CHATHAM'S WEALTH
Don Edge, Chairman
Summer Residents Committee
[From remarks at the 62nd Summer Town Meeting, August 5, 2008]
"Never use money to measure wealth"
Chatham is no longer a farming community, although it once was. Chatham is no longer a fishing community, although fishing is important to the town. Today Chatham is a "distinctive destination," as the Main Street banners proudly announced. It is "an affluent summer resort," a "second home community." The tax bills of over half the homes in Chatham are mailed out of town, out of state, and while the tax rate in Chatham is the lowest on the Cape, the property valuations are among the highest. As one speaker at the 62nd annual Summer Town Meeting said, those who chose a second home in Chatham chose well.
But there is another Chatham--a Chatham not measured by property valuation, but by the need for shelter, food, warmth, safety, medicine, companionship, and family stability. Chatham has a host of problems and needs. Here are some of them:
Addiction Alcohol Drugs
Domestic abuse
Child neglect
Children and young adults Elderly
Handicapped
Women
Childcare
Clothing Convalescence
Day care
Dental care
Elder care
Employment assistance Eyeglasses
Family counseling
Financial training
Food
Heating fuel (10% of seniors 60>)
Housing (@ 100 homeless families in Chatham)
Jobs for the mentally challenged and handicapped
Legal assistance
Loneliness
Meals on wheels
Medical care
Nutrition education
Poverty
Prescriptions
Psychiatric care
School meals assistance (16% of students spring 2008) Shoes, boots
Transportation
Veteran's care
While life is hard for many Chatham folks, many individuals and organizations are dedicated to easing the burdens of those in need. Here are some of them:
Aids council Art of charity
Baptist First Light Church Big brothers/sisters
Cape abilities
Cape Cod child development Cape Cod Five Cents Savings Cape Cod foundation
Cape Cod visiting nurse association
Catholic Holy Redeemer Church, St. Vincent DePaul Society Catholic Our Lady of Grace
Chatham angel
Chatham human services advisory committee Chatham Ecumenical Council for the Homeless Chatham teachers fund
Congregational United Church of Christ Consumer assistance
Council on aging
Elder services of Cape Cod
Episcopal St.Christopher's
Gosnold
Independence house
Legal Services of Cape Cod
Lion's club
Lower Cape outreach Masonic lodges
Medical professionals in Chatham Methodist First United
Monomoy community services
Operation in from the cold
Rotary international
Sight loss services
Tooth tutoring
Unitarian Universalist Meeting House United Way
VFW
Charity fundraisers universally acknowledge that those who have little give in greater percentages than those who have much. So while by no means are they all rich, the great many caring men and women represented by these organizations are generous with their time, effort, money, and imagination. Their dedication to helping those in need, the generosity of these men and women, rich and poor alike, winter and summer residents alike, is the true measure of Chatham's wealth.
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