that protects them while they’re building their credit and also protects them with the financial guidance that they need to properly re-enter the world of home ownership. Most foreclosures are caused due to a lack of knowledge in the area of purchasing homes and a lack of emergency funds in case of catastrophic events that occur in peoples lives. ForeclosurePAL will work directly with the credit bureaus as we teach foreclosure victims how to restore their credit so that they can restore their lives someday financially.

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The last program which makes up the tenth piece of The Elease Project is named ImmigrationPAL. This particular program is closest to my heart. As many of you know on April 02, 2008 Homeland Security came in to my home at 5 o’clock in the morning and took my wife Leslie from me. My wife Is beautiful, nice, sweet, and has never done anything wrong to any other person. She has never even had a parking ticket. When my wife was taken from me after two years of marriage and deported to Peru on May 14, 2008 I was devastated. I cleaned out many checking accounts with all I had to save her. I was in court after my wife was deported for many months trying to seek her return to the United States. As of today my wife had been out of the country away from me for over ten years. I lost my money, I almost lost our home, my bills doubled as I had to get all new furniture and another home in Peru. I was hit with hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal bills. It is my belief that God made me sink to an all time low so that I would come closer to him. All of this devastation in 2008 gave me the work ethic and the heart I now have for other people to help those in need. My story Is very similar to Job in the bible. Many people have stated that if all of this devastation happened to them that they would have probably lost their minds or committed suicide. Instead I decided to create LeasePAL which is an insurance company that will give me the financial means to save my wife and potentially get her back home here In the United States with me. It is important to note that I decided to show God that I was devoted to him no matter how good things were or how bad things were in the year 2008. It is very important to note that we designed The Elease Project so it would help those in need that my new company LeasePAL could not help. I talked to my mother (Elease Hatchett) and she stated how honored she was to have this project named after her. It is important to note that my mother and father honored God more than anyone that I have ever known. It is my honor to put their picture on the main center piece of the logo of The Elease Project as it honors both them and God even though it is named after my mother. My dad stated many times that when he and mom adopted me, they did it because they wanted to give someone a chance that basically had no chance to make it without help. Since 2009, we as a small group have spent over $900 thousand dollars helping others. We have loaned people money without repayment. In Nashville TN we saved a home for a family that was in foreclosure and $25,000 behind on their mortgage payments. In addition, we helped this family get on their feet and totally recover not only their home but their life as we listed their bills smallest to largest and helped them eliminate $15,000 of the $38,000 in loans and credit card debt. This family is well on their way to being debt free and paying back those who helped them. We have given jobs to ex inmates, we have helped a woman In West Palm Beach that runs out of money by the 20th of every month due to her low fixed income, we have provided free housing to four people in Florida and Atlanta Georgia. The impact that we have made in peoples lives with over 30 people in multiple cities is staggering. Keith personally paid for this help out of his personal income and his family trust. We can’t do this financially all by ourselves. My Uncle Fred suggested that we also create a charity that not only helps people in these 10 areas but also benefits the wealthy givers that are donating to charity. During the time that Keith’s uncle Fred lived the last two years of his life in an assisted living facility, he received hundreds of calls from organizations (charities) wanting him to donate money. He felt so bad that he could not help everyone so it was he that gave Keith the idea to design The Elease Project in a way that the donor could send money to one charity and it funds 10 other charities all at once. The donor could choose to fund The Elease Project this way or they also have the second option to put all of their money into one of the ten pieces of The Elease Project. There are only a couple of states that will allow this structure. We are glad to announce that my home state of Tennessee Is where The Elease Project’s home office will be located for business around the country and around the world. The purpose of this letter is to let you know that we are people of action and not just words. We need your help so that tens of thousands of people can get the help they need and not just a few families. The structure of The Elease Project is complete and we are ready to get started. We hope that you can build yourself a home in God’s Kingdom with your gifts and donations to The Elease Project.