Dennis Hewitt is always up for a fundraiser for Public Action to Deliver Shelter — PADS — of Elgin.
The Elgin homeless shelter at 1730 Berkley St., Elgin, has many of the same problems as other area non-profits — struggling to cover its budget while looking at the likelihood of state funding cuts once a budget is finalized and passed.
So events like Thursday night’s “Doc Diamond: a Neil Diamond Tribute Show” performance at First United Methodist Church, 216 E Highland Ave., are always welcome, Hewitt said. About 50 people attended the show in the church’s basement, helping to raise $750 for the shelter, he said.
The tribute artist is Doc Diamond — aka Jeff Silberfine — a West Dundee chiropractor who has been regularly volunteering his services at the shelter since 1998. About once a month, he offers chiropractic services to those staying in the shelter. For many of those clients, he may be the only health care practitioner they see.
“I want to get good health care to them,” Silberfine said.
Performing a Neil Diamond tribute act is a newer endeavor for the chiropractor.
He started by performing the artist’s songs at karaoke nights. Then, he won a karaoke contest on a cruise ship. Another passenger on that trip later reached out to Silberfine and asked him if he’d be willing to perform at an area Catholic school’s fundraiser two years ago.
Since then, he’s been doing the show — a little over an hour of Diamonds’ songs — for other fundraisers, corporate events, and elsewhere. Nearly all of his shows — sometimes a few a month, sometimes less — are booked through referrals, he said.
He encouraged the audience to get up and dance if they wanted to. “I can fix your spine if you hurt yourself,” he joked.
“I am blessed to be able to do this for you,” he added.
It is events like Silberfine’s performance that help PADS — with just a $500,000 annual budget — not only raise money, but raise the public’s awareness of the Elgin shelter, said Hewitt and Brittany Mitchell, special projects coordinator at PADS.
Each year, PADS holds its dance competition fundraiser during Winter Harvest for the Homeless and Star Dance for PADS of Elgin. That event raises a large chunk of their operating budget — $100,000 — each year, Hewitt said.
This year, PADS has either put on or been the recipient of funds from seven smaller events — including the “Doc Diamond” show. Those other events — like church rummage sales and bunko nights — can bring in anything from $200 to $8,000, Hewitt added.
The events are also very important in the summer, he said. While donors often think about homeless shelters during the winter holidays and severe cold weather, the hot days of summer can be just as dangerous for the homeless, he said.
One potential fundraiser for the shelter does need local support, too. Realtors Baird and Warner are running a contest on its website, giving people a chance to vote for 16 of 25 agencies to receive $10,000 grant. The link can be found at http://vote.bairdwarner.com.
Although there were PADS of Elgin board members and other frequent volunteers at the weeknight performance, there were many others there Hewitt said he didn’t recognize. That helps raise awareness of PADS, which has had an Elgin presence for 26 years, Hewitt said. For the past eight years, the shelter has been at its location on Elgin’s far southwest side.
The shelter serves about 400 people a year and can have 30 to 50 people each night, he added.
With its partner, the adjacent Wayside Center, the two provide 44,000 meals a year to those in need, he added.
While the state of Illinois only provides about 7 percent of PADS funding, other agencies in Elgin they work with are in a more tenuous state, said Hewitt. Directors of those agencies often get together to talk about how to work together, and hopefully how to pressure the state into paying bills for those programs.
“Understand that this state is an absolute crisis,” Hewitt said, adding that he isn’t assigning blame to either side of the debate.
“Every single one is to blame.”
Janelle Walker is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News.
