HELPERS COMMUNITY · WINTER 2026
The Road Trip
This winter, ride along with Helpers.
Some of what an organization needs most can't be shown on paper. So Helpers goes to see it, and through December 31 you can come too.
Why Helpers goes to see
Helpers Community funds programs for adults with developmental disabilities, and it specializes in the grants that are hardest to get: the things an organization needs just to function, which most funders can't tell apart from nice-to-haves. So Harry and Marilyn, who run Helpers, and the Helpers board drive out to see as many applicants as they can. They walk the rooms, talk to the people, and find the need the application couldn't show. Very often, Helpers is the first dollar in.
This has been a hard year for that work. Many funders cut their budgets, state and federal support for adults with developmental disabilities was cut back, and infrastructure grants, already the hardest to get, got harder. Helpers went the other way and increased its grant budget.
This year, 21 of the 26 organizations Helpers funded received their first Helpers grant.
Below are the stories from these trips: the wild things they've seen, and the work they found and backed. We'll add a new one every stop.
Helpers by the numbers
This year
26organizations
funded
$358,000in grants
21first Helpers
grants
The last ten years
110 grants
61 organizations
$3.82 million
The stops
Halloween.
A ghost applied for a grant.
Make the numbers move
About a quarter of Peppermint Ridge's residents couldn't use the pool because of their disabilities. A $20,000 Helpers grant changed that. Your gift buys a share of the next one.
Because Helpers is so often the first dollar in, a Helpers grant helps an organization go raise the rest.
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for riding along with Helpers.
Thanks for riding along with us. Fair warning: this car runs on donations, and we're about to need a charge. Follow along so you don't miss a stop.
Harry and Marilyn Harrison