LANSING—The Mid-Michigan Community Action Agency (MMCAA) is helping area residents stay warm this winter by providing financial assistance for heating costs.

Nationally there are 1,122 such agencies, including 30 in Michigan. The MMCAA serves Bay, Clare, Gladwin, Mecosta, Midland and Osceola counties.

Executive Director Gary Gilbert said it provides emergency aid for utility services and helps to weatherize homes. The money comes from federal and state government, in addition to donations from local organizations.

Gilbert said the MMCAA uses about 400 volunteers each year. Packaging and delivering food to families in need and pre-school services are among its top priorities.

Gilbert said if someone can’t pay a heating bill, he or she should contact one of the offices. If criteria are met and money is available, it will be paid, he said.

About 82 percent of MMCAA’s funds come from the federal government and about 12 percent from the state, but Gilbert said, “We have seen a sizeable drop in state funding, although federal funding has remained relatively steady.

“In the long-term, this is going to have an impact on our ability to provide services for those in need.”

While funding is decreasing, heating costs have increased “20 to 50 percent, depending on if you’re using natural gas, propane or fuel oil,” Gilbert said.

He encouraged the public to join in the agency’s 17th annual Walk for Warmth, scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 23, in each of the six counties. Participants raise money through pledges of donations.

MMCAA outreach services director Sharon Wainman said the event is a “wonderful supplement” to federal and state funds.

Clients include residents with medical emergencies or who needed motor vehicle repairs, she said, and therefore can no longer afford heating costs.

She said that vehicle repairs sometimes are needed to get to their job, and Gilbert said rising gasoline costs also are hurting low-income households.

He added, “It might be an inconvenience for people in the upper-middle class or the upper class to pay $3 a gallon for gasoline, but for the people we work with, it’s a catastrophe.”

The walk raised $86,500 last year, Wainman said. The annual goal is $100,000. She added that donations continue to rise each year.

She said money that is raised in each county stays there, and it’s important to educate the public about the need for donations that might help their neighbors.

“Poverty has ascended in Michigan in the new millennium,” said Ismael Ahmed, director of the Michigan Department of Human Services (DHS), “Almost two million people live in or near poverty in Michigan including almost a half million children.”

The Michigan Commission on Community Action and Economic Opportunity will hold forums to speak with Michigan residents living in poverty in Sault Ste. Marie Dec. 7 and Kalamazoo Dec. 13. Others are being scheduled in Clare, Detroit and Flint for January and February.

Stacie Gibson, assistant director of the Bureau of Community Action and Economic Opportunity, said the DHS allocated nearly $21.1 million to the 30 agencies in Michigan through the Community Services Block Grant alone, which is one of its funding sources.

Further information on the Walk for Warmth, including and a downloadable registration, waiver and pledge sheet, can be found at www.mmcaa.org.

The main MMCAA office in Clare can be contacted at 989-386-3805.