Lend-A-Hand project helps those in need

STEVE YOUNG
syoung@argusleader.com
Article Published: 11/27/05, 2:55 am

A single mother trying to stretch her meager paycheck into a rent payment and a bag of groceries cries when she finds out her car will cost $350 to fix.
A poor family from Mexico, in Sioux Falls to get medical treatment for an ailing child, needs shelter during its stay.
There are agencies that will assist them. But those charities need help as well in paying for the services they provide.
Once again during this holiday season, the Argus Leader is offering people a way to do that.
For the eighth year, the newspaper is sponsoring its Lend-A-Hand holiday project to raise money for local charities. Since Argus Leader President and Publisher Arnold Garson started the effort in 1998, it has raised more than $40,000.

This year, the project is benefiting two nonprofits: Community Outreach and Casa de Carlitos.
Community Outreach was started 24 years ago by a group of downtown churches trying to find a more efficient way to help the needy who came to their doors asking for help.
In most cases, it was the working poor who needed assistance with a rent payment or getting a car fixed, agency Director Angela Hyde said.
"It's a one-time deal and a last resort," Hyde said. "We make sure people are utilizing other public services first. And when they have, what we offer is a hand up, a one-time deal to help someone out of a crisis situation."

They have a cap of what they can provide, she says: Up to $350 one time for a family, and up to $250 for a single person.
About 10 years ago, the agency changed its original name from Church Crisis Fund to Community Outreach to reflect the participation of businesses, service organizations and others who want to funnel their resources through a central agency.

This year, Community Outreach will help 350 families, Hyde said. That figure includes the single mother who works full time and is barely getting by when her car breaks down.
"She's faced with a choice," Hyde said. "She either pays $350 to get the car fixed or she pays her rent. She knows if she doesn't pay to get the car fixed, she can't get to work and doesn't have a job.
"So we're able to help her supplement her rent so she is able to get the car fixed, and can stay out of the human services system."
Unlike Community Outreach, Casa de Carlitos has only been in operation two years. The home at 3705 E. 12th St. provides housing for families of sick children from the San José del Cabo and Cabo San Lucas areas of Mexico - collectively known as Los Cabos.

The agency evolved from the efforts of people such as Sioux Falls businessman Tom Walsh, who has a home in the Los Cabos area and was touched by the plight of seriously ill children living in the impoverished land.
Walsh used his connections to bring those children to Sioux Falls for charitable medical care. Among the first was a 7-year-old boy with leukemia named Carlos Vazquez Hernandez, or Carlitos.
The boy eventually died. But his legacy is the two-story house on East 12th Street that has provided homes for nine families in the past two years.

The needs for the program are many, says Jeanie Conzemius, executive director of Los Cabos Children's Foundation, under which Casa de Carlitos operates.
"We don't have much of a budget," Conzemius said. "So money is a huge help.
"We can find people willing to donate their labor and their expertise, whatever it is. But, for example, we need a second bathroom at the house. That is a huge, huge thing. And we need help buying the things for it, the vanity, toilet, that kind of stuff."
In that vein, the newspaper is kicking off this season's project with a $1,000 donation. Garson hopes others will follow.
"The Argus Leader's Holiday Lend-A-Hand Fund provides an opportunity to share the season's joy with those less fortunate," he said. "One hundred percent of the money raised goes to Sioux Falls-based charities every year. We hope that all who can spare even a few dollars will join us in the effort to make the holiday season a little better for those who need it most."

Reach reporter Steve Young at 331-2306.