Fundraisers bring much needed help to CAM

Posted: Saturday, August 15, 2009 12:00 am | Updated: 5:11 pm, Tue Sep 15, 2009.

Peter Adelsen Staff Writer padelsen@kokomoperspective.com | 0 comments

This year's WIOU-CAM Golf Outing is critically important to the success to the day shelter. Saturday from 8 a.m. to noon will be the 12th annual golf outing at Rice's Golf Center, located on U.S. 31, just south of Center Road.

CAM, Inc., or Coordinated Assistance Ministries, began in 1993 and feeds more than 1,000 people a year, according to Rev. Ruth Lawson, executive director of CAM.

"This was one of the first real fundraisers that CAM ever had," Lawson said. "With all the money we raise from the outing, it keeps us going, getting air conditioning, a telephone system and other things we need money for."

Last year CAM received $8,308.80 from the outing and this year the shelter is trying for $10,000, she said. Since the first golf outing in 1998, CAM has received $84,216.

Currently there are 12 teams signed up for the event. Last year's top two fundraising teams were from St. Andrew's Episcopal Church and Main Street United Methodist Church. They gave $3,000 and $2,000, respectively to CAM. The teams involved in this year's event are Calvary Baptist Church, Central Bank, Community First Bank of Howard County, Fairfield Christian Church, First Congregational Christian Church, First General Baptist Church, First Presbyterian Church, Judson Road Christian Church, Liberty Baptist Church, Main Street United Methodist Church, Parr United Methodist Church and St. Andrew's Episcopal Church.

There are also 35 sponsors for the event, she said.

The golf outing will begin at 8 a.m. with doughnuts, followed by tee time at 8:30 a.m. At 10:30 a.m., "In His Hand" gospel group will begin singing and at 11:00 a.m. the people involved will gather under the red and white tent for gifts and trophies, she said.

"The best part of the fundraiser: it doesn't take the whole day," she said.

This year's golf outing is critical to the shelter after it had received two major reimbursement grants of $5,000 and $10,000, she said. The grant is for JOST, job occupational skills and training.

"This is a wonderful grant, but we have to spend the money first and get reimbursed later," she said.

With the grant, CAM will be able to provide the needed supplies to help a person find a job, she said. The grant will help pay for supplies, work clothes and repair computers to give to people, she said. The grant is aimed at women and families who are on the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, or TANF. TANF is block grant program to help move recipients into work and turn welfare into a program of temporary assistance, according to the U.S. Health and Human Services department.

Currently, CAM is running low on cash flow, like all non-profit agencies, she said.

The next fundraiser is "Run for Shelter" 5K run and walk to be held at Oakbrook Valley on Aug. 22. It is sponsored by Oakbrook Community Church.

"We are counting on these two fundraisers to help get us out of the red and into the black," she said.

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