United Way, Charities, Volunteers, Human Services -

For love of the Cape and Islands

Many seasonal homeowners choose to share their time and philanthropy

John Murphy has been coming to the Cape during the summer for a quarter-century. It’s where the retiring chairman and director of Oppenheimer Funds Inc. has been able to “Just be who I am, not what I am.”

“I can wear shorts and not shave and spend quality time with my kids. Here, I have friends and neighbors who come from every walk of life, with one thing in common: our love of the Cape.”

For many years, Murphy would hardly ever leave his little village in Cotuit, intent to decompress from the high-wire world of big finance. But as he approaches retirement and expects to spend more time here, he’s realizing its picture-perfect natural beauty often camouflages the myriad struggles and challenges faced by thousands of residents, many of whom support the very quality of life that attracts second-home owners just like him.

“If I want my little village to remain the idyllic setting it is, we need to invest back into the community, to make sure it keeps pace with the needs of its full-time and seasonal residents,” he says. “We can’t let the Cape and Islands deteriorate from a social service point of view and erode the life we all love and enjoy here.”

Doreen Bilezikian came to the Cape four decades ago with her husband and two toddlers, opening a small store in Yarmouth Port that sold an eclectic selection of products she hoped would provide a modest living in a then mostly rural community. Who could have imagined she would realize the epitome of the American Dream. From that tiny location, she would grow the Christmas Tree Shops into a mega-million-dollar retail phenomenon.

Having sold her company to the owners of Bed Bath and Beyond, she and her husband are rich beyond their wildest expectations. That wealth has now granted her the precious gift of giving.

“I know vividly what it is like to be a working mother of two young children, struggling to make a living year-round when so much of the economy is only a four- to six-month one,” she recounts.

“When I first came here, it was a very rural place. If there was a hitchhiker on Willow Street, five people would call me to be sure my kids were safe. It was a real community. But today, we have problems that you would see in big cities: growing poverty, drug and alcohol use, children who are unsupervised during the day because their parents must hold down three or four jobs between them,” she observes.

Today, her family foundation works tirelessly to address many of these problems, working hand-in-hand with other benefactors, ranging from the Cape & Islands United Way, Kelly Foundation and Community Foundation of Cape Cod to encourage the hundreds of human service nonprofits operating here to collaborate for the most productive results.    

“Whether it is health care, children on Nantucket, or the astronomically growing number of Alzheimer patients among the aging population, the Cape and Islands will need all our help,” says Bilezikian.

Their needs have always been acute, but never more so than amid the current deep recession.

She and Murphy have volunteered to help the Cape & Islands United Way launch an unprecedented outreach program focused especially toward second-home owners who continue to comprise an ever-larger percentage of all households here.

“Second-home owners, like myself, must appreciate the need to direct some of our charity at work and in our full-time communities to our other home on Cape Cod or the Islands,” says Murphy. “I don’t think second-home owners disregard needs here. If they are like me, they probably have not realized the need. We have to educate them.”

Ironically, the growing attractiveness of the Cape and Islands as second-home havens have contributed directly or indirectly to many of the problems facing thousands of its full-time residents.

It begins with the intense demand for housing by second-home owners. This has increased overall home prices during the last decade beyond the reach of many full-time residents, especially young families, who are leaving the region in huge numbers. These are not only waiters and store clerks, but also hairdressers and nurses, police officers and firemen, landscapers and carpenters – the very professions that support the second-home owner and makes living here part time so attractive.

Last month, Bilezikian and Murphy helped host a fundraiser at the Harvard Club in Boston for second-home owners who live and work in and around the city.

Consider that on Nantucket, Martha’s Vineyard and in many of the Cape’s 15 towns, more than one of every two single-family residences now are second homes. About seven of every 10 second-home owners whose houses are valued at $660,000 or more actually live within two hours drive time of the Cape.

Being so close, they spend many weekends year-round at their “other home,” often arriving as early as Thursday evening and sometimes driving back to work very early Monday.

“If their owners hope to continue enjoying the natural beauty, personal security, public services, vibrant arts, diverse restaurants and shopping, then it makes economic sense – beyond good will – to help support critical human services,” observes Richard Brothers, president of the Cape & Islands United Way.

“This growing trend for second-home owners to spend more time on the Cape and Islands intensifies the human service requirements here,” he explains. “It makes it even more imperative that there are sufficient workers here to meet the needs of our second-home owners.”

Historically, second-home owners contribute about $75,000 annually to the Cape & Islands United Way, a relatively small percentage of the total $1.5 million received. “Our goal for the next year is to double that,” says Brothers.

Unlike most United Ways in urban and suburban locations, the Cape & Islands group cannot depend on traditional donations collected inside medium and large companies. “Because so much of the Cape & Islands entire economy depends on second homes, it is critical to encourage second-home owners to redirect some of their philanthropy here,” says Brothers.

“It’s our responsibility to illuminate how that philanthropy will be targeted to make the most difference for the most people – and for the overall quality of life here.”

Bilezikian and Murphy speak eloquently and passionately about that quality of life, as does another longtime seasonal homeowner, Ralph Nixon, who now makes Chatham his full-time residence and the base for his luxury home building company. He too is working to sensitize second-home owners to the dozens of human service organizations activities supported by the Cape & Islands United Way.

“As a young boy, my mother’s family had a place at Scraggy Neck in Cataumet,” recalls Nixon. “My wife had similar connections in Chatham. Both of us and our siblings grew up on the Cape alongside our grandparents and parents, connected to the water and shore. Summer after summer, the air and water entered our veins. Memories became values that have guided our family and work life.”

The Cape Cod of Nixon’s childhood has gathered a more acute and humbling focus since he moved here full time.

“In the past, the obligations of life back in the Boston area could fade away when we arrived for our summer holiday,” he recalls. “But over the last 15 years, as I began to spend more time here, I felt increasingly obligated to get more involved in my community on the Cape. You enter a different place in life; you are now fortunate enough to have the financial security and the time to contribute to the community here. You realize it is the time in your life to give back.

“It’s about legacy.”

Sidebar

Many second-home owners moving here full time

How will this trend affect human services?

There is a tidal wave of seasonal residents on the Cape and Islands who are transforming its landscape and economy.

Mostly baby boomers, they plan to trade in their primary homes elsewhere for full-time residence on the Cape in particular.  

A recent survey conducted by the University of Massachusetts’ Donahue Institute for the Cape Cod Commission and the Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce reports that:

·     Eight percent of current seasonal homeowners plan to make the Cape their primary home in the next five years.

·     An additional 14 percent plan to convert their home in the next 15 years.

·     As a result, more than 20 percent of all Cape Cod households – about 11,000 – will transform from second to full-time homes.

·     Nearly one in five of these new fulltime residents plan to either work for someone else or start their own businesses.

This transformation has profound impacts on the regional economy and quality of life. It means a greater need for more services for everything from clothing and furniture to health care and recreation.

The question is: Who will provide those services, especially if many workers cannot earn enough money to afford housing? And what extra strains will this trend place on the Cape and Islands human services structure, much of which is nonprofit and depends on private philanthropy, grants and foundations?

Consider that most of the museums, theaters and cultural organizations on the Cape depend on donations to financially survive. At the same time, the UMass Donahue survey suggests that with so many second-home owners moving here full time, these very institutions will be in much greater demand.

For example, three out of every four surveyed say they plan to attend music venues occasionally or frequently after moving to the Cape full time. That’s a discretionary activity. What about these same new residents requiring necessities such as health care?

“Just consider what strains our human services sector will feel as these new residents require elderly services, especially for conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease?” asks Richard Brothers, president of the Cape & Islands United Way.

The Cape already has 10 of the state’s 15 oldest-aged towns, with Orleans and Chatham leading the way. One of the agencies strongly supported by the Cape & Islands United Way is Alzheimer’s Services of Cape Cod & the Islands.

Other agencies will be critical in providing the labor force needed to meet the needs of second-home owners moving here full time. That’s one reason the United Way is supporting A Baby Center, for example.

How can A Baby Center affect second-home owner moving here in their 50s or 60s?

Working mothers must be able to afford diapers, which is the primary purpose of A Baby Center, which collects and distributes them across the Cape.  “Many people don’t realize how diapers drive the economy,” explains Brothers. “A toddler cannot attend daycare unless he or she wears a disposable diaper. Without daycare, many mothers cannot work to support their families. If they cannot work, we will not be able to meet the needs of our residents, whether they live here full time or seasonally.”

The list goes on and on – from Helping Our Women and Women Empowered to the Vineyard Nursing Association and Community Health Center of Cape; from the Homeless Prevention Council and Nantucket Human Services Center to Child & Family Services and Habitat for Humanity.