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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

A Helping Heart Helen Perin Known As Somone Always Ready To Lend A Loving Hand

The phone rings. It’s a reporter.

“I didn’t do it,” answers Helen Perin.

But she stands accused.

The skinny on the street is that the 50-year-old woman is guilty of organizing huge Easter egg hunts. She runs a private food bank, gives clothes to people without, baby sits neighborhood kids, and cares for the dying.

Perin says she doesn’t do it with a fat pocketbook, but with prayer. And though she helps others in silence, word still gets around.

Everyone who knows Perin has a story.

“She met a family of children who were quite destitute,” says Pat Holford, a receptionist at her West Plains church, the King’s Community. “She rounded up clothing so that they would be able to go to school dressed nicely, like the rest of the children.”

That was Perin, philanthropist. There’s also Perin as nurse.

“I know of a lady who died of cancer. Helen took her in her home,” says friend Pat Phillips.

For six months, she “took her to all her appointments and just cared for her until she died.”

Perin lives near Medical Lake, in a mobile home. She stays home; her husband, Duane, works as a foreman for United Paint.

Their place isn’t fancy, she says, but it has 24 acres for kids to play.

“My home is not a high-class home,” Perin says. “It’s a place to live in, not a place for show.”

The inside is plastered with pictures of friends, her three children, the couple’s parents, a Japanese exchange student riding a tractor. Perin and family hosted 16-year-old Naoko for three weeks.

Outside is the stony root cellar, usually crowded with cans. The supply has been a little low lately, but Perin’s not worried.

“You can never outgive the Lord,” she reasons. She says things like that a lot.

Her big barn of a garage becomes a Skee Ball arcade come Easter. Kids win toys that Perin collects all year.

“You should see her Easter egg hunt,” friend Debbie McGoldrick says. “People come from miles around.”

Last year, 300 kids showed. But she’s a little bit sheepish about inviting all-comers; she figures she’ll have to work up to that.

Her doors, though, are open all year.

On a recent afternoon, she was busy taking care of two grade-schoolers from the neighborhood.

“I know his thoughts,” says 7-year-old Daniel, pointing to a caterpillar inside a shoe box. “And he knows mine.”

Perin just smiles.

“I hate bugs,” she says.

But like most of the things folks say she does, what she wants isn’t the priority. Others are.

“I’ve seen her give her last $5 to people more than once,” says her husband. “She figured they needed it more.”

It’s a lesson she learned as a girl.

Her family was poor. One Easter, all seven children in the family had to share one basket.

“We knew what hand-me-downs were,” Perin says. But “we were never resentful. We cherished what we had because we had loving parents.”

And they had help. Police officers, an appliance store and a Spokane doctor made sure they had toys for Christmas.

Once, a ridiculously Charles Dickens-like string of misfortune struck the family. Her father needed leg surgery. Her mother needed back surgery. In addition, Perin’s 4-year-old sister had a broken leg.

But some Shriners came by with jars of money to pay for lights, water and rent.

“Those are things I’ll always have in my heart,” she says.

“That’s why I appreciate what I have.

“I know what riches are - the little things.”

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