Monte Parker’s story provides a good example of how charity can work in people’s lives.
An aging Oak Harbor resident with limited mobility and financial resources, she’s able to rely on the North Whidbey Help House to provide necessities she can’t afford on her own.
In turn, she does her best to share her meager resources with others.
In her own words, “If I stop sharing, the good will stop coming.”
This spirit of giving embodies the mission of the Help House, which is constantly working to mobilize residents and businesses to give what and when they can.
Mahatma Ghandi said that “a nation’s greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members.”
Oak Harbor has done a superb job of creating the resources it needs to take care of its weakest members, but filling the ceaseless demand for assistance falls on each of us to give a little.
The Help House impacts a staggeringly broad range of low-income individuals and families.
North Whidbey Help House handed out 7,843 food baskets in 2014, feeding 21,088 nearby residents, according to executive director Jean Wieman.
Of those people, roughly 8,000 were children between the ages of 0-18, according to an event news release, and these numbers total around 450,000 pounds of food distributed to local individuals and families.
The North Whidbey food bank, which services the island from Greenbank north, shares the responsibility with Good Cheer Food Bank, which services the island from Greenbank south. Gifts from the Heart in Coupeville also provides similar services.
The Help House event, originally conceived by the Interfaith Coalition of Whidbey Island, was planned in January because donations tend to fall off after the holidays, Wieman said.
While the spirit of giving runs rampant at the end of each year, it’s important to remember that hunger is pervasive year-round and the needs of the less fortunate should not be forgotten.
The annual Feed the Need food drive will be held 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Monday, Jan. 19.
Volunteers will be on hand to collect donations in Oak Harbor at Walmart, Albertsons and Saar’s Marketplace, and slips with suggested purchases will be passed out.
A semi-truck will also be parked on the corner of State Highway 20 and Southeast Barrington Drive to serve as a drop-off point with volunteers collecting goods.
The Help House also accepts donations in the form of cash or check to assist with operations and purchasing needed food that is not donated such as meats and eggs.
This year’s donation drive falls on Monday, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and organizers said they wish to channel his example of giving with the quote, “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is: What are you doing for others?”
In that vein, let us take care of the weakest among us, do something for others and work together to make Oak Harbor the kind of community that takes care of its own.
