Brinnon Quilcene Gifts In Kind
Project: Safe at Home: Building Access, Dignity & Stability
Request: $8,500
Brinnon Quilcene Gifts in Kind is comprised of roughly ten volunteers — all over 70, several in their 80s — who make monthly trips to collect donated essential goods, then sort, transport and distribute them through a network of local agencies serving seniors, families, people with disabilities, and households in financial hardship throughout Brinnon, Quilcene and South Jefferson County.
There are no paid staff. There is no overhead to speak of. Every dollar goes into goods and materials, because the labor is donated by people who have been doing this quietly for years.
Here are the problems you can help solve
A low, fixed income makes it challenging to buy essential items like adult briefs, toothpaste, toilet paper, laundry soap. None of it is covered by food assistance. For a household on very limited income, buying hygiene supplies means not buying something else. Going without means a loss of health, comfort and dignity all at once.
Gifts in Kind has relied for years on donated product through a supplier who is scaling back. On some monthly pickups, volunteers are now receiving only about half of what was previously available. Demand is unchanged. The difference has to be purchased.
Brinnon carries a third disadvantage that compounds the others: the USDA classifies it as a low-access community. It is remote, transportation is limited, and the distance between a person and a store of basic necessities can be a real challenge.
What your donation makes possible
Your giving goes directly to purchasing high-need items like adult briefs, hygiene products, toothpaste, toilet paper, laundry supplies, socks, and coats. These are then distributed through food banks, churches, the Lions Club, and Brinnon School to hundreds of residents who would otherwise go without.
Your gift also builds something permanent. Each wheelchair ramp Gifts in Kind constructs is individually designed for one resident and one home. The design, construction and installation are donated by the volunteers themselves, but the materials have to be purchased.
A ramp sounds like a small thing. It isn't. It is the difference between making it to a medical appointment and missing it. Between getting groceries and going without. Between staying safely in your own home and being displaced from it because the front steps became impossible. It reduces injury risk for the resident and for whoever is helping them. It is, in the most literal sense, homelessness prevention.
The bottom line
Because the volunteers supply the labor, the transportation and the relationships, your dollars are multiplied several times over before they ever reach a recipient. Gifts in Kind also brings in support from the Emerald Town Alliance and the Brinnon Garden Club, and donated product from Lowe's, Walmart, CVS and Costco.
Their total annual need exceeds $15,000; this request covers $8,500 of it. Your gift lets a remarkable group of people keep turning donated goods, community partnerships and their own hard work into something tangible: a safer entrance, a warm coat, and the reassurance that someone noticed.
