lanuaiy 22. 2003
fhirtlanò (fibscrurr
Page AS
Community Advocate Faces Eviction
photos by W yndl
D yek /T he P ortland O bserver
Lynda Peoples and Eddie Hillman (above) have established a trust account
for Clara Peoples (left) at Bank o f America. Exasperated with confusing
mortgage statements, like the one Lynda holds in her hand — showing
payments have been made but only rising balances — the pair hope to get a
lawyer to save Peoples' home.
continued
from Front
in America because o f a little blond-haired, blue­
eyed girl who started coming to her door each day
for no reason Peoples could immediately discern.
“She’d always want to stay with me, and I had
no idea why until I found out her mother was a
prostitute,” she said. “Then one day there were 10
other kids with her waiting out there and I thought,
‘Oh my, what am I going to do?”'
What Peoples did was go into her kitchen and
prepare sandwiches o f peanut butter and syrup
for each o f the hungry children. Every day after
that she made them sack lunches and sent them on
their way. The crowds kept growing and before
Peoples knew it, she was feeding the whole neigh­
borhood.
Then she got an idea. After reading a newspa­
per article about how the government disposed of
surplus crops and dairy products into the Atlan­
tic Ocean, she thought all that food would be
better put to use feeding the nation's hungry than
sea lite, so she booked a flight to Washington,
DC.
“ I marched into the Pentagon and asked them
why they were wasting all that food,” Peoples
said.
The Pentagon must have taken her request for
food seriously, because when Peoples got back to
Portland the military had delivered 15 boxes o f
butter, bread and canned goods stacked up out­
side her home.
“ I never dreamed I would see it,” Peoples said.
“ But I guess the military can do a lot o f amazing
things if they want to.”
And so Peoples began to do amazing things
herself. The next morning she emptied the boxes
and distributed them to the neighborhood’s
needy. She began taking hungry families out to an
old cannery to teach them how to preserve their
food through canning and freezing. An Oklahoma
native with farming in her blood, she made trips
with volunteers to local farms to harvest farmers
unwanted second crops.
People’s efforts led to a four-page feature on
Community Care Association in the December
1971 issue o f Ebony Magazine.
She gave people dignity by teaching them to
take care o f themselves.
"People d o n 't want to wallow around they
want to stand up," Peoples said. "I taught them to
survive by giving them a right to hang on and look
up, not down. I taught them that agriculture is life
and life is survival.”
And as for the little blonde-haired, blue-eyed
girl, oh, she survived all right.
Peoples told her mother that she deserved a
better life than the one she lived as a prostitute.
The mother agreed and said she would like to be
a nurse. Peoples had friends in high places that
got the family into secure housing, enrolled the
mother in a local nursing program and sent all
seven children to private school.
She still talks to that little blonde girl to this
day.
“She went o ff into the military and she’s doing
great,” People said.
U ntortunately, Peoples is not doing so well
herself. Ten years ago she had to refinance her
home with EMC Corp. Mortgage to help pay for
her diabetes treatment. Since then, Peoples was
told the company has gone out o f business. She
began sending her monthly checks to a new ad­
dress in Atlanta, then another in Oklahoma, one
People don't want to
wallow around — they want
to stand up. I ’ve taught
them to survive by giving
them a right to hang on
and look up, not down.
— Clara Peoples, founderof
Community Care Association
in Louisiana and, most recently, to California.
She receives monthly statements for each pay­
ment, yet somehow her balance has increased
from $ 128,000 to $ 175,000. Peoples and her daugh­
ter Lynda both took $8.000 from their 401 K ac­
counts to make a $ 16,000 payment, but the com ­
pany recently told them no payments have been
received and the house will go into foreclosure on
Feb. 28.
“We are all asking ourselves, ‘W hat’s going
on? Where has our money been going?” Lynda
said. “ We feel like w e’ve been treated so un­
fairly.”
Unable to make sense o f the matter, they con­
King’s
Widow Pleads
for Peace
continued
from Front
Sen. Zell Miller o f Georgia
referred to King as a "native son
ofGeorgia who changed my life,
the life o f my grandson and your
life ... and the life o f an entire
nation, indeed the world, for the
better. We must never forget
that one person, only one per­
son ean make a difference.”
Miller, a Democrat, said King
was a leader whose dreams still
inspire people worldwide every
day.
“As we pause on this day to
remember this great and noble
man, let us all ask ourselves
again the question ... What are
you doing for others?" Miller
said.
Advertise with diversity»«
" ,e Portland Observer
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tacted Optimum Mortgage for help Employee
Bernadetta Waters, w ho remembers getting honey
buns from Peoples' back door as a child said it
sounds like the family has been taken advantage
o f and suggested they enlist in the help o f an
attorney.
I 'nable to pay for legal fees. Peoples, her daugh­
ter and 11 ¡liman have set up a trust account at Bank
of American and are planning fundraising events
for the month of February.
By soliciting community members familiar with
her charity work, they hope to raise enough money
from donations to hire a lawyer and pay $35,000 by
the foreclosure date.
“W e're going to beg pure and simple," Peoples
said. “T hat’s all that we can do."
Lynda Peoples said her m other's health is fail­
ing and it is her last wish to spend her remaining
days in her longtime house.
In spite o f poor health. Peoples still serves
about 4.000 needy people a month with absolutely
no outside funding. Community Care Association
$
volunteers continue to pass out donated food to
the poor at Bethel African Methodist Episcopal
Church, located at 5828 N.L. 8,h Ave., on Tues­
days, Thursdays and Saturdays from 8 a.m. to
noon.
Each morning hundreds line up in the parking
lot to choose from canned goods, fresh produce,
preserved meats and seafood, breads and past­
ries collected from local grocers, farmers, bakeries
and individuals.
“Obviously people still need Mama Peoples,”
Hillman said.
To help join the fundraising effort to save Clara
Peoples' home, contact Eddie Hillman at 503-285-
6 3 10, Lynda Peoples at 503-493-0332 or Jenelle
Jackal 50.3-449-3790. For in formation on contrib­
uting help to Community Care Association, con­
tact Clara Peoples at 503-287-7532.
Those wishing to give money for legal costs
and mortgage payments to save Peoples’ home
can make donations in her name at any Bank o f
America location.
I t ’s o fte n e a s ie r
to p ic k o u t th e
v e h ic le . . .
th a n th e fin a n c in g !
For an a n s w e r you can tru s t,
le t yo ur c re d it union help!
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