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Help Them To Hope begins 64th campaign
It is the time of year that the traditional Help Them To Help campaign kicks off. This year, our 64th public campaign, and the 65th year of existence will be the last Hope campaign.
You may ask why a well-established fund campaign would come to an end. Well, as many readers know, the Hope Fund was started by Waukegan News-Sun pressmen in 1958. The fellows gave money left at the end of the year from their coffee kitty to create an act of kindness for the less fortunate.
That money was co-mingled with other money from the Chicago Pressroom’s Union and as tradition, it was given to a young widowed printer’s wife and her infant son. The money was used to finance mother and son’s trip back home to England, where she had family.
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When Bernice Just, a News-Sun columnist, found out about the pressmen’s gesture of kindness, she spoke to publisher F. Ward Just. The publisher approached the pressmen, asking if they had plans to continue this endeavor.
They said they wanted to do something to help the less fortunate in Lake County. Just suggested they go public, and that the newspaper would cover all costs associated with a Hope campaign. The first public campaign was in 1959.
Over the years, Lucille “Dink” Porett cared for the administration and promotion of the HTTH funds until her retirement in 1980. Bob Amann then took over the reins of HTTH.
Publishers of the paper acted as president of the Hope Fund board. In 1976, the Internal Revenue Service and the State of Illinois ruled a nonprofit had to be chartered with the state, and registered with the IRS as a 503(c) nonprofit.
The official Help Them To Hope, Inc., nonprofit was created, independent of the paper. From this point forward bylaws were created, and a board of directors and a president of the organization were elected. In 1984, Keystone Printing was sold to Copley Press, turning over ownership of WKRS Radio, The Independent-Register newspaper, the Hampton Greeting Card Co. and The News-Sun to the new owner. The Hope Fund gained a great deal of backing from Copley, keeping the Hope Fund strong in the public eye.
And here we are in 2023, beginning our 64th public campaign. The board, made up of mostly retired News-Sun employees, has collectively a total of 129 years of service on the board since 1996. We will let you ponder the average board member’s age.
There is more history upcoming in future letters to the editor.
Richard A. Ribando, retired publisher/president, Help Them To Hope, Inc.