EDITOR’S NOTE: For 24 years, Peninsula Daily News readers in Jefferson and Clallam counties have supported the “hand up, not a handout” Peninsula Home Fund.
Today, we feature another in a series of articles on how the fund operates and who benefits from our readers’ generosity.
More information about the Home Fund will appear Wednesday.
PORT ANGELES — The distance is often very short between those of us with jobs and homes and medical care — and those Peninsula residents for whom fate has dealt a much different reality.
Peninsula Home Fund workers again this year heard heartbreaking stories of unexpected poverty and illness — and more recipients were seeking help from the fund for the first time, often because a family member recently lost a job.
Always showing respect and kindness to people who don’t always receive that in their daily lives, Home Fund staff’s most important goal is to get the individual or family through a crisis and back on the path to self-sufficiency.
Whenever possible, Peninsula Home Fund case managers work with each individual or family to develop a plan to become financially stable — and avoid a recurrence of the emergency that prompted aid from the fund.
The fund is not set up to hand out money passively — recipients play active roles in their own success, their own rehabilitation, their own empowerment, their own futures.
That’s the “hand up, not a handout” focus of the Home Fund.
The Home Fund can also take a relatively small amount of money and aim it at the precise point where it can do maximum good — and make a significant difference in someone’s life..
Amber’s story
Medical issues required a trip to a specialist in Seattle for .
But her budget was already stretched to the limit putting food on the table for her children, leaving nothing for her to pay for a trip across Puget Sound.
She was put in contact with OlyCAPThrough their Christmas presents.
was able to turn to the Peninsula Home Fund for help.
“The Home Fund helped immensely,” says the warm and bubbly Amber.
“At the time my husband was going to school and wasn’t working, so we had no money to pay for the fuel and ferry just to get over there — I was so stressed.”
Thankfully, she says, the Home Fund was able to cover those urgent travel costs.
“It was such a relief,” she said. “I’m so grateful the Home Fund was able to help us out when we really needed it.”
Both Amber, 28, and husband, Derek, 33, are Port Angeles natives. At the time Derek was going to Peninsula College full-time to earn a degree in welding. Four months ago he began working as a welder at Platypus in Port Angeles.
“Now he’s working and going to school full-time to get his 2-year welding degree,” said Amber. “So we’re still struggling to catch up on our bills, but it’s a blessing to have him working.”
Like many youths, they struggled with social issues and it took them a while to take adult life seriously. The good news is they have matured and are now doing well. Thanks in a large part, said Amber, to the kindness of others and local community programs.
The Gruels, who have little two girls, Kinlee and Kadence, under the age of three, have spent the last three years working hard to change their former lifestyle.
“Me getting pregnant the first time is what saved us and is the reason we changed,” says Amber.
For Derek, she says, her pregnancy was one of two life-changing events that propelled him on the road to maturity. The other was his dad passing away in 2004 at just 53.
When deciding a career path Derek, whose past jobs included auto paint, bodywork and window tinting, chose welding because of his father’s own love of welding.
“His dad was a metal fabricator and welder who was really good at what he did,” said Amber. “Derek thought it would make his dad proud if he became a welder, too, and it’s something he enjoys.”
Derek also has two sons, now 16 and 10, from a previous marriage.
“Derek had just turned 17 was Austin was born and he just wasn’t ready for the responsibility,” she said, referring to his boys as “sweet and awesome” and being raised by a good mom and step-dad.
She says Derek is now striving be a better father to his boys.
“I’ve found being a parent to be really rewarding,” says Amber, “It forces you to stop thinking about yourself and start thinking about others.”
Home Fund campaign
The PDN’s Peninsula Home Fund — a safety net for local residents when there is nowhere else to turn — is seeking contributions for its annual holiday season fundraising campaign that runs from Thanksgiving through Dec. 31.
From Port Townsend to Forks, from Quilcene and Brinnon to Sequim and LaPush, the Home Fund is a “hand up, not a handout” for children, teens, families and the elderly to get through an emergency situation.
Money from the Home Fund goes for hot meals for seniors, meeting rent, energy and transportation needs, warm winter coats for kids, home repairs for the low-income, needed eyeglasses and prescription drugs, dental work, safe and drug-free temporary housing . . .
The list goes on and on.
Begun in 1989, the Home Fund is supported by Jefferson and Clallam residents.
Individuals, couples, families, businesses, churches, service organizations and school groups set a record for contributions in 2011 — $254,593.73.
With heavy demand this year, the carefully rationed fund is being depleted rapidly.
Since Jan. 1, the Home Fund has helped more than 2,700 individuals and households like that of Linda Parks.
As we move into winter, the toughest period of the year, all of the money collected in 2011 is expected to be exhausted by Dec. 31.
■ The Peninsula Home Fund is a unique nonprofit program.
No money is deducted by the Peninsula Daily News.
Every penny, 100 percent, goes to OlyCAP to help the most vulnerable members of our community, from infants to families to seniors.
Because of the extraordinary demand experienced by OlyCAP in 2011 and 2012 — and plummeting cutbacks in grants and government support — for the first time in the 24-year history of the Home Fund, OlyCAP used a portion of the fund in 2012 to pay for the helping hands who see clients.
The amount is limited to no more than 10 percent — 10 cents of every dollar donated.
OlyCAP has kept it below 10 percent — specifically, 8.9 percent.
The fund is not set up to hand out money passively.
OlyCAP can no longer absorb the costs of managing all the facets of the Home Fund — screening applicants, providing counseling and carefully disbursing the funds — without financial assistance.
It must tap a small portion of the fund as tough times compound the challenges it faces to help those in need.
■ The Home Fund is not a welfare program.
Assistance, which usually averages less than $100, is also limited to one time in a 12-month period.
The average amount of help this year has been about $57 per family.
As needed, Peninsula Home Fund donations are also used in conjunction with money from churches, service clubs and other donors, enabling OlyCAP to stretch the value of the contribution.
The Home Fund staff’s most important goal is to get the individual or family through a crisis and back on the path of self-sufficiency.
Whenever possible, case managers work with each individual or family to develop a plan to become financially stable — and avoid a recurrence of the emergency that prompted aid from the fund.
The goal again: “a hand up, not a handout.”
■ All contributions are fully IRS tax-deductible for the year in which a check is written.
(See accompanying story.)
■ Your personal information is kept confidential.
The PDN does not rent, sell, give or otherwise share your address or other information with anyone or make any other use of it.
Applying for a grant
To apply for a Peninsula Home Fund grant, phone OlyCAP at 360-452-4726 (Clallam County) or 360-385-2571 (Jefferson County).
■ OlyCAP’s Port Angeles office is at 228 W. First St., Suite J (Armory Square Mall); 360-452-4726.
■ Its Port Townsend office is at 803 W. Park Ave.; 360-385-2571.
■ The Forks/West End office is at 421 Fifth Ave.; 360-374-6193.
OlyCAP’s website: www.olycap.org; email: action@olycap.org.
If you have any questions about the fund, phone John Brewer, Peninsula Daily News editor and publisher, at 360-417-3500.
Or email him at john.brewer@peninsuladailynews.com.
The Peninsula Daily News publishes the donation coupon and information about the fund every Sunday and Wednesday during the fundraising campaign.
While most of the money is raised between Thanksgiving and Dec. 31, the fund itself never closes.
Donations of any amount are always welcome.
