Employees of North Olympic Peninsula businesses used creative ways to raise money for the Peninsula Daily News’ Peninsula Home Fund.
Collection cans, silent auctions and the passing around of collection envelopes helped raise money.
As of Friday, a record-smashing $61,000 from people and organizations in Clallam and Jefferson counties had been donated to the Peninsula Home Fund during its holiday season fund-raising period.
The 2001 campaign broke the old record set in 2000 of $42,703.
Now in its 13th year, every dollar contributed to the Peninsula Home Fund goes to making life better for children, teens, families and the elderly across Clallam and Jefferson counties — from Forks to Port Townsend, from Quilcene and Brinnon to LaPush.
No money is diverted for administration or other overhead.
All of the Peninsula Home Fund’s costs are absorbed by the Peninsula Daily News and nonprofit Olympic Community Action Programs, the No. 1 emergency care agency on the Peninsula which manages the fund for the PDN.
The money goes for hot meals for seniors, rent assistance for families, warm winter coats for kids, home repairs for the low income, needed prescription drugs, dental work, safe, drug-free temporary housing, eyeglasses — the list goes on.
Contributions supplement the work of other public and private social service agencies year-round, with an emphasis on making sure no one falls through the cracks during the most demanding time of the year — winter.
Clallam Transit
Mark Schildknecht served as chairman of the board of directors for the Clallam Transit employee association in 2001.
After feeling loose change jangling in his pocket, Schildknecht came up with an idea to assist the Peninsula Daily News’ Peninsula Home Fund.
He pitched his brainchild at the January 2001 board meeting.
“I suggested all employees could donate to the Peninsula Home Fund here and there over the course of the year,” Schildknecht said.
The employees agreed it was a good idea and set what was considered a reachable goal of $500, he said.
A collection jar was put on the counter of Clallam Transit’s operations center beginning in late January and a poster was put up to chart the collection drive’s progress.
The employees raised $535 and donated $500, keeping $35 as seed money for next year.
Olympic Medical Center
At Olympic Medical Center, the 20 staff members and one volunteer in the Cardiac Services Department abandoned their usual holiday gift baskets to other medical departments in favor of donating to the Peninsula Home Fund.
They started what they hope will be an ongoing tradition for all medical center employees, Cardiac Services Director Judy Tordini said.
“We decided if we really believed in our mission statement (of living a healthy lifestyle), we needed to walk our talk,” Tordini said.
Cardiac services staff raised an undisclosed amount of money for the Home Fund over three months.
Then Tordini sent a holiday memo to all employees at Olympic Medical Center, telling them about the donation.
“How could that not make you feel good?” Tordini said. “This is more than anything that we thought we could do.
“The Home Fund is local, and it’s for our people that we pass on the street every day.”
PDN, Clallam Road Dept.
Peninsula Daily News also walked the talk.
The employees from the newspaper’s offices in Port Townsend, Sequim and Port Angeles held a silent auction at the company’s holiday party Dec. 14 — and raised $1,122.
This is the second year the newspaper’s staffers have held an auction to benefit the Peninsula Home Fund. Last year’s donation was $700.
Employees of the Clallam County Road Department passed around an envelope at Thanksgiving and Christmas to collect money, said Doris Sparks, assistant accountant for the department.
The group, which consists of about 75 full-time employees, contributed $300.
In addition, several employees signed forms which allowed for a set amount to be subtracted from their checks and put into an account for the Peninsula Home Fund.
Park View Villas
The Park View Villas Retirement Community Council, 1430 Park View Lane in Port Angeles, donated $100 to the fund.
About 110 residents belong to the council and decided to donate money earned from various activities the group participates in throughout the year.
“We have raffles, and donations that around Christmas time start to build up,” explained Bob Benson, president of the council.
“We decide where we want to donate the money and don’t donate to national organizations — that is the reason we donated to the newspaper’s fund.”
Mad Maggi Boutique
Sue and Ron DeShazer, co-owners of Mad Maggi Boutique in Sequim, have made frequent donations of their shop’s profits to the Peninsula Home Fund over the past several years.
Mrs. DeShazer said she decided “through my heart” to contribute to “a really worthy” local cause and donated an undisclosed amount to the fund this past year.
‘Thrilled to death’
The 2001 fund-raising campaign began Thanksgiving weekend and ended Dec. 31.
On Monday, when contributions totaled $53,264 and with more last-minute contributions still coming in, Tim Hockett, deputy director of Olympic Community Action, said:
“We’re thrilled to death about the total this year — and so thankful to everyone in the community!
“This will enable us to help many, many more people.”
The $42,703 raised by the Peninsula Home Fund in 2000 allowed Olympic Community Action to help more than 600 people in 2001 — people that the organization wouldn’t have been able to assist otherwise, Hockett said.
