Wednesday, Aug. 11, 2010

At local charities, $50 goes a long way

As a rookie reporter, I'm at the bottom of the company totem pole, so I don't have a lot of money to throw around.

Still though, I try to occasionally carve out some cash from my pizza-and-ice-cream budget and give a little to charity.

Since $50 is about the most I can scrounge up, I want that money to go as far as possible. I don't want any of it used to send me monthly mailings asking for more cash, and I'd really rather not pay anyone's six-figure salary.

That's why I give to small, local charities, where I can see every penny of my modest donation helping needy Johnston County residents.

What I didn't realize - until I started researching this column - was how far $50 can go. The fine folks running nonprofits around here can stretch a dollar much further than I can.

That $50 probably wouldn't cover my weekly grocery bill, but it can do some serious feeding at local food banks and homeless shelters.

At Clayton Area Ministries, director Dale Matthews says $50 can buy three of the food bags the food bank prepares for the hungry. Each of the bags has a long list of staples from all the food groups.

"A small family could live on this for probably one week," Matthews told me.

The effect is similar at the Basic Needs Ministry food pantry in the Cleveland community. Director Ron Still broke down the numbers for me. "That $50 would ensure four people 1-1/2 pounds of food and drink at each of 21 meals a week," he said.

Down the road at the Smithfield Rescue Mission homeless shelter, $50 covers a day of meals, lodgings, life-skills classes and laundry for two people, according to founder Margie Olsen. The mission also needs donations and volunteers to help renovate its women's shelter, she said.

"Right now is definitely a needy time," Olsen said. "Hot summer is one of our busiest times of the year at the shelter."

And food and shelter programs aren't the only services that can run on a shoestring. Still says $50 could add 139 used books to the collection at Basic Needs' Cleveland Library.

At Reins From Above, the therapeutic horseback-riding center near Kenly, $50 can feed a horse for 100 days or buy a riding helmet, director Stacey Rider said.

Darryl and Deatha Kirkland, who run the LAMiTCA youth boxing and ballet programs in Selma, have a laundry list of items they could buy with $50. A hundred mouth guards or a brand-new pair of boxing gloves for aspiring prizefighters. A month's worth of snacks or 10 pairs of ballet shoes for the girls who attend LAMiTCA's free weekly lessons.

Or that money could keep the lights and music on for a month at the group's Waddell Street gym. "Oh yes, 50 dollars can go a long way for a little nonprofit," the Kirklands wrote in an e-mail.

If that's what my small contribution can accomplish, imagine the difference individuals and businesses that actually have money could make.