HAPPY NEW YEAR to the North Olympic Peninsula . . . from the North Olympic Peninsula.
You live in a community with people who care about you.
From the eighth-grader who sent us the $20 bill he received in his Christmas stocking to the Port Angeles businessman who donated an astonishing $25,000 — those people care about you.
People passed the hat at work, they sold homemade cookies, they gave despite the hits they’ve taken, too, in this still tenuous economy.
They gave from all over Jefferson and Clallam counties, but also from elsewhere in Washington and from Hawaii, Illinois, Wisconsin and other states where former residents now live.
Every person and business who gave to the Home Fund gave generously.
Last-minute contributions are still being tallied, but as of Monday, $240,124 had been donated from people and organizations in Jefferson and Clallam counties to the Peninsula Daily News’ 2012 “hand up, not a handout” Peninsula Home Fund.
That was a leap from last Friday’s total and got us closer to the $254,593.73 we received last year when the 2011 campaign closed.
We’ll have a wrapup story in this Sunday’s PDN and at www.peninsuladailynews.com on the final total along with a concluding list of donors.
Unchanged is the need for support of life-altering emergency services very close to home.
For 24 years, the Home Fund has been a beacon of hope powered by PDN readers.
Your contributions were turned into a helping hand for about 3,000 Peninsula families, many with children, and individuals in 2012.
These are your neighbors, with nowhere else to turn.
These are local people that our partner, nonprofit Olympic Community Action Programs, wouldn’t have been able to assist otherwise.
With heavy demand expected again in 2013, only a few dollars are left from last year’s campaign and will go with the new money right away to make sure no one falls through the cracks during the dark days of winter, the most demanding time of the year.
Fund never closes
While the books on the 2012 campaign are about to be closed, the Peninsula Home Fund itself never closes.
New contributions (envelopes postmarked after Dec. 31, checks dated Jan. 1 or thereafter, or donations by credit card received after Monday) will go — with much thanks — toward the 2013 campaign.
The holiday fundraising campaign for the Home Fund begins every year on Thanksgiving Day and runs through Dec. 31.
But donations of any amount are always welcome.
Every dollar is fully IRS-tax deductible, and contributions collected last year before Thanksgiving gave us a running start on the 2012 drive.
Thank you again for the good you do.
JOHN BREWER
Publisher and editor
Peninsula Daily News
360-417-3500
john.brewer@peninsuladailynews.com
