EDITOR’s NOTE: This is another in a series of articles on the Peninsula Home Fund. Please click on the button at left to generate a Peninsula Home Fund coupon for your donation. Thanks!
Over the past 14 years, I’ve written more than 80 articles about the Peninsula Daily News’ Peninsula Home Fund.
The fund is a safety net for residents in Jefferson and Clallam counties when they face emergency situations — and can’t find help elsewhere.
From Port Townsend to Forks, from Quilcene and Brinnon to LaPush, Peninsula Home Fund is a helping hand for children, teens, families and the elderly.
Every dollar goes — without any deductions for costs — 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 — the list goes on and on.
The nonprofit program’s emphasis is on making sure no one falls through the cracks during the most demanding time of the year — winter.
Youngsters who needed new eyeglasses — or multiple heart surgeries, victims of house fires or floods, cancer sufferers — all have benefited from the fund.
Anonymous recipients
While the PDN brings to bear all of its publishing skill and power to tell these stories, readers should also know that most people who receive help from the fund really don’t want to tell what’s happened to them.
They are shy and somewhat embarrassed.
It is a humbling thing to hurt so badly that you have to turn to your community for assistance.
It is far from glamorous to lose a job, or to be hospitalized, or to flee an abusive relationship with little ones in tow.
Those that receive assistance from the Peninsula Home Fund have been humbled by their circumstances and most prefer to go unnamed.
As we pointed out at the beginning of this series, the Peninsula Home Fund, through OlyCAP — Olympic Community Action Programs — had already helped more than 600 families by the end of October.
Six hundred families – all in need, all with stories.
More than 100 families and individuals needed help with rent or mortgage payments; 122 folks were helped with their prescription medications; 118 got help with transportation, while 184 received some help with their home heating costs.
Two-dozen were provided emergency shelter, three-dozen with clothing.
All of them are grateful, some to the point of tears, and nearly all of them will remain anonymous.
Through the same span of time there has emerged another nameless phenomenon — those who give, but who wish to remain anonymous.
They simply want to help — no fanfare, thank you.
The PDN makes it a hallmark of this series to publish the gifts and the givers, yet many prefer to go unmentioned.
They let their gift to their speaking.
So this article is for those who prefer not to be featured in the newspaper. For those who seek, for whatever reason, to protect their privacy.
The quiet ones among us deserve our respect — both the needy and the givers.
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, 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.
* Your personal information is kept confidential. The 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.
* Money is commonly distributed from the Peninsula Home Fund 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.
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). There are offices in Port Townsend, Port Angeles and Forks.
If you have any questions about the fund, contact John Brewer, Peninsula Daily News editor and publisher, at 360-417-3500, or e-mail john.brewer@peninsuladailynews.com.
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.
The holiday fund-raising period ends Dec. 31.
Please use the coupon generated by clicking on the button in the left column of this Web page.
Again, all contributions are fully IRS tax-deductible.
You will receive a written thank you and acknowledgment of your contribution; your address and all personal information are kept private.
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.
New contributions
So far this holiday season, $29,423 has been contributed to the Peninsula Home Fund.
That’s about $10,000 behind the pace of last year’s giving.
The following are contributions received between Dec. 14 and Dec. 17 — thank you very much for making a difference in the lives — and futures — of your neighbors:
* Candace and Mike Shale, Sequim, $100.
* Al and Kay Meyers, Port Angeles, $25.
* J.C. and Pat, Sequim, $100
Donors who requested anonymity:
* Jacksonville, Fla., $200.
* Sequim, $25, in honor of Christ.
* Port Angeles, $50.
* Port Ludlow, $50, in memory of Mary Hope Martin.
* Sequim, $50.
* Sequim, $15, in memory of L. Fudge.
* Sequim, $100, in memory of Richard Sr. and Roy Jr.
* Sequim, $35.
* Port Angeles, $30, in memory of Sue Ann Dahl.
* Sequim, $100.
* Port Angeles, $25.
* Sequim, $100,
* Port Angeles, $100.
* Sequim, $15.
* Port Townsend, $50.
* Sequim, $200.
* Sequim, $50.
* Forks, $200.
* Port Angeles, $100.
* Sequim, $100.
* Port Angeles, $50.
* Sequim, $50.
* Sequim, $100.
* Sequim, $25.
* Port Angeles, $100.
* Port Angeles, $100.
* Sequim, $50.
* Sequim, $100.
* Port Angeles, $50.
* Port Angeles, $50.
* Port Angeles, $1,000.
* *Nick and Sandy Larson, Port Angeles, in memory of Bob Michalscheck.
* *Don and Georgiana Thomas, Sequim.
* *Bob and Sue Erzen, Sequim.
* *Tony and Daryl Masi, Port Angeles.
* *Bill and Barb Pearl, Neah Bay.
* *R. Kane, Port Angeles.
* *Eugene and Jolenta Masterson, Sequim.
* *Judy and Terry Sullivan, Forks.
* *Tom and Lynda Bailey, Sequim.
* *Dave and Jenni Bork, Port Angeles, in memory of Amy J. Bork.
* *Lanny Booth, Hawarden, Iowa.
* *Curt and Lesa Oppelt, Port Angeles, in memory of Laurel N. Oppelt.
* *Ed Hebert, Port Angeles, “Merry Christmas, ILB.”
* *Mrs. D. Leslie, Sequim.
* *Berniece Jefferson, Sequim.
* *Roscoe Babington, Sequim, in memory of Ada Babington.
* *Rich and Claudia Fox, Sequim.
* *Ed Brown and Sue Krebser, Port Angeles.
* *Pat Vautier, Port Angeles, in memory of Dan Vautier.
* *Ken and Marge Hansen, Port Angeles.
* *Bob and Ann Kennedy, Port Angeles.
* *Dougie McCollom, Sequim.
* *Joe and Renee Bleile, Sequim, in memory of Caroline Wetherald.
* *Jack and Judi Kennedy, Forks, in memory of their son, Michael Kennedy.
* *Linda McClelland, Poulsbo, in memory of my sister, Karin Alder, and my dad, John Alder.
*=Denotes amount of donation is private.