For second year, community had to rally for funds

By Brenda Sexton

The Courier-Herald

It came down to the wire, but the White River Family Center will keep its doors open for another year.

In September, the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department announced it would pull funding of the Buckley area center along with others in Tacoma and the Peninsula area. The health department runs 12 centers. In Buckley, the loss of funding roughly covers Amy Foley's part-time salary, about $17,000, plus a bit more.

Foley keeps the center going at its Wickersham School of Discovery location. From her position, she hands out emergency supplies of formula and diapers to mothers. She lines up summer camp for low-income students. She helps Buckley-area residents find help with rental assistance, tobacco cessation, baby nutrition, dental care and transportation. She aids those who come through the doors looking for information about energy assistance, food stamps, health insurance, childbirth classes, baby nutrition, seatbelts, helmets, life jackets, gun safety, vaccinations and more.

The center exists to provide families with information, support and the skills they need to raise healthy, productive students. In the past, it is a partnership between the White River School District and the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department and Prevention Partnership for Children (PPC). Good Samaritan Hospital's Readiness to Learn is also a partner.

It was the second-straight year the community has had to rally troops to continue the flow of funding for the center. Marcy Boulet, who organizes White River's Families First Coalition, led the last charge of supporters to the health department's door and she was at the front of this movement too. This time, along with Hugh Flint, White River School District's director of student support services, and Good Samaritan's Tony Huff, they brought their plight to the attention of Pierce County Councilman Shawn Bunney.

"I would certainly give him credit for interceding on our behalf," Flint said. "I know Shawn was instrumental in making it happen."

"It all was about where the health department priorities were," Bunney said. He said he felt strongly that programs like the White River Family Center should not be pulled from rural areas. He looked at the funding sources, talked with a few people and stressed his standpoint.

"I certainly made it a priority that program didn't die," he said. "I felt the plea from the community was well reasoned and it was worth fighting for that facility."

According to Flint, notification arrived in December and he recently received confirmation this month.

"It was pretty much coming down to the wire on this stuff," Flint said of the program's Dec. 31 deadline.

Since that time, Foley has kept things running without missing a beat.

"The door is always open for those who need resources, food assistance, energy assistance," Foley said. "We're here hopeful we can help them with whatever issues they are having."

Started about seven years ago, White River's Family Center serves as a base for resources and education. The center was set up to facilitate home-visits from family support workers, but community members in the Buckley area, for whatever reason, prefer to come to the center for help rather than have someone come to their home.

According to Foley, the White River Family Center served its largest group, 240 people from 72 families, with craft activities and back-to-school supplies, at its Back to School night in August. The center also brings in larger numbers for its December coat giveaway and its spring book program.

Foley also meets with approximately five families a week who need assistance and fields inquiries from close to a dozen phone calls a week.

Although breathing a sigh of relief for 2005, program leaders are already looking to the future.

"We are looking for funding sources all the time," Flint said. " We'd like to sustain it without going through this dance every year.

"We'll definitely keep our eyes open for another funding source."

Brenda Sexton can be reached at bsexton@courierherald.com.