By Tim Hockett, for Peninsula Daily News
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is another in a series of articles on the Peninsula Home Fund. The next article will appear Sunday with an updated list of donors to the fund. To donate, please print out a coupon accessible via the Home Fund button at the right of the peninsuladailynews.com home page.
The author of this article, Tim Hockett, is the executive director of OlyCAP – Olympic Community Action Programs – the No. 1 emergency care agency on the North Olympic Peninsula. OlyCAP manages the Home Fund for the PDN.
Each year, North Olympic Peninsula residents come together in a heart-warming effort to help their neighbors through the Peninsula Daily News’ Peninsula Home Fund.
The fund provides life-changing services to those who need a “hand up, not a handout.”
And every penny donated – 100 percent – goes directly to assist those in need in Jefferson and Clallam counties.
All costs are absorbed by Peninsula Daily News and OlyCAP – Olympic Community Action Programs, which manages the fund for the PDN, screens the applicants and distributes the money.
The fund has grown significantly every year since its inception in 1989 – from a small start of $4,811.53 that year to a whopping $191,349 last year.
The money collected in 2006 has helped more than 2,200 individuals and families in 2007 as of mid-December.
Home Fund money is usually distributed in small amounts, usually up to $150, to create a better future for children, teens, families and the elderly from Port Townsend to Forks, from Quilcene and Brinnon to LaPush and the Hoh River area.
It is used for hot meals for seniors, warm winter coats for kids, prescription eyeglasses, home repairs for the low income, needed prescription drugs, dental work, safe, drug-free temporary housing . . . the list goes on and on . . .
Instances of help are designed to get an individual or family through the crisis – and back on the path to self-sufficiency.
That’s the “hand up, not a handout” focus of the fund.
Peninsula Home Fund case managers work with individuals and families to develop a plan to become financially stable – and avoid a recurrence of the emergency that prompted aid from the fund.
Counseling, mentoring and employment services are part of the Peninsula Home Fund program.
For many Peninsula residents, the Home Fund has become a preferred charity.
Many donors give regularly, even weekly, to the Home Fund.
Service clubs and many local businesses every year conduct special events and even their own internal Home Fund drives.
