Back in the day, we took care of our own. Now, we rely on taxes and government wealth redistribution to act in place of our families, churches, private charities and local governments. Government gets to prioritize and decide which needs our communities need met.
Government social ills growth grew particularly out of hand during the Obama administration and during Covid, but it has been building for 50 years.
Now, before you raise a huff, government has a place supporting those in need. Our state founding fathers included that care in Art. 16 Section 6 of the Wyoming constitution.
Government support of those in need is important, but allocations from D.C. rarely (if ever) efficiently and effectively address the specific needs of communities.
Those expenditures serve political parties and reelection campaigns, and nominally, those in need of care.
But, one home-grown charity serves as a beacon of how things should be done.
The Clear Creek Wood Bank is a charitable project out of Buffalo, WY that was started in 2022 by the Oversized Heart Foundation, Inc.
The project’s mission is to “Ensure no one ever has to choose between eating and heating.”
Instead of Bob Cratchit shivering in front of a lump of coal, firewood is given free of charge.
The wood bank is like a food bank, except they give out firewood instead of food.
The wood bank’s approach is elegant and practical.
Many of our communities are faced with an aging population who needs occasional help, working class poor who struggle paycheck to paycheck to make ends meet and folks on fixed incomes facing increasing costs for everything.
The Clear Creek Wood Bank provides targeted charity to exactly those folks in their community. By assisting in providing a basic necessity – heat – the wood bank is able of offset rising costs of everything else. The wood bank does is by using an abundant, sustainable local resource – trees.
By leveraging a community’s strength in assets, the wood bank creates a cost-efficient program to help folks who need the help through the winter.
The Clear Creek Wood Bank distributed 128 cords of cut/split firewood to 892 families from Buffalo, Banner, Kaycee, Sheridan, Story, Clearmont, and Arvada last winter.
The demographics of folks who received heating assistance included 74% retired people, 36% with a disability, 27% with a veteran in the family, 12% unemployed, and 21% with at least one member of the family working part-time or full- time.
Seventy-two individual volunteers accomplished this feat by donating a total of 1,310 hours of their time. Anyone who knows what it takes to cut and split a cord of wood knows the effort that went into helping friends and neighbors.
The founders and initial funders of the project choose to remain in the shadows – a choice I respect. But those founders insist on thanking the many volunteers who make this project possible.
Joe Landsedel of J&L Sons Logging sources and delivers semi-truckloads of logs (which he has often donated when demand outstripped the wood bank’s funding).
Cliff Nuckolls purchased a firewood processor and donates his time and equipment to turn truckloads of logs into firewood.
The students of Buffalo Christian Academy and New West High School provide their young backs helping distribute the wood while experiencing the positive impact they are making on their community.
Charitable organizations like the Hughes Foundation, Wyoming Community Foundation, Alliance for Green Heat Inc, and numerous private donors have provided much-needed funding for the wood bank.
This year Clear Creek Wood Bank expects that they will give out about 200 cords of cut/split firewood. If they can raise enough funds, the hope to expand this project to another Wyoming community.
Instead of looking to the government for funding, this group of community-minded folks saw a problem and through a little effort, provided a solution.
Donations to this organization go to the people who need them. During this Thanksgiving season, if you want an effective place to donate a little extra money to provide heat for the winter, $40 provides two weeks of heat, $125 provides six weeks of heat and $250 provides a full a winter of heat to people who can use your help. You can donate at www.clearcreekwoodbank.com.
Thank you, Clear Creek Wood Bank, your volunteers and your donors, for making Wyoming the kind of place we want to live.
Tom Lubnau served in the Wyoming Legislature from 2004 - 2015 and is a former Speaker of the House. He can be reached at: YourInputAppreciated@gmail.com
