Helping group gets aid on Make A Difference Day

First Call for Help is in the business of meeting others' needs, but on Saturday this local assistance program was the one receiving support.

Thanks to Make A Difference Day, the Cape Girardeau resource and referral agency now has six more large boxes of hygiene and cleaning products to fit in its small, half-filled storeroom for those who call its office in need of assistance.

"Our supplies were really running low, and I hate to tell people we don't have anything for them," said Denise Wimp, program coordinator with First Call for Help, as Community Counseling Center employees carried in five boxes of supplies Saturday morning. The Junior Beta Club at Nell Holcomb School dropped off a box earlier in the week.

Make a Difference Day was created 12 years ago by USA Weekend magazine to encourage and celebrate the act of helping others. It is a national annual event held on the fourth Saturday of October. Millions have participated in the program since its inception, according to the Make a Difference Day Web site, makeadifferenceday.com.

Others who have been preparing for and were involved in Make A Difference Day included the Girl Scouts of Otahki Council who collected long distance phone cards to be shipped to military personnel on Saturday, members of the Cape Friends of Traditional Music and Dance who offered free dance lessons Saturday night, and Area Wide United Way staff and board members who donated and plan to personally distribute children's books and toys to children staying in local hospitals.

"Our agency provides behavioral health services to the community," said Ruth Ann Mier with the Community Counseling Center. "We have called on Denise for our clients and she helped us out, so we thought it would be good to help her out."

First Call for Help provides a hotline for people who require various forms of social assistance and refers callers to the appropriate agency. First Call also distributes basic necessities such as hygiene and cleaning products.

First Call has received 7,900 calls since it started in August 1999, Wimp said. The number of calls varies greatly from month to month. The agency was set up to serve only Cape Girardeau County, but is in the process of adding Scott, Stoddard, Bollinger and Perry counties to its referral area.

The Community Counseling Center serves Cape, Bollinger, Perry, Ste. Genevieve and Madison counties. When different social programs work together, their impact is much greater, Mier and Wimp said.

"So many families are one paycheck away from a crisis, homelessness, or just being financially stricken to where they cannot afford a prescription, groceries, the rent or utilities," Wimp said.

This was First Call for Help's first time to participate in Make a Difference Day, and it had been several years since the Community Counseling Center last contributed to the effort. Members of both agencies plan to join in the project again next October. They also hope their efforts on Make A Difference Day will inspire other people to reach out and volunteer all through the year.

"These agencies make a difference every day, not just on this day," said Rochelle Banks with the counseling center.

jgosche@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 133