Mom’s glad to be on giving end

Every year, thousands of needy people come to the Christmas Bureau to get toys and food vouchers to buy Christmas dinner. Some are not able to climb out of poverty, and they come year after year. A few have been able to give back to the community by volunteering at the bureau and are proud of their achievement of moving from the receiving end of the charity to the giving end.

“This is incredible to be part of. I can feel it in my heart when I leave here at the end of the day, I am so happy,” said Bonni, who asked that her last name not be used to avoid embarrassing her school-age children.

This is Bonni’s first year volunteering at the charity; she’s been coming to get the fixings of Christmas for years.

“The people who volunteer here don’t work together every day, they just come here for two weeks. But they talk and catch up like they work together every day. They are like a family,” Bonni said over coffee on opening day last week at the bureau.

Bonni, who is 35, has struggled financially her entire adult life. Her daughter was born when she was still a teenager, and she married a man she describes as “not good people.”

“The year my daughter was born, I was living with my husband and some others in a house. We saw in the newspaper about this charity where we could go and get a toy for our daughter and food.”

That was 17 years ago.

Bonni had two more children and then she left her husband. “Once he was gone, Christmas would have ended without this,” she said of the Christmas Bureau. “Me and my uncle Larry used to come every year together. The second Tuesday after noon. Somehow we figured out that’s when it wasn’t so busy.”

She and the children moved into an abandoned trailer near Freeman, Wash., with no water or heat. The children showered at school. They got by.

Three years ago, the owners of the Freeman Store learned about Bonni and her family from administrators at the Freeman School District. Store owners Barb and Craig Lang wanted to “adopt” a needy family and provide a Christmas.

“I went out to the place she was living in and I thought, ‘Oh my goodness gracious, she does need help,’ ” said Barb Lang.

Lang called friends in the community, school administrators and others and started putting together the Christmas gift. Meanwhile, Bonni put together a wish list of gifts for her children, who were 14, 13 and 10.

“They invited me to lunch at Applebee’s,” said Bonni. “I got my lists out on the table with all of the kids’ sizes and all. I had it all organized.”

Bonni said she started going over her lists. “Then Barb said, ‘Stop, I can’t wait anymore to tell you. We bought you a house.’ “

Lang explained, “After I saw where she and the children were living, I just contacted friends, and we made it happen. Matt Connor of Jewel Excavation did all the demolishing and moving of the house, my friend Kris Unicume is a builder and contractor. After I showed her family the trailer, they purchased a home. My dad, Bill Loosemore, people at the school, and so many others. We couldn’t have done it without them.”

This will be the third Christmas in their house. Bonni still grows animated talking about it.

“They moved us into a motel for a week and a half and put in a foundation and put our new house on it,” she said. “We moved in on December 16 three years ago. There was new furniture, a dishwasher, a washer and dryer; I never had a washer and dryer. And my daughter got her own room.”

Her daughter had been sleeping in an old travel trailer adjacent to the main trailer.

“This is the coolest story I have ever heard, and it’s my story,” Bonni said. “All the years I spent fighting and pulling it together and then I get a house.”

Last December, while she was in line at the Christmas Bureau waiting to pick out toys, Bonni left her name and contact information, offering to help.

That’s how she ended up on the giving side this year. She is working six days at the bureau.

She still feels like she is on the receiving end. “The feeling I get when I leave here is amazing,” she said.

“What I want to tell people is how important this is to the people who come for help. I remember the first year my daughter was old enough that I could get her the makeup kit. She almost fell off the couch when she opened it Christmas morning. Three years later she still carries the little bag around with her makeup in it,” Bonni said.

This is a giving community, she said. “What I learned is that if you get behind, people will help you. Now I can help. I got my time, and I can give that back to others.”