A GRANDMOTHER CARING for two small children received help with her utility bills.

An out-of-work logger in Quilcene got money to obtain prescribed medicine.

A fourth-grade student got the glasses he needed to do his schoolwork in Port Townsend.

Material was provided to help a volunteer group assist a Port Angeles woman with repairs to her mobile home.

A Forks woman received a load of wood to heat her house.

Almost 3,000 individuals and households in Jefferson and Clallam counties have received help so far this year from the Peninsula Daily News’ Peninsula Home Fund.

From Thanksgiving to New Year’s Eve, the Peninsula Home Fund — a safety net for North Olympic Peninsula residents when there is nowhere else to turn — is seeking contributions for its annual holiday season fundraising campaign.

Peninsula Daily News publishes information on the Home Fund every Wednesday and Sunday during the campaign. The Sunday article lists contributors and reports on how the fund works.

[To read last Sunday’s story, click on: https://www.peninsuladailynews.com/article/20121209/NEWS/312099990 ]

Peninsula’s safety net

From Port Townsend to Forks, from Quilcene and Brinnon to Sequim and LaPush, the Home Fund is a “hand up, not a handout” for children, teens, families and the elderly to get through an emergency situation.

Money from the Home Fund goes for hot meals for seniors, meeting rent, energy and transportation needs, warm winter coats for kids, home repairs for the low-income, needed eyeglasses and prescription drugs, dental work, safe and drug-free temporary housing . . .

The list goes on and on.

Begun in 1989, the Home Fund is supported by Jefferson and Clallam residents.

Individuals, couples, families, businesses, churches, service organizations and school groups set a record for contributions in 2011 — $254,593.73.

With heavy demand this year, the carefully rationed fund is being depleted rapidly.

As we move into winter, the toughest period of the year, all of the money collected in 2011 is expected to be exhausted by Dec. 31.

■ The Home Fund is not a welfare program.

Assistance, which usually averages less than $100, is also limited to one time in a 12-month period.

The average amount of help this year has been about $57 per family.

As needed, Peninsula Home Fund donations are also used in conjunction with money from churches, service clubs and other donors, enabling OlyCAP to stretch the value of the contribution.

The Home Fund staff’s most important goal is to get the individual or family through a crisis and back on the path of self-sufficiency.

Whenever possible, case managers 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.

The goal again: “a hand up, not a handout.”

■   All contributions are fully IRS tax-deductible for the year in which a check is written.

(See accompanying box, at right.)

■   Your 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.

■   The Peninsula Home Fund is a unique nonprofit program.

No money is deducted by the Peninsula Daily News.

Every penny goes to OlyCAP to help the most vulnerable members of our community, from infants to families to seniors.

Because of the extraordinary demand experienced by OlyCAP in 2011 and 2012 — and plummeting cutbacks in grants and government support — for the first time in the 24-year history of the Home Fund, OlyCAP used a portion of the fund in 2012 to pay for the helping hands who see clients.

The amount is limited to no more than 10 percent — 10 cents of every dollar donated.

OlyCAP has kept it below 10 percent — specifically, 8.9 percent.

The fund is not set up to hand out money passively.

OlyCAP can no longer absorb the costs of managing all the facets of the Home Fund — screening applicants, providing counseling and carefully disbursing the funds — without financial assistance.

It must tap a small portion of the fund as tough times compound the challenges it faces to help those in need.

Applying for a grant

To apply for a Peninsula Home Fund grant, phone OlyCAP at 360-452-4726 (Clallam County) or 360-385-2571 (Jefferson County).

■   OlyCAP’s Port Angeles office is at 228 W. First St., Suite J (Armory Square Mall); 360-452-4726.

■   Its Port Townsend office is at 803 W. Park Ave.; 360-385-2571.

■   The Forks/West End office is at 421 Fifth Ave.; 360-374-6193.

OlyCAP’s website: www.olycap.org; email: action@olycap.org.

If you have any questions about the fund, phone John Brewer, Peninsula Daily News editor and publisher, at 360-417-3500.

Or email him at john.brewer@peninsuladailynews.com.