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County cancer loan closet needs help, cooperation

EDITOR:

With the onset of the holiday season, I’d like to take a minute to first thank all who have donated in some way to the Dickinson County Cancer Unit Loan Closet. Your thoughtfulness is truly appreciated and has made our organization such a successful endeavor. We are here to help our local residents who are battling cancer and while we are not able to help those outside of our service area, we may be able to pass on valuable information and phone numbers of others who could possibly lend a helping hand.

On the downside, because our donations and contributions have begun to decrease from past years, we are now having to reevaluate our supplies. Since the closure of Shopko, we no longer have the availability of their products. We buy fairly large quantities of incontinent supplies and most local stores do not have the inventory needed to fill our needs. Therefore, we have had to begin ordering our incontinent supplies online. While we realize our clients may like a certain brand or a certain strength of pad, we can no longer fill everyone’s request for their favorite item. What we have on hand is what we will be distributing. Because of our decline in donations and increase in clients, we are trying to do the best we can with what we have available. Please realize, we are here to help not to be a personal shopper.

We also have had to deal with clients who refuse to return our equipment; knee walkers especially. I have had to personally pick up pieces of equipment which we are not supposed to do. Some clients hang up on us when we call to remind them their equipment is overdue. Some ignore us even when we are knocking on their door. What’s our alternative? We have to buy new equipment. Very sad when others could truly use that medical equipment that is being held back.

We will continue to do the very best we can to assist all our clients. However, our clients have to understand that we are under constraints that we previously never encountered. If we don’t have exactly what you’re looking for, then you may have to purchase that item. We can only do so much with what we have to work with.

Thank you for understanding.

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