E
ight nonprofits have been selected as this year’s recipients of the fifth 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 exceeded its $100,000-goal, raising $112,419 in direct contributions and matching funds. Each of the targeted nonprofit organizations serving the needs of the community–six in all–received $18,737 to help them continue their work this year.
“We’re seeing a stronger economy this year, yet the needs by the charitable organizations are greater than ever,” said Gina Channell-Allen, president of the Pleasanton Weekly. “For that reason, we are raising our sights again with a goal for this year’s Holiday Fund of $150,000. Contributors from past years have already donated more than $17,000 to help us launch our campaign early.”
The eight organizations that will benefit from the 2007-08 campaign are Axis Community Health, Hope Hospice, Open Heart Kitchen, Pleasanton Partnerships in Education (PPIE) Foundation, 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. “The foundation 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 nonprofit 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.
“Sure, the economy is strong, but not everyone in Pleasanton and the Tri-Valley are seeing the benefits,” he said. “Some have found themselves over-extended in the loans they took out on homes a year or two ago that they really couldn’t afford and never should have bought. Others work for companies that have significantly increased employee contributions to meet the rising costs of group health care, and some firms have dropped health care coverage altogether.”
“Although Pleasanton is ranked as one of the wealthiest cities of its size in the nation, there are thousands who rely on many of these 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,” he added. “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 has been affected by fast-rising costs–in health care, for gasoline, for basic food and milk,” Rice said. “Those on the bottom rung of the employment ladder may have a job, but they don’t earn enough to meet these ongoing higher living costs. 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, more than 1,000 have been laid off by employers.”
Open Heart Kitchen, for example, expects to serve 178,200 meals in its current 2007-08 fiscal year, according to Nancy Richardson, its president. 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 for seniors. 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 helps a family stay on its feet from week to week,” Richardson said.
Axis Community Health, another recipient of this year’s campaign, is Tri-Valley’s sole provider of medical care for the area’s working families who do not have health insurance, with a budget of $925,000 for pediatric services, alone.
“Last year we provided more than 4,000 pediatric medical visits for 2,500 low income children at an average visit cost of $225,” said Sue Compton, chief executive officer. “For the past year, we also have been enrolling more than 200 new patients each month, which far exceeds our resources.”
Tri-Valley Haven offers a 30-bed shelter for victims of domestic violence, 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 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 Holiday 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 became an independent, nonprofit organization a little over a year ago. It 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 LaVerne Spotorno, who with her husband, Al, is on the Support Program’s board of directors.
“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.
Two other organizations are also slated to receive funding assistance this year from the Pleasanton Weekly’s Holiday Fund: PPIE and Hope Hospice.
Pleasanton Partnerships in Education (PPIE) is a community-based organization whose mission is to enhance learning experiences for students of the Pleasanton Unified School District through a partnership of business, education, and the community. Its foundation offers education grants for employees of the Pleasanton school district to fund projects that are student-focused, that promote creativity and innovative thinking, and that offer expanded learning opportunities to students.
“Contributions through the Pleasanton Weekly Holiday Fund will help fund these grants,” said Debi Covello, executive director.
Last May, PPIE awarded grants totaling $32,000 to 20 teachers for their education projects, raising to $500,000 the amount awarded over the program’s 17 years.
As for Hope Hospice, members of the Pleasanton and Tri-Valley communities have turned to this organization since 1980 for a special kind of health care. Hospice care is unique because it works to not only meet the 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.
David 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.”
