Vote for supporters of nonprofits in Elgin

Several candidates for Elgin City Council do not want to fund nonprofits. This concerns me greatly. Already our local nonprofits are being deprived of funding from the state. Many are "running on fumes", laying off workers and cutting hours in order to keep the doors open.

The Daily Herald reported that three candidates want to stop city funding of nonprofits. Yaniz would leave it up to individuals in the community to take care of these organizations. John Prigge agrees. Rodgers states that nonprofits should find the money to fund themselves. To each of you, I would ask that you take one day at every one of the nonprofits you propose defunding; one day to serve clients there. Perhaps none of you has ever fully understood what it takes to build and keep a community going.

Nonprofits lift the most vulnerable of our citizens so that they can survive. Just see what happens when the general public no longer cares enough to fund these organizations. City administrative costs will increase. Jails will fill, crime rates will rise, hospital emergency rooms will be flooded under the weight of need. People will go hungry. I wonder if any of you three candidates has ever gone hungry and not known where to find food? If you have, who helped you out then? If not, please go serve a day at these various nonprofits you want to stop helping, and then tell us they don't need your funding.

To all of us, please vote for compassion and smarts: Vote for Terry Gavin, Rauschenberger and Dixon. Each of them believes in giving some support to non profits. They appear to remember their civics education. We are only as strong as our weakest link. If we don't care for all, then all of us will eventually fail.

Margaret Watts

Elgin