Friday, November 9, 2012
The chairman of the Wayland Community Fund said Wayland's response to last fall's appeal for donations was generous enough to carry the fund through to early summer 2013.
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Friday, November 9, 2012
To the Editor, For the past 15 years the Wayland Community Fund has helped Wayland residents in financial need by providing assistance with utility payments, rent, food, medical and other expenses. Last November, when we were concerned that we would run out of funds long before the end of our fiscal year, we sent an appeal to every family in Wayland. The response was overwhelming. Wayland residents were so generous that we received enough contributions to carry us well into the following fiscal year. Those funds, plus the contributions we regularly receive from residents, should now carry us through early summer 2013. As we are no longer in the dire straits we found ourselves last year, we will not to send out an appeal this fall. No …
Monday, July 23, 2012
The fund was severely depleted late last year, but recovered thanks to generous donors.
The generosity of Wayland residents means the Wayland Community Fund now has funding that should last at least through the end of the calendar year. The Wayland Community Fund began in 1997 as a means "to provide short-term, emergency financial assistance to Wayland residents," according to the website. But in November 2011, the WCF had reached critically low levels due to the higher costs of food, utilities and other expenses. In an unprecedented move, WCF Director Mike Patterson and a team of five volunteers that run the fund sent requests for donations to more than 5,000 Wayland households. The response was impressive, Patterson said, and means that the fund could not only meet the needs last winter, but should be funded through the end…
Monday, January 9, 2012
The fund was in dire straits in November, but Wayland residents stepped in to help out.
In November, with the heating season just around the corner, the Wayland Community Fund saw its coffers rapidly emptying. The fund began in 1997 as a means "to provide short-term, emergency financial assistance to Wayland residents," according to the website. When Patch talked with Wayland Community Fund Director Mike Patterson in November, he said that in all his years of directing the fund, he'd seen it grow depleted before, but never at "quite this accelerated” a pace. The fund was declining so quickly, in fact, that Patterson took the unprecedented step of mailing requests for donations to 5,200 households. Wayland residents responded in a big way. Those 5,200 requests led to larger-than-expected returns, Patterson said. He said …
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Wayland Community Fund severely depleted as tough economic times continue.
Look around Wayland. You'll see comfortable, even impressive homes, manicured lawns and families out and about. What you likely will not see are homeless people sleeping on park benches or a mile-long line outside a town soup kitchen. But just because you don't see it, doesn't mean it isn't there. Wayland isn't immune to the economic troubles plaguing communities around the country. No one knows this better than the individuals at area religious organizations and at the Wayland Community Fund who receive requests for financial assistance. Those requests, they agree, have increased during the past couple of years. In particular, Mike Patterson, director of the Wayland Community Fund, said his organization has seen so many requests that, …
