Deep Well Project gearing up for busy holiday season of giving

On a glum, rainy Sunday on Hilton Head Island, volunteers from The Deep Well Project brought a ray of hope -- two bags of food each for needy families for Thanksgiving dinner.

Fittingly, the intermittent rain cleared just in time for the deliveries, Deep Well executive director Betsy Doughtie said.

"It was a miracle," she said. "It stopped raining just as the cars pulled up."

In the past few days, the nonprofit organization has helped or referred 142 families to receive Thanksgiving dinners. The number of those helped will increase, as dinner pickups will through Wednesday.

On Tuesday, brown bags full of food for Thanksgiving lined the hallway at Deep Well's building on Beach City Road. Dozens more bags, decorated by Girl Scouts with turkeys and Thanksgiving themes, were kept in a back storage room.

Last year, the nonprofit served 1,750 families with its programs.

The deliveries Sunday followed a week of large donations from groups around the Lowcountry. Churches, Rotarians, gated communities, management companies and dozens of others brought in food that could last the charity through spring, Doughtie said.

The donations will also give it a head start on providing Christmas dinners during its busiest season. The nonprofit handed out 218 dinners for last Christmas, Doughtie said.

On Tuesday, volunteers were already putting boxed and canned food away to transform one of the rooms in the building on Beach City Road into "Santa's Shop," where parents will come next month to pick out toys for their children. The shop started last year, replacing a program in which families "adopted" needy children and fulfilled their wish lists. About 150 families were adopted in 2012, but over 250 families weren't.

The Santa's Shop program allows Deep Well to serve more needy children, Doughtie said. Last year, 350 parents picked out toys for 838 children.

Boxes of new children's clothing filled a nearby conference room Tuesday. Doughtie said a volunteer shops year-round for clothing to ensure the nonprofit gets the best deals. Parents will pick one outfit for each child.

Providing clothing and school supplies has increasingly become a part of Deep Well's giving. This year, the organization helped 800 children get school uniforms through $50 vouchers.

"We want them well-dressed with the right supplies on the first day," Doughtie said. "If they don't, they're branded poor, and it's not a good start to school. We want them off to a great start."

Deep Well also continues to help families with home repairs, rent and electric bills. In 2013, the nonprofit assisted 101 families with repairs, many of them living in dilapidated mobile homes. This year, 196 families have already been helped with rent, and 218 families received assistance with their electric bills, Doughtie said.

"That assistance is so contingent on the weather," she said. "A few years ago we had a hot summer and a cold winter. We got creamed by the bills. For the people who lived in old trailers, the heat just went out the cracks, and they got huge bills."

Many of the people they assist financially are also helped during the holiday season. Doughtie said the majority work in the service industry on Hilton Head Island and are hamstrung by low wages that dip during winter, when tourism takes its seasonal decline.

"They're already struggling to the pay the bills," she said. "They have no money left to pay for a turkey or Christmas presents."

Follow reporter Matt McNab at twitter.com/IPBG_Matt.

This story was originally published November 25, 2014 at 5:57 PM with the headline "Deep Well Project gearing up for busy holiday season of giving."