A homeless woman who had been using a magnifying glass because she couldn’t afford glasses and a single father who unexpectedly took custody of four children are among hundreds of people helped through the annual Times Free Press Neediest Cases fund.
Both are clients of the Partnership for Families, Children and Adults, which each year receives assistance through the newspaper’s fund. Donations to the fund have increased consistently since 2005.
“We are very deeply grateful that, year after year, the community has stretched and given a little bit more than the year before, because the last four years have become increasingly difficult in our economics and in the number of people who need help from the Partnership,” said Sandra Hollett, chief executive officer of the agency.
Donations during the 2009 campaign hit the fund’s highest level since 2000, records show. In 2009, more than 400 donors gave $48,713, compared with $47,199 in 2008 and $42,901 in 2000.
Neediest Cases is a fund of last resort for clients of the Partnership. Many times the fund provides $50 to help pay for an electric bill or $200 to keep someone in his or her apartment, officials said.
“Chattanoogans always have been willing to share their time, talent and resources with others who are less fortunate,” said Chattanooga Times Free Press Executive Editor and Publisher Tom Griscom.
“Through the Neediest Cases fund, families throughout the area have found a helping hand in a time of unexpected need,” he said. “On behalf of all who will benefit from these donations, I want to express our thanks.”
For Corinne Allen, executive director of the Benwood Foundation, donating to the Neediest Cases has become a tradition.
“It’s probably one of the first things I do to celebrate the holidays. It means a lot,” said Ms. Allen, who started donating about seven years ago in honor of the foundation’s trustees and her staff.
“I truly believe that to whom much is given much is required, and the Benwood Foundation works throughout the year to try to support and care for the community,” she said.
“So rather than give a gift to those people whom I have such admiration and respect for in terms of their philanthropy, it seems to me to be the most appropriate to recognize their service by giving to others that are less fortunate,” she said.
From Thanksgiving until the end of the year, the Times Free Press asks readers to donate to the fund, which the Partnership uses throughout the year to fulfill needs that cannot be met through other sources.
Former Chattanooga Times Publisher Adolph S. Ochs began the Neediest Cases fund in 1914, and it continued after the merger of the Chattanooga Times and the Chattanooga Free Press in 1999.