EDITOR’S NOTE: For 19 years, Peninsula Daily News readers in Jefferson and Clallam counties have supported the “hand up, not a handout” Peninsula Home Fund.
Today we feature another in a series of articles on how the fund operates and who benefits from our readers’ generosity.
The next article will appear Sunday.
PORT ANGELES — Alexis Haire is happily settled into her first apartment with her toddler, Lily, thanks to help from the Peninsula Daily News’ Peninsula Home Fund.
At 20, Alexis found herself on the fast track to the grown-up’s world of responsibility when she gave birth to a baby girl.
A Port Angeles native, Alexis was living at her family’s home when she became pregnant.
Reality struck her like lightening as she realized she lacked the financial means to care for herself, let alone her daughter.
Thus began her path to self-sufficiency and accountability — with help from the Peninsula Home Fund.
Without any deductions for administration or other overhead, the PDN’s Peninsula Home Fund is a safety net for people in Clallam and Jefferson counties when they suddenly face an emergency situation and can’t find help elsewhere.
Donations from the community are vital to the success of the fund — 100 percent of the dollars donated go directly to assist those in need on the North Olympic Peninsula.
So far in 2008, the donations have been felt in powerful, meaningful ways in the lives of Alexis and Lily and more than 2,703 families and individuals across the Peninsula.
Early Head Start program
Alexis set a goal to move out of her parents’ home and into a place of her own — and began taking steps to make it happen.
It didn’t take place overnight.
She found a job at the Lower Elwha Klallam day care center and enrolled Lily in Peninsula College’s Early Head Start program.
It was there Alexis met Tammy Lidster, an infant toddler specialist in the program.
“In Alexis I saw someone who was willing to help herself,” says Tammy.
“It’s not often we see someone go right out and get job, and who is willing to do whatever it takes to get off the system.”
Tammy suggested she contact OlyCAP — Olympic Community Action Programs, the No. 1 emergency care agency on the North Olympic Peninsula.
It also screens applicants for the Peninsula Home Fund and disperses the funds.
Alexis contacted OlyCAP and put her name on the waiting list for the agency’s subsidized housing program.
At that time she was informed before she could move in she needed proof of income, plus the money for first and last month’s rent and utility deposits.
“I was on the low-income apartments’ waiting list for months,” says Alexis.
“Then they called me up and said I could have one now.
“The problem was I didn’t have the money for the utility deposit.”
If she didn’t come up with the deposit right away, she was told, the apartment was going to the next person on the waiting list.
Alexis was able to get help from the Peninsula Home Fund for the $125 deposit on her electricity service, as well as allowing her to buy an inexpensive vacuum and microwave.
The Home Fund gave this young family a boost toward independence.
“We’re so happy here, and I am so grateful to the Home Fund for helping me get into my own apartment,” says Alexis.
From Thanksgiving through Dec. 31, the PDN’s Peninsula Home Fund is seeking contributions for its 2008 holiday season fund-raising campaign.
From Port Townsend to Forks, from Quilcene and Brinnon to LaPush, the fund is a “hand up, not a handout” when there is nowhere else to turn.
No deductions
Every penny, every dollar, donated goes — without any deductions for administration or overhead — to making life better for children, teens, families and the elderly in Jefferson and Clallam counties.
The fund is used for hot meals for seniors, warm winter coats for kids, home repairs for the low income, needed eyeglasses and prescription drugs, dental work, safe, drug-free temporary housing . . . the list goes on and on.
The Peninsula Home Fund is unique and nonprofit:
• No money is deducted for administration or other overhead.
• All contributions are fully IRS tax-deductible.
• Your personal information is kept confidential. Peninsula Daily News does not rent, sell, give or otherwise share your address or other information with anyone, or make any other use of it.
• All 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.
• Whenever possible, Peninsula Home Fund case managers work with individuals or families to develop a plan to become financially stable — and avoid a recurrence of the emergency that prompted aid from the fund.
• Begun in 1989, the fund is supported entirely by Jefferson and Clallam residents.
Individuals, couples, businesses, churches, service organizations and school groups set a new record for contributions in 2007 — $193,312.
All of that money will be spent by Dec. 31.
• Peninsula Home Fund contributions are often used in conjunction with money from other agencies, enabling OlyCAP to often stretch the value of a donation.
• Money is usually distributed in small amounts, usually up to $150.
• Assistance is limited to one time in a 12-month period.
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. Or e-mail him at john.brewer@peninsuladaily news.com.
Peninsula Daily News publishes stories every Sunday and Wednesday during the fund-raising campaign, reporting on how the fund works and, in the Sunday stories, also listing contributors.
