EDITOR’S NOTE: This is another in a series of articles on the Peninsula Home Fund. Please click on the HOME FUND link at left to generate a coupon to use with your donations — thanks!
PORT ANGELES — Debbie Rolfe needed new shoes — special orthopedic shoes.
To alleviate foot, leg and back pain, “the doctors told me I needed special shoes for my arches,” Debbie said.
Debbie has had several surgeries on her ankle, which she broke in three places a number of years ago.
“My old tennis shoes were really bad,” she said. “When I would stand up, my ankle would give out on me.”
Debbie also suffers from epilepsy, which makes it very difficult for her to get a job.
Debbie, 52, and her husband, Bill, found the orthopedic shoes she needed at Family Shoe Store in downtown Port Angeles — but she didn’t know if she would ever have enough money to buy them.
Debbie’s physical therapist referred her to OlyCAP — Olympic Community Action Programs.
“The shoes were essential to enable Debbie to obtain the exercise she needed,” said Marcia McEvoy, an OlyCAP client service specialist.
“She and her husband live in public housing and receive SSI — and she did not have the funds to buy them.”
OlyCAP tapped the Peninsula Daily News’ Peninsula Home Fund to buy the shoes.
“I wear them all the time, and my feet and legs feel so much better,” she said.
“They are Velcro, so it is easy to take them off and put them on, but I like to be on the go, so most of the time they are on.”
Debbie is very grateful to the people who helped her by donating to the Peninsula Home Fund.
“Thank you from the bottom of my heart,” she said. “And from the bottom of my feet, thank you very much, too.”
Back to self-sufficiency
The PDN’s Peninsula Home Fund is a safety net for local people like Debbie when they face emergency situations — and can’t find help elsewhere.
Every penny goes — without any deductions for administration or other 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; eyeglasses — and, yes, shoes.
The list goes on and on.
In addition, all instances of help — usually $100 or so — are coupled with efforts to get an individual or family back on the path to self-sufficiency.
Through job training and other programs, OlyCAP case managers work with individuals or families to develop a plan for them to become financially stable — and avoid a recurrence of the emergency that prompted aid from the fund.
Jefferson and Clallam
For more than a month, Peninsula Home Fund has been conducting its annual holiday-season fund-raising campaign.
The fund drive began on Thanksgiving Day — and ends today.
But the Peninsula Home Fund itself never closes.
Donations of any amount, fully IRS tax-deductible, are always welcome.
They can be sent at any time to Peninsula Home Fund, Peninsula Daily News, P.O. Box 1330, Port Angeles, WA 98362.
Checks dated after today will be counted toward the 2004 campaign.
Now in its 15th year, the Peninsula Home Fund is supported entirely by Jefferson and Clallam residents.
It is managed for the Peninsula Daily News by OlyCAP, the No. 1 emergency care agency on the North Olympic Peninsula.
* Individuals, couples, businesses and school groups set a new record for contributions in 2002 — $67,048.
In the past 12 months, that money has assisted more than 750 households with a “hand-up, not a handout.”
* No money is diverted for administration or other overhead. All costs are absorbed by the PDN and OlyCAP.
* Donors’ personal information is kept confidential.
The PDN does not rent, sell, give or otherwise share your address or other information with anyone, or make any other use of it.
* 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.
* 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.
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.