Group benefits local charities
Health care is available to Kootenai County’s poorest people this summer and fall thanks to a group of women who dine on gourmet food, read voraciously and grow prize peonies.
Three C’s – Cancer and Community Charities – raised $54,150 in the past year and will distribute the entire amount on Wednesday to 20 local nonprofit organizations. Nearly all of the 600 Three C’s members are women, and they raise much of their money by charging dues to participate in activities such as gourmet cooking, bridge and choral singing.
“That money is really needed. They’re a tremendous asset,” said Joel Hughes, director of the Dirne Community Health Clinic. Three C’s awarded the clinic $10,000 last year and notified it last month that it’ll receive money again this year. “There are a lot of poor people in the community who can’t access health care, and we appreciate that they recognize that huge need.”
Three C’s has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for Kootenai County charities since it began as a bowling league to raise money to fight cancer in 1963. Members pay $15 a year to belong to the club, plus dues to their interest groups. The organization also raises money from a fashion show, wine tasting, chorale concert and gourmet luncheon for the public.
This year, Three C’s raised nearly $9,000 more than it had in previous years. Twenty-three organizations applied for a share of the money.
“We’re very adamant the money stays in Kootenai County,” said Betty Nomanson, who heads research on applicants. “We have fun raising it, but we want it to stay here.”
Three C’s has helped the Dirne Clinic since it began as a free clinic surviving on donations 16 years ago. With a federal grant in 2003, the part-time clinic was reorganized so it could reach more people without health insurance. Clinic doctors were able to treat 2,500 uninsured patients last year, 10 percent of Kootenai County’s uninsured residents.
Money from Three C’s will allow the clinic to treat more uninsured patients than its federal funding allows, Hughes said.
“We use that money to support individuals who don’t have funds to cover their health needs,” he said.
Beth Barclay at Project Safe Place asked Three C’s for $2,500 because the number of kids who turn to the youth support program grows every year, she said. Barclay’s program uses bright yellow and black signs to identify businesses that kids can consider safe havens when they’re in trouble – anything from a broken bike chain to a threatening adult.
Project headquarters serve as an emergency shelter, after-school gathering place and meal site. Barclay said her program served 1,290 meals last year to teens who had nowhere else to go for a hot dinner. It also produced a Youth Yellow Pages, a pocketbook reference for kids that explains everything from AIDS to sexual abuse and how to find help.
Project Safe Place is among the programs Three C’s is helping this year.
“It’s a wonderful thing,” Barclay said. “What I love about Three C’s is that they have such a good time giving the money away.”
Bill Langer, who directs the Retired Senior Volunteer Program, said he was relieved to hear Three C’s is helping him again. RSVP provides tutors and mentors for Coeur d’Alene, Lakeland and Post Falls schools. RSVP tries to pay for the background checks volunteers in the schools need – about $60 each – and for their gas because many of the seniors live on tight budgets.
“That money makes a real difference in whether some people volunteer,” Langer said.
Three C’s will award its money during a cruise on Lake Coeur d’Alene on Wednesday.