By John Flood

SPECIAL TO THE TOWN CRIER Scott Larrimore, a foster parent through Help One Child, holds his adopted baby daughter.

Mother Branch still feeding the needy after 52 years

The Town Crier Holiday Fund disburses donations each year to 15 Silicon Valley area non-profits that benefit residents in need. This week, we profile a Los Altos non-profit that supports foster children and another that helps the needy in East Palo Alto.

Help One Child

While 500 children wait for foster homes in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties, Help One Child, a Los Altos-based non-profit organization, does its part to help them find foster parents.

Founded in 1993, Help One Child reaches out through churches throughout the county to find couples and singles to volunteer as foster parents.

Today there are 150 families parenting approximately 260 foster children in the Help One Child network, said Susan Kammerer, executive director of Help One Child.

“There are many good people out there who want to take in foster children,” she said.

To raise awareness and recruit additional foster parents for the 500 children awaiting homes, the organization recently launched the Home for Every Child campaign.

“The goal is to find 500 new homes through 500 churches in 1,000 days,” Kammerer said. “We started (the campaign) Nov. 18, National Adoption Day.”

To participate in Help One Child activities, a volunteer need not belong to a church or be of a particular faith. All foster families are welcome whether certified through a county or a private agency, according to the Help One Child Web site.

The organization encourages others to support foster children through baby-sitting, tutoring, mentoring, transportation and prayer.

“There are 750 churches in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties,” Kammerer said. “If every church encouraged one family to take one child, there would be no children waiting (for a foster home).”

The organization will apply funds from the Town Crier Holiday Fund toward Home for Every Child awareness and the recruitment campaign.

Help One Child has an annual budget of $350,000 that supports four full-time staff members and the foster families.

Help One Child is located at Los Altos Union Presbyterian Church, 858 University Ave.

For more information, call 917-1210, or visit www.helponechild.org.

Mother Branch

For 52 years Oneida Branch has provided food and clothing for the needy right out of her home in East Palo Alto. And she keeps the giving simple.

“I’m doing what the Lord wants me to do,” Branch said. “The Lord makes a way for me.”

Branch, who is 88 and a diabetic, “can’t eat sweets,” she said.

On the day she was interviewed for the Town Crier, she was short of breath and wasn’t feeling well.

“It must have been the tomatoes I put in the turkey soup,” she said, not wanting to go to the hospital for a shot.

She expects more than 500 people, including families, to come to her during the holiday season for food and clothing.

“I’m bagging up clothes right now,” she said. “Clothes from people who cleaned out their closets.”

These days Branch, known as Mother Branch, doesn’t prepare as many meals as she used to. This holiday season she wants to help the needy with gift certificates from local grocery stores.

“I’ve been asking for a $25 (gift) certificate so people can get a ham or a turkey,” she said. “I had about $800 donated from one family.”

With the support of her son, a granddaughter and a few volunteers, Branch assists people every weekday. And people in need drop by her home on the weekends, too.

“The welfare agencies say, ‘Go see Mother Branch if you need anything on the weekends,” she said.

But her dream is to have a center.

“I’m praying that someone will bring me a building,” Branch said. “I need a place where a person can come, take a hot bath and change their clothes … their clothes are filthy.”

Mother Branch is located at 2584 Farrington Way, East Palo Alto. For more information, call 325-2848.

The Silicon Valley Community Foundation serves as the fiscal agent for the Town Crier Holiday Fund, providing tax-deductible status for the fund, and every contribution qualifies as a 501(c)(3) gift.

A group of donors has pledged challenge grants to match community donations.

Matching donors as of press time include the Steven and Michele Kirsch Foundation, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the Homer Family Fund, the Charles and Nan Geschke Foundation, the William and Gay Krause Foundation, Rambus Inc. Los Altos resident Ed Dowd and the Carl and Vickie Warden Foundation.

Watch the Town Crier for more details about groups that benefit from the Holiday Fund. For more information about the fund, see today’s ad on page 21.

To donate to the Holiday Fund, make checks payable to: Town Crier Holiday Fund, 138 Main St., Los Altos 94022.