Seven nonprofits have been selected as this year’s recipients of the sixth annual Pleasanton Weekly Holiday Fund, the community-wide campaign that starts today to provide needed funding for vital local nonprofits.
Last year, the Holiday Fund raised $150,000 in direct contributions and matching funds. Each of the targeted nonprofit organizations serving the needs of the community–eight in all–received $18,750 to help them continue their work this year.
“We all know how difficult the economy is this year which makes this extraordinarily challenging for the nonprofits in our community,” said Gina Channell-Allen, president of the Pleasanton Weekly. “Their needs are increasing at the same time donations are dwindling. For that reason, this year’s Holiday Fund is more important than ever for the organizations we are targeting.”
“Contributors from past years have already donated more than $13,000 to help us launch our campaign early,” she added.
The organizations that will benefit from the 2008-09 campaign are Axis Community Health, Hope Hospice, Open Heart Kitchen, Senior Support Program of the Tri-Valley, Tri-Valley Haven, Valley Humane Society and the Emergency Room expansion program at ValleyCare Medical Center.
“This year, the Pleasanton Weekly will be able to increase the contribution our readers, advertisers and others make by 100 percent because of the partnership we have established with the Tri-Valley Community Foundation,” Channell-Allen said. “It has agreed to provide matching funds to our campaign drive so for every $1 contributed, another $1 will be given to these local organizations.
Unlike most other fundraising drives by individual organizations, the Holiday Fund has no administrative expenses or other overhead. The Pleasanton Weekly donates all the support services so all money raised can support local non-profit groups.
All funds are held in trust by the Tri-Valley Community Foundation and are tax deductible to the extent permitted by law.
David Rice, President of the Tri-Valley Community Foundation, said giving to the Pleasanton Weekly Holiday Fund this year is more important than ever.
“These are truly desperate times for organizations that serve the needy–those with fixed incomes, with little or no health insurance and without jobs or whose employers have significantly reduced their working hours,” Rice said. “A number of these individuals and families were among those who contributed to the Holiday Fund in years past and now they need our help, too.”
“The organizations that are contributing this year in Pleasanton and the Tri-Valley are providing needed relief for thousands,” he added. “It’s important that those of us who can afford to give add something extra this year because of the pressing needs we are seeing.”
“Although Pleasanton is ranked as one of the wealthiest cities its size in the nation, there are thousands who rely on these seven organizations for individual and family assistance, emergency aid when they’re suddenly without jobs and health care,” Rice added. “Not everyone is wealthy here, not everyone has a job, not everyone has health insurance. These are the people who need our help.”
He pointed to increased requirements by the nonprofits to meet the needs of low-level-paying jobs.
“Whether we’re employers or among the employed or in business for ourselves, each of us is being affected by the economic slowdown,” Rice said. “Those on the bottom rung of the employment ladder may have a job, but they don’t earn enough to meet their current living costs and they are faced with uncertainty over just how long their job may last. They often have inadequate or no health insurance at all. Some have lost their jobs or their benefits, or both, because of corporate downsizing, layoffs and benefit reductions. Just this month, several thousand have been laid off by employers.”
Open Heart Kitchen, for example, expects to serve more than 170,000 meals in its current 2008-09 fiscal year, according to Linda McKeever, executive director. She said 11,500 of those meals will be served at its Pleasanton location at Trinity Lutheran Church and another 112,150 at Ridge View Commons. Open Heart also distributes 90,000 box lunches each weekend to elementary school children to take home on Fridays.
“Open Heart Kitchen is often the ‘bridge’ that enables a family stay on its feet from week to week,” McKeever said.
Axis Community Health, another recipient of this year’s campaign, is the Tri-Valley’s sole provider of medical care for the area’s working families who do not have health insurance. Axis provides services for more than 12,000 Tri-Valley residents, including 3,500 children and teens.
“Last year we provided more than 4,300 pediatric medical visits, which was a 4 percent increase over the previous year,” said Sue Compton, chief executive officer. “As the economy worsens, we are seeing a rapidly increasing number of people at our clinics. We’re up 10 percent in just the past three months, and we’re enrolling 250 new patients each month.”
“This year, more than ever, many of our friends and neighbors need help,” she added. “We are very grateful for the support of the community through the Pleasanton Weekly’s Holiday Fund. It truly makes a difference for many members of our community.”
Tri-Valley Haven offers a 30-bed domestic violence shelter, a 16-bed homeless family shelter, a 24-hour crisis line, rape crisis center, group and individual counseling, two weekly restraining order clinics, a food pantry and community education.
“Funds from the Pleasanton Weekly Holiday Fund will be utilized to support the Life Skills program at our domestic violence shelter, and to help with the cost of utilities at the shelter,” said Vicki Thompson, associate director. “Our annual PG&E bill for the shelter is nearly $20,000 and these utilities are seldom funded by private foundations. We depend on the community–and the Holliday Fund–to keep the lights on!”
Another recipient of this year’s Holiday Fund will be the Senior Support Program of the Tri-Valley, which offers a variety of services at no cost to seniors or to their families throughout the Tri-Valley.
“As we are all aware, the U.S. population along with Pleasanton’s is aging in greater numbers,” said Marlene Petersen, executive director.
“A report released last week states that Americans will enjoy an average life expectancy of at least 79 years, and many will live even longer,” she added. “Before 2030, our senior population may very well comprise the majority age-group in our nation and community.”
The programs provided by Senior Support include health maintenance, nutrition, fitness, disease prevention, partners-in-safety, in-home counseling, friendly visiting programs and nurses on the staff who regularly visit clients.
This year’s Holiday Fund also will provide money to help expand ValleyCare Medical Center’s emergency room. The ER was built in 1991 and has only 4,000-square-feet of floor space when it needs 10,000,
“We see 26,000 patients a year in the emergency room and it was built to handle 13,000,” said ValleyCare’s vice president Ken Mercer.
It will cost $6.7 million to replace the facility and upgrade the equipment, with the first phase of development scheduled to start in January. Contributions from the Holiday Fund will help get that started, Mercer said.
Hope Hospice is known throughout the Valley for the special kind of healthcare it offers. It’s unique because it works to not only meet a dying patient’s physical needs, but supports their emotional, social, and spiritual needs as well. Hope Hospice care is provided regardless of the ability to pay and relies on contributions such as those raised by the Pleasanton Weekly Holiday Fund to provide services.
Its mission is to provide compassionate, quality end-of-life care and grief support to patients and families. Hope Hospice and its volunteers step in when medical science can no longer add days to life, and what matters is the quality of life that can be added to each day.
Last but not least is help for our furry friends who give so much to us in return. Once again, the Valley Humane Society is on the list of recipients for the Pleasanton Weekly Holiday Fund.
This all-volunteer group, with its mission to educate others on responsible pet ownership, recently moved into temporary quarters on Nevada Street and is in need of funding to complete a permanent structure that will provide more space for its services. The organization also rescues, treats and funds home for abandoned or injured animals. It does not euthanize unless health problems dictate.
“We seek to provide our community with educational outreach and collaborative programs that enrich the bond between people and companion animals and eliminate unnecessary euthanasias,” said Wendy McNelley, program director.
Dave Rice said that “what’s important about giving to the Pleasanton Weekly Holiday Fund is that, in partnership with the Tri-Valley Community Foundation, we can identify these programs and activities that need our help and serve our entire community.”
“We know what the needs are locally because of our expertise in covering these nonprofits in the Weekly’s news columns and through the Foundation’s programs to help serve their financial needs,” he explained.
“We can put money to work very quickly where as it might take quite a long time for these organizations to partner up with donors themselves,” he added. “So this is a much more effective and direct way to get money to work in the community by giving to the Holiday Fund.”
