Tahoe charities hurting

unedited dec 08 tahoe mt. news story

By Kathryn Reed

It was easier to move around.
That was the only good thing about the noticeable drop in attendance at November’s wine tasting put on by Soroptimists International of South Lake Tahoe. Bidding on silent auction items is competitive. Goods have multiple bids early on. Ticket sales are robust. None of theses statements was true this year.
Before the last penny was counted, wine tasting chairwoman Valerie Conners estimated her group took in upward of $6,000 less from the silent auction compared to 2007. About 100 fewer of the $65 tickets were sold.
“I can tell the economy has made a huge dent in our life here,” Conners said. “We had a lot of donors who normally donate that didn’t donate at all.”
Fewer wineries and restaurants participated. Some dropped out at the last minute. Some brought less food and libations than years past.
“They have to be a little more choosey in what they bring,” Conners said, noting that fundraising and giving is changing on all fronts on the South Shore.
Tahoe is not unique in this phenomenon of donations to charitable groups being less and the need being greater. Still, in a small community like this, the effects of layoffs in sectors as diverse as gaming-banking-housing-government takes a greater toll when tourism, the lifeline, has been clobbered for consecutive seasons.
Going into this month, Christmas Cheer was on target to set a record for the last quarter of 2008 – not for donations collected, but for the number of people the organization has helped.
In October, 1,433 people were fed – that equates to 530 families. It was a record. Just before Thanksgiving, November was on track to be a record month, too.
“People’s hours have been cut or they’ve been laid off and now have no visible means of support,” said Joanne Shope of Christmas Cheer. Her group is run by volunteers and community donations.
Its name is a bit of a misnomer. Though it does bring cheer to people this time of year, bags of food are doled out year-round to people who have been referred to the nonprofit. Clothes and other goods are also available.
Like most years, bins are scattered about town to collect food. Christmas Cheer (2085 Eloise Ave., South Lake) takes donations year-round – including cash.
Freshies hosted its annual fundraiser for the group Dec. 9. Besides diners being asked to make a $10 minimum donation for the cause, owners Melodie and Erik Ulman donated all proceeds from the event to Christmas Cheer.

Hours of hard work

Even though the myriad fundraisers sponsored by service clubs are not hitting their marks of previous years, the effort to put them on doesn’t change. Some wonder if asking people to write a check might be easier than spending a year to plan an event.
“No” is the answer heard over and over again.
“We see results. We have an impact on our community,” said Kathy Suthern of Soroptimists International of Tahoe Sierra.
She and five others in the group descended upon Lisa Huard’s home Nov. 24 to discuss their fundraiser – Elegant Evening, which will be April 4. Planning started a month after the 2007 event was over.
President Pat Papp knows more than 1,000 woman hours are put into the event – which is probably the same for the crab feeds, salmon festivals and other community fundraisers. It goes beyond committee meetings. It’s talking with the printer, checking with the florist, collecting silent auction items and other minutia party-goers don’t see.
This planning meeting had a full agenda. The budget and financial projections topped the list. Expenses are going up; projected revenue going down. Attendance was down this year and is expected to keep going in that direction.
Seven committee reports were on the agenda ranging from entertainment to tickets to donations to decorations.
Music choices took up part of the discussion.
Shope, who is in this group, talked about being able to get raffle tickets, tape and baskets again this year.
Huard talked about sending save the date cards this month in hopes people might buy a few $50 tickets for holiday gifts.
Each year things are tweaked. Wendy David wants to emphasize “elegant” for the ’09 goodie bags.
Huard and others said the work involved is about creating a sense of community – to bring people together. They said they gladly take cash donations, but they believe merely soliciting checks would not have the warmth associated with creating an event.
“If you just write a check, you miss the human connection,” Papp said.

Giving and receiving

All Soroptimists groups are about giving to women and children. The two local ones are no different. Beneficiaries have included South Lake Tahoe Women’s Center, Tahoe Youth & Family Services, Challenge Day and Drug Store Project.
The wine tasting group takes applications in the fall and disperses money in January. What is given out next month is money raised from the 2007 wine event and other fundraisers.
The Elegant Evening women keep cash on hand to give out as needed. A check for $500 helped secure Melba Beals’ speaking engagement at South Tahoe Middle School last month.
Although most of the bigger fundraisers are in a casino convention room, MontBleu is offering up its showroom to nonprofits. Hard costs, like lights and sounds, have to be absorbed by the organization, but the casino is essentially offering the room for free on select nights.
“I’m a big believer in locals. We have to come together,” said Tom Davis, marketing guru at MontBleu and Horizon.
Tom Millham wears the hat of giver and receiver. He is part of Kiwanis Club of Tahoe Sierra, one of three Kiwanis chapters on the South Shore.
September marked the seventh year his club has staged an Oktoberfest. With 2007 being a record year, Kiwanis was happy with just a 10 percent decline in attendance and money raised this year.
Kiwanis worldwide supports youth groups. Affiliated groups of Kiwanis are Key Clubs in high schools, K-Kids for younger students and the Builders Club in Boys & Girls Clubs.
This year Millham’s group is focusing on at-risk kids in the community.
He also raises money for Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care, the animal rehabilitation center he runs with his wife, Cheryl, and a gaggle of volunteers.
In 2007, LTWC opted to not have its annual raffle because of the Angora Fire. The thinking was businesses were tapped out with giving, so donations would not be sought. However, LTWC had a non-raffle raffle, meaning people could still give cash but they wouldn’t be in the running for a prize.
“We did 50 percent better than what was normal. It just blew me away,” Millham said. “We decided to do it again this year. It saves us money in printing tickets, collecting prizes and spending time.”
In the first two weeks of the non-raffle, $9,000 had been collected in November. In 2007, $15,000 was raised.
Two LTWC fundraisers that were financially off this year were the Great Gatsby Festival and an event at the Ehrman Mansion. Millham blames part of the decline on other events scheduled the same day and more food booths than just his being allowed in.
However, for the third year he ran out of salmon at the annual fall Kokanee Salmon Festival. This made it the most profitable one to date for LTWC.
It costs big bucks to feed wild animals, especially with seven bears this year. The fame of L’il Smokey helped bring in cash from outside the area. Luckily, the need for bear food diminishes because by mid-December the bruins are hibernating.
“Every year we fight and scrape to take care of the animals. We are fortunate for the people who live here and visit here who support us,” Millham said.
It also helps that the number of local animal organizations to give to pales in comparison to the number of human groups needing money.

Other organizations

Another human group seeing its dollars stretched is the Boys & Girls Club. About 260 kids come every day, with 850 part of the local organization.
“In the span of the three years I’ve been onboard, we have increased our services and needs by 30 percent, yet our resources are not matching that,” Karen Houser, executive director, said. “We are literally caught in the throes of the economy.”
Starting this month the doors are closing 30 minutes earlier – at 6pm now.
The club is open to California and Nevada kids ages 5 to 18. More high school students are becoming junior volunteers.
“We have gone from kids doing sports and recreation to really being that viable entity where they get homework done, get involved in leadership and learn life skills,” Houser said. “At the end of the day, it’s all about the kids ... the difference we make in their lives.”
Her $750,000 annual budget is funded part by fees, part from the government, part from grants and a lot from local support.
This year’s annual fund-raising golf tournament was down by more than 30 percent. Participation was off and the number of silent auction items donated was down.
For the first time the club is having a raffle for a house. Only 1,000 of the 12,000 tickets have been sold. Seven thousand need to be sold for the event to occur next spring.
The winner will get the $650,000 house on South Upper Truckee Road. Raffle tickets are $150 each or two for $200 through the end of the year. Actor-comedian Kevin Nealon has lent his name and voice to the cause in promotional material.
The Boys & Girls Club is not alone in seeing donations drop. All groups accustomed to receiving money from service groups are likely to see less money because they have less to give. Cut backs at the county, state and federal levels are also impacting local groups.
For those who find themselves homeless in El Dorado County this winter – it’s going to be cold. Not a single shelter exists in the county.
Zephyr Cove Elementary School’s emergency clothes closet needs all sizes of gender-neutral T-shirts and sweat-type or pull-on pants.
The reality is people are not looking for extras. They want their basic needs met -- food, clothing and shelter.