Inmates help out Helping Hands
Prison fund-raiser nets $15,215 for charitable organization
With an assist from Little Caesars Pizza, the inmates at the state prison complex south of Yuma have lent a helping hand to Helping Hands of Yuma.
The prisoners raised $15,215 from pizza sales in the complex and gave the money to the Foothills-based non-profit organization that serves the homebound elderly in and around Yuma.
A check for the money couldn’t have come at a better time, says Amy Obney, executive director of
Helping Hands.
“This is a huge blessing for us because we were not able to hold our two largest fund-raisers of the year,” she said.
The fund-raisers are two large yard sales annually, each of which typically raises between $50,000 and $60,000 that help pay for programs and services provided by Helping Hands. But the pandemic precluded holding the sale in December and the second in February.
The lost revenue meant “we had to become creative with fund-raising and this was just a blessing,” she said.
As part of the Inmate Restorative
Justice Program, the inmates at the prison complex south of Yuma take part in a fund-raising effort to help out a local charity with money. For their lastest benefit, they chose pizza sales and, says Obney, Little Caesars donated the pizza for the effort.
The inmates “wanted to give a smaller (charitable organization this year) and that’s how they chose Helping Hands,” she said.
Arizona Department of Corrections officials from the complex recently visited Helping Hands to deliver the check for the money.
With the help of volunteers, Helping Hands serves more than 300 clients ages 60 and older in the Foothills, Yuma and other areas of the county. Services include giving rides to clients to and from appointments, the store and other destinations; providing them free medical equipment and hygiene supplies, and involving them in social activities with others.
The pandemic not only cost the organization revenue from the yard sales, it led to restrictions on social enrichment services, limiting Helping Hands to making periodic phone calls to clients and deliverying goodie bags to them, Obney said.
Now that COVID case numbers are falling and vaccines are more widely available, the organization is looking forward to being able to hold a yard sale next
December.
Obney said Helping Hands does not hurt for donations of clothing, furniture, household items and other goods that can be offered to bargain hunters at the yard sales.
But with the two planned sales having been canceled, what it does lack now is space to store all that it wants to sell. In fact, says Obney, Helping Hands has no room for any more donations. “We’re having to turn away people who want to donate.”
She’s hoping to find individuals or self-storage businesses will to donate space to Helping Hands to house items to be sold. Anyone wishing to provide space can call Helping Hands at 928-305-9974.