END THE YEAR on a high note.
Offer struggling families “a hand up, not a handout” through the Peninsula Daily News’ Peninsula Home Fund.
For 22 years, the Home Fund has helped thousands of families in Clallam and Jefferson counties.
Gifts to the Home Fund make a daily difference in lives across the North Olympic Peninsula — thanks to our readers’ generosity.
All contributions are fully IRS tax-deductible.
And this coming Saturday, Dec. 31, is the last day to make a donation and get a tax deduction for 2011.
To donate online, push the “Click Here to Donate” button at www.peninsuladailynews.com or go directly to the donation page — https://secure.peninsuladailynews.com/homefund/
To learn more about how the fund operates, click on “Peninsula Home Fund” in the search box above to see this year’s news stories.
Home Fund specifics
■ A safety net for local residents when there is nowhere else to turn.
From Port Townsend to Forks, from Quilcene and Brinnon to Sequim and LaPush, the Home Fund provides 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.
But 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 was about $95 per family.
But even though the dollar figures are small, the impact can be big, in huge, life-changing ways.
Instances of help are designed to get an individual or family through a crisis — and every effort is made to put them back on the path to self-sufficiency.
That’s the “hand up, not a handout” focus of the fund.
In many instances, Peninsula Home Fund case managers at OlyCAP (nonprofit Olympic Community Action Programs) 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.
And, as needed, Peninsula Home Fund contributions are often used in conjunction with money from other agencies, enabling OlyCAP to stretch the value of the contribution.
OlyCAP, the No. 1 emergency care agency in Jefferson and Clallam counties, oversees the Home Fund for the PDN, screening the applicants and distributing the funds.)
■ Local, local, local.
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 2010 — $248,367.35.
With heavy demand this year, the carefully rationed fund has been rapidly depleted.
Since Jan. 1, the Home Fund has helped more than 2,600 households on the North Olympic Peninsula — about 4,000 men, women and children.
As we move into winter, the toughest time of the year, all of the money collected in 2010 is now down to its last dollars.
■ 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 plummeting cutbacks in grants and government support — for the first time in the 22-year history of the Home Fund, OlyCAP will use a portion of the fund in 2012 to pay for the helping hands who see clients.
The amount will be limited to 10 cents of every dollar donated.
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 this year as tough times compound the challenges it faces to help those in need.
■ 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.
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.
PDN publishes the donation coupon and information about the fund every Sunday during the fundraising campaign.
While most of the Peninsula Home Fund money is raised every year between Thanksgiving and Dec. 31, the fund itself never closes.
Donations of any amount 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.
Or, through this month, you can click on the Home Fund logo at www.peninsuladailynews.com or go directly to https://secure.peninsuladailynews.com/homefund/ .
New contributions will go toward the 2012 campaign.
