Charity may start at home, but that’s also where it seems to be stopping this season.
Apparently tapped out by giving to victims of a tsunami, hurricanes, earthquakes and other disasters — experts call it “disaster fatigue” — North Olympic Peninsula donors aren’t meeting many local needs as the holidays draw near.
At Manna, Port Angeles-area churches’ pool for people who lack rent or utility payments, the usual “buffer” of $5,000 was down to $500, said Bob Dunlap, one of the group’s dozen volunteers.
Dunlap said that he wasn’t sure that disaster donations had tightened people’s purse strings, “but it certainly is clear that we ran very dry.”
Manna closed its doors in November because it was out of money.
It will reopen in December, thanks to a recent fundraiser.
(To help, call Dunlap at 360-452-2537.)
The North Olympic Peninsula chapter of the American Red Cross has seen fewer donations since tsunami and hurricane donations ebbed.
“People who wanted to donate have pretty much donated,” said Phyllis Darling, executive director.
“People have only so many resources. They’re just tired.”
Darling said the earthquake in Pakistan was the worst disaster of 2005, “but we’ve seen much less coming in. People have just given and given and given.”
Local people’s needs, however, haven’t vanished, she said.
(To help, call 360-457-7933.)
