Do you make charitable donations? Christmas donations? If so, how do you decide to whom you will give? Do you ever wonder whether the money that you give really goes for your intended purpose?
As I have grown older, I have come to believe that my donations should go to those who have the greatest need - those incapable of caring for themselves. I also have come to believe my donations should be local. As an old curmudgeon, I want to be in position to see that the organization that solicits my donation is faithfully using the money efficiently and consistently for their stated charitable purpose.
There is an organization in the Quad-Cities simply known as "The Arc." Its main office is on 9th Street in Rock Island. The Arc was founded in 1952 by parents of children with either physical or mental disabilities.
I write to ask you to consider helping The Arc this Christmas and beyond.
I write to say a personal thank you to The Arc. On June 1, 1973, my wife was pregnant. A few days later, our son was born. Hours after his birth, we were told by my friend and pediatrician, Dr. Martin Greenberg, that Tom was seizuring, and that his EEG showed chaotic electrical patterns in all regions of his brain.
Like most parents, we ran from Chicago's Children's Memorial, to Iowa City, to Mayo, in hopes something could be done to change Tom's future. Nothing could. His mom and I raised him into his 20s. He spent time at The ARC's (it was then known as the "ARC" it is now called "The Arc") Opportunity Center in Moline, and then at Blackhawk Special Education.
And then something happened. His mom, who had been on the old ARC Board, learned there was a vacancy at an ARC group home in Moline. She felt this eight-person facility was the best of all the ARC facilities. She felt that the time had come to place Tom.
At first, I balked, but her arguments were persuasive.
We were getting older? A time would come when we'd be incapable of caring for Tom. He'd be well cared for and with peers. He'd have his own home. She convinced me, and we placed Tom (and his Rockola Jukebox).
It was probably the best decision we could ever have made for him. It takes caring people to provide 24-hour care for eight physically and/or mentally disabled adults.
Today, Tom is healthy, and happy. He views the group home as his "home." He enjoys visiting with us every week, but he is always ready to go back to "his house." He has friends, Marla and Joe, there.
Today The Arc runs 14 small six-to-eight-person group homes. In addition, it provides Arc Industries. There, its clients, among other things, make cardboard boxes of every size and shape. (If you need boxes - one or a thousand - call and give them your business).
Other Arc clients clean the Butterworth Center and the Lodge at Blackhawk State Park. The Arc is a 5-1(c)(3) not-for-profit organization. Today, it employs a staff of 219 persons; 171 of those are directly involved with care of the disabled clients; 142 provide direct support (primary care), and 29 are either on-site group home supervisors, or case workers. The remaining 48 provide staff support - including the executive director, and the director of development, etc.
Nearly 80 percent of The Arc budget goes to staffing, 4.5 percent to supplies,. 4.7 percent to maintenance. 1.6 percent for transportation (the 18 vans used to transport clients and staff), 3.62 percent covers miscellaneous expenses. and 8.7 percent goes for interest expense.
In 1891, Pope Leo XIII wrote of the duty of the state to provide for those "in exceeding distress ... without any prospect of extricating themselves from their extreme necessity."
When children of God are disabled, unable to care for themselves, and living in our community, should anyone - other than perhaps family - occupy a higher place in our plans for charitable and Christmas-giving?
Do we wait for the state to provide them welfare, or should we, at Christmastime, include these - as well as your favorite needy - in our charity?
Posted: QCOline.com December 5, 2017
Copyright 2017, John Donald O'Shea
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