THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, September 3, 1995 TAG: 9508310023
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J4 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Short : 50 lines
All six social workers in the Virginia Beach Social Services Departments' Resource Development Unit try to help poor people with needs no government program can meet.
They work with the community and churches and other funding agencies to help the people who are said to ``fall through the cracks.''
That's their job.
But they do much more, in their own time. As staff writer Pam Starr recently reported, ``Each month for two years, these government workers have stayed up late baking goodies to sell to co-workers, worked weekends operating flea markets and pig roasts, and raffled off items donated by local businesses - all to help the people they are paid to serve.''
They raise about $500 a month to pay for prescription drugs that their clients cannot afford.
And when a vending-machine company agreed to give a portion of its monthly profits to the entire department, all employees agreed to put the money - about $250 a month - into the prescription fund. Employees could have used the money for a Christmas party or new kitchen appliances.
This past summer, Atlantic Shores Baptist Church collected $1,280.50 in pennies for the prescription-drug program.
The program helps about 30 clients a month, but at least 20 more could use help if the money was available.
For about 10 years, beginning in the early '80s, a wealthy anonymous person paid for the poor people's prescriptions, but that person moved out of the area, and now the social workers are trying to fill the gap.
Most people have to be helped with prescriptions only once. If they aren't helped, they may have to choose between buying a needed prescription or paying the rent and keeping a roof over their families' heads.
We salute the social workers who are going the extra mile to meet their clients' needs. They say they are not protesting the shortage of funds. They are extending themselves to help people who need it, going well beyond their job description.
If you want to help, call Loretta Hicks at 437-3216 or Eunice Whitehurst at 437-3220. These two social workers have received dozens of calls since the article ran in this paper on Monday. To donate to the prescriptions program, make a check payable to VBDSS/CRS and mail it to Virginia Beach Department of Social Services, 3432 Virginia Beach Blvd., Virginia Beach, Va. 23452. by CNB