|
The downturn in the nation’s economy appears to be affecting local charities, according to volunteers and officials associated with various agencies and organizations in Saline County.  Dr. Greg Johnston of Benton Family Clinic confers with a nurse recently at the Christian Community Care Clinic in Downtown Benton. The free clinic provides medical and dental care to uninsured persons who do not receive Medicare or Medicaid. Like other charitable groups, officials with the clinic are fearful that the downturn in the nation’s economy will have an impact on the facility’s ability to treat area residents. The clinic’s facilities are at 302 W. South St. in Benton.
Brenda Burton of Benton, director of the Care Center, said she has not seen a significant reduction in donations, but the outreach ministry at First Baptist Church is seeing more people needing assistance.
“Our donations are about what they usually are, and I credit a lot of it to longevity,” Burton said. “People are familiar with our organization and what services we provide. If you were a new organization and had just just sprung up, it might be harder.”
A lot of people, she said, “have made their usual donations without even being asked, and we appreciate their dedication.”
Burton said she expects 250-300 people to attend the center’s Christmas celebration Thursday at First Baptist’ Selph Hall. Normally, the center’s weekly meals and worship services are held at the center on West South Street.
“I have 141 kids on my Christ-mas list, but we know that others will show up that are not on the list, so we always take extra gifts for them,” she said.
“For so many people, what we do at Thanksgiving and Christmas is all the celebration they will have,” Burton said.
In addition to the Care Center participants, the center will be sharing Christmas with youngsters from Second Chance Ranch, an outreach of Family Church in Bryant, Burton said.
“Those kids come and serve the third Thursday each month,” Burton explained. “There are seven boys and nine girls who will be serving this Thursday. We want to make sure they have a gift, too.”
Burton commended the Second Chance Ranch program. “It’s a wonderful ministry that church has set up. The kids attend private school there and are involved in the church’s youth group.”
Burton attributes the Care Center’s success to “the fact we’re in our 24th year and still plugging along. People know that this organization and some others that have been around a long time are there to assist them when they need help.”
She said she’s hoping to fill 200 Christmas stockings she received after the holiday last year from Walmart. “We’re still needing candy to fill these, and we hope some of the requests we’ve made for candy will come through in time to add to the stockings.”
In addition to the Christmas event this week, “We’re also planning to take care of three or four situations besides those at the party,” she said.
Stephanie Duke, a leader of the Christian Community Care Clinic, said the clinic has recently seen a slight decrease in donations, but she’s hoping this is a temporary situation.
“A few people who have been having donations drafted from their bank accounts have stopped that,” she said.
Making the situation more critical is the fact that “we have had more people come in needing help,” Duke said.
“In a recent clinic, 90 people wanted to see the doctor,” she said. “That means there are so many prescriptions and increased registrations.”
One of the clinic’s services is its Christmas card program in which people make a donation to the clinic in honor of someone and the notification is done with a holiday card, Duke explained.
“People have been giving less for more cards,” she said. “Last year when someone might have given $100 for four cards, this year the amount in some cases might be $25 instead.”
The clinic is continuing to receive medicines through various assistance programs, Duke said, but the pharmaceutical companies have “tightened their qualifications.”
Whereas in the past the companies might provide the medicines at a rate of “200 percent at poverty level or less, some are lowering that to 100 percent of the poverty level,” she said.
“We adopted the federal poverty guideline because that’s the way we can get help for the people,” she said.
Duke said the clinic is benefiting greatly from the assistance it is receiving from four nursing homes in the community — Stoneybrook, Benton Health Care, Grace Health Care and Arkansas Health Center,
“All of them are giving us medicine through the nursing home donated medicine program,” she said.
“Any time a patient’s medicine changes or the patient dies, we get it,” she said. “A law passed in 2006 allows this medicine to be given to free clinics. It was a long process and you have to get the patients’ families to agree to this, but it’s been very helpful.”
Some clinic volunteers who work at local nursing homes “helped make this happen,” Duke said. “It’s been a lot of work, but it’s given us thousands of dollars we didn’t have before.
“Our hometown people have helped the most,” she said. “West Side Pharmacy and Smith-Caldwell Drug Store have been so helpful all along. It was hard to get the corporate groups to do this, but we’re getting more successful in this, which is important for us to survive.”
The clinic organized in 1999 and has been in its current facility on West South Street for about 18 months.
“We really need more daytime volunteers, particularly for clerical services, but we also welcome volunteer nurses,” Duke said.
The clinic is open from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday-Friday. Clinics are held the second and fourth Tuesday nights, opening at 5 o’clock. Patients must register on Thursday mornings, she said.
Barbara Atchison, a representative for Churches Joint Council on Human Needs, said this agency is experiencing a significant decrease in donations while simultaneously seeing an increase in people needing help.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen,” Atchison said. “Everything is looking bad now.”
The agency’s donations have “surely dropped off,” she said. “We’ve gotten a lot of nonperishable food items donated for Christmas baskets and we will give away about 700 baskets, but we’re not putting milk or fruit in them this year, as we’ve done before, because it’s so expensive.
“Fruit this year is just out of sight.”
The agency depends on donations and membership fees from the churches affiliated with the organization, Atchison said.
“Our next planned fundraiser is the Hunger Hike in the fall,” she said. “We don’t have anything else planned.”
Donations to assist the clinic may be mailed to CJCOHN, in care of Pam Ray at 182 April Sound, Benton, AR 72015.
“We’re hoping this situation will change soon,” Atchison said
About a dozen local churches are full members of CJCOHN and pay a $150 annual membership fee plus 10 cents for each member of the church. The churches with full memberships also provide volunteers to work at the agency, Atchison said.
A few other churches are affiliate members and make sporadic donations, she said. They also do not provide volunteers.
Ann Sanders, president of the Humane Society of Saline County, said donations to the society this December “are less than half what they were a year ago.
“It’s way down,” she said. But the animals needing help and the expenses for operating a shelter continue to rise, she noted.
Sanders said utility costs place a great strain on the society. “Our propane bill was over $400 for one month, the electric bill was $350 and the water will be between $100 and $150.
“If the donations don’t increase, we’ll have to scale back somewhere, but the animals will not suffer,” Sanders said. “We are proud of the fact that we have recently taken in over 200 animals and adopted out that number.
“That’s a record number,” she added. “We’ve enjoyed being able to help so many people, and we hope we can continue that.
“We know that when times are hard, a lot of people tend to put the animals last, but they need food and shelter and all-around care every day just like people do.”
Assistance to the society may be made at P.O. Box 305, Benton, AR 72018, or online at www.hssaline.org.
|
Razorbacks
