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| Shooting the Breeze |
December 19, 2008
This is the season for giving in a year when help is especially needed
This
is the time of year when most of us open our checkbooks to send gifts
to nonprofit groups that help those in our community who most need it.
Or we buy groceries for the island’s food pantries or toys and clothing for children who might otherwise go without.
And, if ever there was a time to help your neighbors, this year is it.
On Hatteras Island, there are more people in need this month than most can remember in recent years.
Some businesses lost business because of $4 per gallon gasoline over
the summer, and some others fell behind because of unprecedented
closures of popular beaches to protect wildlife during the spring and
summer nesting season.
Real estate and construction companies and associated businesses have
also suffered in this economy, which is now officially a recession.
The unemployment rate in Dare County in October was 5 percent, compared to 3.3 percent in October of 2007.
Jay Burrus, director of the Dare County Department of Social Services, said the countywide need is much higher this year.
“We are absolutely seeing many families that are hurting –
families who never received public assistance before,” Burrus
said.
Applications for aid through Food and Nutrition Services, formerly
known as food stamps, set a monthly record high in October when there
were 175 applications for aid. That number a year ago was 117.
In November, 196 families applied for aid, compared to 129 in November of last year.
Burrus said 1,433 individuals were being assisted through the program
in October – a 23 percent increase from last October and a 71
percent increase from October of 2004, when the economy on the Outer
Banks was thriving.
Burrus and others interviewed for this story agreed that there were
people who were homeless or hungry on the Outer Banks, but he said
it’s hard to get a handle on how many.
“I think there are some families going hungry,” he said, “and some with nutritional issues.”
On the northern beaches, he said, an effort is underway to establish a
homeless shelter with churches taking turns to provide shelter for a
period of time.
On Hatteras Island, one of the people with the most experience
providing for people in need is Walton Fulcher, who heads up the
Hatteras Island Food Pantry for the United Methodist Men.
The United Methodist Men group has been assisting families in need
since about 1980, Fulcher said. The islandwide food pantry was
established in 1990 when a barge hit the Bonner Bridge, taking down a
section of the span. For some fourth months afterward, the only
access to Hatteras was by ferry and many businesses suffered.
Fulcher says that the requests for help from the food pantry in
September were about triple what they were last year. He thinks
some families left the island because they had no work. Now, he
said, the requests are about double what they were this time last year.
However, the silver lining – if there is one – is that folks are being very generous this year.
Fulcher said the pantry had just received a truckload of food collected
by the Cape Hatteras Middle School basketball teams and another from
Rodanthe, Waves, and Salvo. And he said monetary donations have
arrived from across the country – from Nevada, New York, New
Jersey, West Virginia, Virginia, and other states. Many have come
from regular visitors to the island who have read about the needs in
the local media.
Though for many years, the United Methodist Men’s food pantry was
the only one on the island, this year there is a new pantry.
This one operates at Lifeboat Community Church in Salvo, formerly the Salvo Assembly of God Church.
The pantry was started in June by Pastor Steve Simmons.
Simmons was the pastor at the church from 1999 until 2004 when he left
to be pastor of a church in Pennsylvania. He developed, he said,
a rare form of polio that paralyzed him from the neck down. He
was told he might not live and would not walk again.
But, Simmons, 48, beat the odds.
“I feel God has healed me,” he said. He is now mostly
in a wheelchair but can walk short distances with a cane and he said he
preaches “until I have to sit down.”
Meanwhile, he said, the Salvo church went through a transition period
and the congregation dwindled. He was called back to rebuild the
congregation last December.
The congregation, he said, is coming back, and they want to give the church “more of a community feel.”
Simmons has been involved in feeding the hungry. In 2002, he took
23 Hatteras islanders to New York City to feed the homeless.
“Back then, the island was busy, the economy was good, people had
jobs – maybe two,” he said. “When I came back it was
a totally different picture. There is now a need in Rodanthe,
Waves, and Salvo.”
And he and his congregation have made feeding folks one of their missions.
The food pantry is open every day from 10 until 11 a.m., and the church
serves a free hot meal on Wednesday evenings. The food pantry, he
said, has served about 75 families, and sometimes 10 to 12 visit each
day. About 40 people often come to the dinner, and the church
hosted 70 on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.
Simmons says the pantry gets donations from many different places, including Food Lion.
Simmons says that he thinks the Hatteras Island Food Pantry has served the people of all the villages well.
“But,” he added, “with the economy, the need has
increased. The need is such that the best thing that could happen
would be that there would be even more (groups) to help.”
Lifeboat Community Church has a big plastic bin on the highway for donations.
“Everyday I open it,” Simmons says, “there are
groceries in there. I never see anyone leave them, but it’s
amazing the amount we get.”
Rev. Roger Dill, pastor St. John’s United Methodist Church in
Avon, says the members have been providing meals on Thursday evenings
to anyone who needs a meal or wants companionship for several years.
The “Soul Café,” he said, might have a half dozen
people for dinner or might have 20. The church also delivers
about two dozen meals on those evenings to shut-ins.
Dill added that the church has a small food pantry that is currently serving about five Avon families.
“We’ve got a couple families that are struggling to make
ends meet,” he said, “but I think we will see more.”
Rev. Corey Oliver, the past of three United Methodist Charge churches,
in Buxton, Frisco, and Hatteras village, agrees that there are more
islanders in need this year, and helping them is a “shared
responsibility.”
“I really believe it’s an opportunity to rise to the
occasion,” he said. “Anyone who comes to our church will be
embraced and have their needs ministered to.”
At Our Lady of the Seas Catholic Church in Buxton, the pastor, Father
Bob Brown challenges the parishioners every Sunday to “fill up my
vehicle with items for the pantry.”
The Buxton United Methodist Church is having a communitywide Christmas
dinner from 4 to 6 p.m. on Dec. 25. Everyone in the community is
invited, said church member Betsy Gwin. And so are visitors to
the island on a day that most restaurants are closed.
The economy played a role in planning the dinner, Gwin said, though
it’s something the church has talked about doing for several
years.
“This just seemed to be the year,” she said, adding that
the dinner is for sharing and fellowship for those who might not be
able to buy a Christmas meal, for those who have no family on the
island, and for those who just want to have dinner with friends.
This year’s Angel Gift program for children of families in need has also been busy.
In past years, the program was administered by Locomotion director
Kathy Kiddy. This year, Dare County Social Service administered
and coordinated the program to make sure that there is a Christmas for
all island children.
Many island families have asked for help through the county, and all
are being taken care of, according to Tammy Reber, DSS holiday
coordinator.
Almost 100 of those children are being taken care of through Our Lady of the Seas Catholic Church in Buxton.
Church member Megan Vayette, who is coordinating the effort, said she
expected that the church would provide gifts, clothing, and shoes to
about 20 children, but the number kept growing. All of the
children live on Hatteras, she said, but they are not all members of
the church.
In addition, Vayette and Reber say, other island churches have adopted
two or three families for Christmas, as have individuals and businesses.
Also, the Cape Hatteras Electric Cooperative has collected toys, and
the countywide Toys for Tots program has delivered boxes of toys.
These gifts were delivered to Kathy Kiddy, Locomotion’s director,
who will distribute them to the churches and groups on the island that
are providing Angel Gifts. Some, she said, will be reserved for
special needs – some families who might need some help and
don’t qualify through DSS or those who are not inclined to apply
for the aid.
“I think we have every single kid on the island covered,”
Vayette said. “The generosity has blown me away. I am really
thrilled.”
Vayette’s reaction is shared by groups and churches on the
island, where those who help families fretted that donors would cut
back their giving in the current economy.
That has not happened.
However, please remember those in need after the holidays. It
could be a long, cold winter for many of them, and they will continue
to need a helping hand.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Hatteras Island Food Pantry. Operated by the United Methodist Men
and serving all the villages on Hatteras Island. Contact: Walt
Fulcher: 995-5772. Most referrals are made through Dare County
Social Service at 475-5500. Monetary donations can be made by check to
United Methodist Men and sent to Hatteras Island Food Pantry at P.O.
Box 1591, Buxton, N.C. 27920. Until Christmas, there
are drop-off points in all of the island villages:
• Hatteras Realty in Hatteras Village, Avon, and
Waves (Monday - Saturday, 8:30 a.m. - 6 p.m. and Sunday, 10 a.m. - 5
p.m.)
• Our Lady of the Seas Parish Hall in Buxton (24-hour drop-off box on porch)
• Frisco Shopping Center in Frisco (Daily 6 a.m. - 9 p.m.)
• Rodanthe Post Office (Monday - Friday, 9 a.m. - noon and 12:30 p.m. - 4 p.m.; Saturday, 8 a.m. - noon)
• Outer Beaches Realty in Hatteras Village, Avon, and Waves ( Daily 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.)
Lifeboat Community Church.
Highway 12 in Salvo. P.O. Box 84, Salvo, NC 27992. Contact is Pastor
Steve Simmons, 987-1312. Food pantry is open every day from 10 until 11
a.m. The church also serves a free hot meal for anyone who needs it or
wants companionship from 5 to 7 p.m. on Wednesdays.
Hatteras Island Meals, Inc.
Delivers meals to ill and elderly people on the island and depends on
volunteers and donations. For more information, call Betty Boyer at
995-3540.
St. John’s United Methodist Church.
40336 McMullen Road in Avon. Small food pantry serving some church
families and a hot meal served for the community at the “Soul
Café” and delivered to the elderly and shut-ins on
Thursday evening. Contact is Pastor Roger Dill at 995-5383.
Angel Gifts.
To help families now at Christmas, contact Tammy Reber at Dare County
Social Services Department. On Hatteras Island, you can contact
Megan Vayette, 216-7176.
Locomotion.
Hatteras Island’s organization for teens sponsors programs and
activities, helps families and children year-round, and runs a
consignment shop, Changing Tide, on Highway 12 in Buxton. Contact
Kathy Kiddy at 995-6010.
Surf or Sound Realty in Avon and Salvo.
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