Our membership has
chosen to make our contribution to the greater
community through three charitable avenues. The first
two of these involve financial and service support for
established institutions: the Women's Shelter locally
and Harmony Hill Cancer Retreat Center.
On a more immediate and individual level, we have
undertaken to provide up to a week's supply of basic
foods to families with children, who are demonstrably
in emergency need.
For example, the local food bank is open only on
Fridays; on week-ends and early in the week we
have provided enough food for a family to eat until
the following Friday.
This food response has recently been expanded to
include the possibility of issuing vouchers for the
purchase of gasoline to fuel vehicles for urgent and
specific transportation (eg: to hospitals or medical
treatment, to job interviews, or even to court
appearances).
We recognize that we cannot be 'all things to all
people', but these two areas of need appear to
have been underserved locally and present a niche
that we can fill.
We have found it necessary to 'check out' applicants
for help rather carefully, but we are pleased that, to
the best of our knowledge, no legitimate call for
help has gone unanswered.