EDITOR’s NOTE: This is another in a series of articles on the Peninsula Home Fund. To donate, click on the HOME FUND button at left for a coupon.
PORT TOWNSEND — Debbie Rasmussen prides herself on being self-reliant.
As a home care provider, she spends her work day helping homebound elders with the chores they need done.
“I love my clients,” she says.
“Some of them depend on me very heavily. I was called not long ago at two in the morning to come assist a man who just would not go to the hospital without me.”
She was glad to help.
Rasmussen, a single mother of two teens, one with a number of health issues, is almost matter-of-fact as she tells about installing a clutch in her car so she can get to work.
“I was taught, ‘God helps those who help themselves,”‘ she says.
“But there are times in your life when you need a jump start.”
Couldn’t work
She was referring to a few months ago, when she contracted pneumonia.
She was unable to work for an entire month.
“I learned so many things from that experience,” she says.
“It is difficult for me to ask for help. I always thought I would be the last one needing assistance.
“I am pretty good with my budget, but I just couldn’t pay my bills without a whole month’s wages.”
Rasmussen saw Marcia Allen, client services specialist in the Port Townsend office of Olympic Community Action Programs (OlyCAP), and was told that she qualified for a grant from the Peninsula Daily News’ Peninsula Home Fund.
“We were able to provide enough help to stabilize the family while Debbie was nursed back to health,” recalls Allen.
A safety net
Peninsula Home Fund is a safety net for residents in Jefferson and Clallam counties when they face emergency situations and can’t find help elsewhere.
Helping children, teens, families and the elderly from Port Townsend to Forks, from Quilcene and Brinnon to LaPush, all the money in the fund goes — without deductions — for hot meals for seniors, 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 and on.
The nonprofit program’s emphasis is on making sure no one falls through the cracks during winter, the most demanding time of the year.
“Most families are prepared to deal with one or maybe two emergencies,” says Dan Wollam, executive director of OlyCAP, “but when a low-income family, especially with multiple children, faces a total loss of income for a time or faces multiple illnesses — it can be a serious emergency.
“That’s usually the sort of situation we use the Peninsula Home Fund for.”
Says Rasmussen: “I’m very thankful.”
No deductions
Peninsula Home Fund is seeking contributions for its annual holiday-season fund-raising campaign.
Now in its 14th year, the fund is managed for the Peninsula Daily News by OlyCAP, the No. 1 emergency care agency on the North Olympic Peninsula.
* No money is diverted for administration or other overhead. All costs are absorbed by the Peninsula Daily News and OlyCAP.
* All contributions are fully IRS tax-deductible.
* Money is commonly distributed in small amounts, usually up to $100.
* Assistance is limited to one time in a 12-month period.
Individuals, couples, businesses and school groups set a new record for contributions in 2001 — $63,777.
By mid-November of 2002, about 650 people had received about $46,000 from the fund.
All of the money collected last year is expected to be spent by Dec. 31.
Peninsula Home Fund contributions are often used in conjunction with money from churches, service clubs and other donors, enabling OlyCAP to stretch the value of the contributions.
To apply for a grant from the fund, phone OlyCAP at 360-452-4726 (Clallam County) or 360-385-2571 (Jefferson County).
If you have any questions about the fund, contact John Brewer, Peninsula Daily News editor and publisher, at 360-417-3500.
How to donate
A gift of any size is welcome.
Peninsula Home Fund has never been a campaign of heavy hitters.
Every gift makes a difference.
Contributions will be accepted until Dec. 31.
Please use the coupon accessible by clicking on the Peninsula Home Fund button at the left side of this computer page.
Again, all contributions are fully tax-deductible. You will receive a written thank you and acknowledgment of your contribution.
The Peninsula Daily News publishes news stories every Wednesday and Sunday during this year’s campaign listing contributors and reporting on how the fund works.
Contributions Nov. 30-Dec. 3
So far this holiday season, $12,146 has been contributed to the Peninsula Home Fund.
The following are contributions received between Nov. 30 and Dec. 3 — thank you very much:
* Howard Gipson, Port Angeles, $100.
* Tom Coville, Port Angeles, $50.
* Norman Gallacci, Lacey, $50, in memory of my aunts and uncles: Valda and Harold Morris, Angelo Gallacci and Marvin Thoen; my dad, Alfred Gallacci; and brother, Donald Gallacci.
* Donald and Nancy Morton, Port Ludlow, $100.
* Anonymous, Port Angeles, $100, in memory of Wally Davis.
* Anonymous, Port Angeles, $500. “A Christmas gift to the community.”
* Anonymous, Port Angeles, $10, “There is an advertiser who says, ‘Wouldn’t it be nice if children didn’t have to beg for food?” I will add to that, ‘Wouldn’t it be nice to have a government that cared?”‘
* Other anonymous contributors:
Sequim, $500.
Port Angeles, $100.
Sequim, $25.
Port Angeles, $50.
Sequim, $20.
Sequim, $80.
Chimacum, $100.
Port Townsend, $100.
Port Angeles, $50.
Sequim, $50.
Sequim, $100.
Port Angeles, $100
Port Angeles, $25.
Port Angeles, $100.
Sequim, $25.
Carlsborg, $125.
Sequim, $1,000.
Port Angeles, $25.
Sequim, $30.
Sequim, $15.
Port Angeles, $100.
Sequim, $30.
Sequim, $10.
Sequim, $35.
Sequim, $100.
Port Ludlow, $50.
Port Angeles, $10.
Port Angeles, $100.
Port Angeles, $500.
Port Angeles, $35.
Port Angeles, $100.
* *Virginia B. Woolf, Carlsborg, in memory of Martha Russell.
* *Bob Howington and Shirley LeBrun, Port Angeles, in memory of Leland Lee.
* *Herb’s Motel, Sekiu, in honor of all Clallam County volunteers.
* *Vee and Hal Bishop, Port Angeles, in memory of Cherrie Lee Bishop.
* *Lillian Green, Port Angeles, in honor of Sister Betty.
* *John and Mary Wegmann, Port Angeles, in memory of Matthew Edwards.
* *Bill and Joan Riedel, Sekiu, in memory of Eva and Joe Riedel.
* *Dianne Williams, Port Angeles, in the name of Roosevelt Middle School staff.
* *Susan Catron, Sequim.
* *Rosemary Taylor, Port Angeles.
* *Rosemary Cockrill, Port Angeles.
* *Ray and Kelly Putman, Sequim.
* *Voneda E. Stiewe, Chimacum.
* *Jean and Everett Tozier, Port Angeles.
* *Joe and Naomi Denhart, Port Angeles.
* *Alfred Althoff, Port Angeles.
* *Gary and Lynn Anderson, Sequim.
* *Gene and Mardi Voris, Sequim.
* *Jean and Orv Hegseth, Port Angeles.
* *Barbara K. Miller, Port Angeles.
* *David Martin, Sequim.
* *Roland C. and Vivian Raymond, Port Townsend.
* *Neil and Jackie Eklund, Sequim.
* *Doug and Trudy Rittenhouse, Port Angeles.
*=Denotes amount of donation is private
