Letters to the editor for Dec. 22
Support the Woman’s Club and its causes
The holidays are a time for giving — to family, to friends and to others out of love or in need. Gifts are also given this time of year for tax deductions. I ask that you consider where your money will do the most good. Give locally, within your own neighborhood, where you will see the effects your gifts make.
The Woman’s Club of Olympia is an organization of members who give freely of their time and money and it is dedicated to community improvement by enhancing the lives of others through volunteer service. I have seen this in action for many years. We make a difference locally! Whether you are interested in gifting money then moving along or if you are interested in knowing that your money is being used to provide diapers for babies, blankets for warmth, hats and socks for the cold, books for educating, food for kids who get school lunches but don’t have anything to eat on weekends, hygiene products for those in need, or helping to clean up a city park, we make that difference. We give all year, of ourselves, and we provide $7,000 in scholarships yearly to local students.
Yet we are still the best kept secret in Olympia! You can join our efforts, add to our efforts, or wait and see if someone else steps up. Our community is worth it and we are part of this community!
Sandra Groves, President, The Woman’s Club of Olympia
City of Olympia moved problem to Lacey
I’m sure Olympia thinks that they did something clever by dumping the “residents” of the Deschutes Parkway camp at a motel next to a Christian school complex in Lacey.
If their intent was to poison the well for any cooperation from Lacey on the homeless issue, they did well. The citizens of Lacey will remember this and the continued efforts to dump “homeless” RVs on Carpenter Road for a long time. It may be that some on the Lacey City Council are pleased, but the citizens will remember for a long time.
Way to go, Olympia.
Edwin J. Pole II, Lacey
Countywide Home Fund is a hope fund
It has been a long while since I’ve felt any significant sense of optimism or hope about solving the epidemic of homelessness currently gripping our community. However, as I listened in on the testimony at the Thurston County Commission’s public hearing on Nov. 23 about the county-wide Home Fund, I felt my spirits lift.
We have an incredibly deep bench of smart, dedicated, and experienced people who provide services around the full range of problems people face when they lose their homes. You want to know what these service providers lack, and what would help us to solve our epidemic of homelessness? Money. Really. Especially the kind of money a Home Fund could generate and that could be used to bridge other sources of funds. That’s what we need.
IF the city of Lacey will get on board, and IF the County Commissioners will push this thing over the finish line, then the countywide Home Fund (as authorized by the state legislature) will go into effect. And we will have another tool in our kit to solve this crisis.
I urge you to contact the Lacey City Council and the County Commissioners to express your support for the Home Fund. Let’s get this thing done and kick off 2022 with some hope and action.
Tyra J. Lindquist, Olympia