By RICHARD BURGER

There is a natural tendency to try to find a silver lining in unfortunate situations, particularly when it comes to life-threatening illness. 

For Dale Carpenter, the silver lining is gleaming pewter.

It comes in the form of a beautifully-designed commemorative pin that is the centerpiece of Operation TINCUP.

The program is the brainchild of Barb Petrea, with the help of Kim Hall.

Carpenter is the general manager of Yakima Theaters, and is well known in the Yakima Valley for his efforts on behalf of local charities.

When he was recently diagnosed with a brain tumor, a fund was set up to help defray his medical expenses. But Petrea said Carpenter had good medical coverage, and asked if he could use the money for charitable donations, if he didn’t need it. Petrea decided she wanted to find a way to help Carpenter continue to help the charities he supported, even while he was recovering.

“I just wanted to try to help,” she said. “Putting myself in his shoes, I knew I’d want to know that the things I loved were being taken care of.”

She said she met Carpenter before his illness, at a Yakima Rotary meeting, during which she spilled her iced tea on the table.

“Dale was relentless about teasing me,” Petrea said. “He’s a gentleman that you meet once and you remember him.”

The Operation TINCUP name for the effort on Carpenter’s behalf came from a name Carpenter has used in his own charitable fund-raising, an acronym that stands for “Those In Need Can U Pitch in.”Each year, for four days in December, Carpenter has slept in a cardboard box at a Wray’s Food and Drug at 56th and Summitview to raise funds for those in need.Last year, he raised $14,000 in cash and collected enough food, clothing, and toys to fill nine 15-passenger vans.

Petrea and Chuck Hahn of Hahn’s Business Products in Yakima designed the commemorative pin, and Hahn produced 600 to be made available for a recommended $20 donation, with all the proceeds going to four charities.

Those are Camp Prime Time, a facility for families and children with a disability or terminal illness; Mount Olive Lutheran Church and its Feed the 5,000+ program that provides meals for missions in Africa and the Dominican Republic; Shelter Box, an international relief charity that delivers emergency shelter to people affected by disaster; and the Special Olympics, athletic competition for children and adults with disabilities in the Yakima Valley.

The pins are available in several ways, Petrea said.First by visiting Operation TINCUP on Facebook, which is being run by Petrea’s project partner Kim Hall, who owns and operates A Busy Kid, a Yakima firm specializing in social marketing.

Pins are also available by mail, by sending a donation to Petrea at P.O. Box 188, Selah, Wash., 98942; by email at lafsalot@fairpoint.net; or by calling Petrea at (509) 930-0432.

She also has available what she calls “Carpenter Kits,” which are tin donation cups with 10 pins inside, for those who want to make the pins available to their friends, relatives, or co-workers. 

In any case, donation checks should be made payable to one of the charities, Petrea said. The project was launched May 10, and she distributes the donations collected to the charities monthly.By mid June, Petrea said she had already moved 400 of the 600 pins.

She said both she and Hall are available to speak to local groups and organizations at luncheons or other gatherings about the project, and talk about how those organizations can get involved.                 

Depending on the response to the initial offering, Petrea said she may consider doing more of the fund-raising Carpenter pins.

In addition to her volunteer work, Petrea helps her two teenage sons operate their own business, All About Fun.

rents recreational equipment such as bouncers, slides, and obstacle courses for parties, church events, company picnics and fundraisers.