EDITOR’S NOTE: This is another in a series of articles on the Peninsula Daily News Peninsula Home Fund. The next article will appear Sunday with the latest list of donors. Please push the “Peninsula Home Fund” button at left to generate a coupon to send in with your donation.
SEQUIM — Having been a caregiver for almost 20 years makes it hard for Sally Moore to ask for help.
Moore, 56, a former nurse’s aid, suffered a massive heart attack about 10 years ago and can no longer work.
Her disability check is just enough to get by every month — and last summer she faced a small but very serious emergency.
She had no money to get the brakes in her car fixed.
Without the brakes repaired she couldn’t drive the car and wouldn’t be able to get around Sequim.
Peninsula Daily News’ Peninsula Home Fund came to her rescue — to give her “a hand up, not a handout.”
From Port Townsend to Forks, from Quilcene and Brinnon to LaPush, the Peninsula Home Fund is a safety net for residents when there is nowhere else to turn.
The Home Fund is unique:
* Every penny, every dollar, donated goes — without any deductions for administration or other overhead — to making life better for children, teens, families and the elderly in Jefferson and Clallam counties.
* The Peninsula Home Fund is used for hot meals for seniors, warm winter coats for kids, car and home repairs for the low income, needed eyeglasses and prescription drugs, dental work, safe, drug-free temporary housing . . .
The list goes on and on — so far about 1,500 individuals and families have received assistance from the fund in 2005.
* OlyCAP — nonprofit Olympic Community Action Programs, the No. 1 emergency care agency on the North Olympic Peninsula — screens applicants and manages the fund for the PDN.
* In most instances, Peninsula Home Fund case managers at OlyCAP work with each individual or family to develop a plan to become financially stable — and avoid a recurrence of the emergency that prompted aid from the fund.
* All instances of help are designed to get an individual or family through the urgency and back on the path to self-sufficiency — or resolve a one-time emergency like Moore’s before it drives a person or family into full-blown crisis.
That’s the “hand-up, not a handout” focus of the fund.
OlyCap staff used $225 from the Home Fund to pay Moore’s trailer lot rent so she could get her car’s brakes fixed.
“They’re great,” Moore said about OlyCAP.
“The agency doesn’t make you feel ashamed.
“Everybody needs help once and awhile.
“I don’t ask for it unless I really, really need it.”
No deductions
From Thanksgiving through Dec. 31, the PDN’s Peninsula Home Fund is seeking contributions for its annual holiday season fund-raising campaign.
* 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.
Begun in 1989, the fund is supported entirely by Jefferson and Clallam residents.
Individuals, couples, businesses and school groups set a new record for contributions in 2004 — $108,514.54.
All of that money 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 contribution.
* Money is usually distributed in small amounts, usually up to $100.
* 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@peninsuladailynews.com.
How to donate
A gift of any size is welcome.
The Peninsula Home Fund has never been a campaign of heavy hitters.
If you can contribute only a few dollars, please don’t hesitate because you think it won’t make a difference.
Every gift makes a difference, regardless of its size.
To donate, write a check to “Peninsula Home Fund” and attach it to the coupon that can be generated by pressing on the Home Fund button at left.
Mail both items to Peninsula Home Fund, Peninsula Daily News, P.O. Box 1330, Port Angeles 98362.
Or drop them at the newspaper’s offices in Port Townsend, Sequim or Port Angeles (addresses on page A2 of the PDN daily).
Again, all contributions are fully IRS tax-deductible.
You will receive a written thank you and acknowledgment of your contribution.
Peninsula Daily News publishes stories every Wednesday and Sunday during the fundraising campaign listing contributors and reporting on how the fund works.
