An Easter offering plate in Duluth turned into a $3.2 million lifeline for thousands of struggling neighbors. St. Paul’s Episcopal Church took a special collection aimed at erasing medical debt in St. Louis County, and the congregation ended up raising far more than it set out to gather, enough to wipe out crushing bills for families across five counties in the region.
The church and local community members raised $25,000 on Easter Sunday, according to BusinessNorth, blowing past the $17,000 goal organizers had set. That single collection, pooled with gifts from across the community, was enough to abolish $3,235,613.81 in medical debt for 3,693 households spanning St. Louis, Douglas, Lake, Carlton and Itasca Counties.
The math behind that kind of leverage comes down to how medical debt is bought and sold. Ahead of the Easter push, Northern News Now reported that the church hoped to raise $17,000, citing figures from its nonprofit partner showing that every $10 donated can erase an average of $1,000 in medical debt. St. Paul’s worked with Undue Medical Debt, which the BusinessNorth report describes as a national organization that specializes in abolishing medical debt by purchasing it in bulk.
Letters Went Out Quietly Over the Summer
The debt-abolishment process is now complete…