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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Christmas Fund has raised nearly $15 million since its inception

Treva Lind treval@spokesman.com, (509)459-5423

A community Christmas gift to the Spokane area’s neediest citizens is marking its 70th year.

What started as The Spokesman-Review Christmas Fund in 1945 has delivered a decades-old tradition of giving toys and holiday extras to the area’s poorest families. It’s an event made possible because of generous donors, many of whom say they want every child to experience the warmth and joy of Christmas.

“Every year about this time, thousands of miracles happen in Spokane,” longtime Spokesman-Review reporter Dorothy Powers wrote in 1986. “They occur because of thousands of miracle-bringers. Some are little kids; others great-grandparents. Some can afford the cost of the miracle they create. Others can’t. They do it anyway.”

Over the 70 years, newspaper readers have donated just shy of $15 million to the Christmas Fund. Today, the charity serves about 30,000 people each year. Those figures would be unthinkable to early reporter Margaret Bean when she first wrote about Cpl. William Schwenk, who lost his sight, one hand and part of another to a German land mine during World War II.

Schwenk had no connection to the region. But Janet Campbell, a Red Cross worker from Spokane who was stationed in North Wales during World War II, asked the newspaper to help the GI. Inspired, Bean and others at the newspaper talked about staging a campaign toward raising $500, “thinking that would be quite a feat,” she wrote.

Within a few weeks, thousands of dollars came in for “Bonds for Bill.”

By later that decade, the fund turned toward distributing toys and food to families, and supplies for homeless men.

That first step of faith in 1945 to help someone in need has captured donors’ hearts again and again.

Last year, the Christmas Bureau provided toys and books for 15,780 children, thanks to money donated by area residents and businesses. Additionally, 9,111 households received a $15 to $30 food voucher toward the cost of a holiday meal.

This year, the fundraising goal is $525,000, and donations of all amounts are welcome. Volunteers already have purchased about 16,000 toys and books to distribute at the Christmas Bureau, which runs Dec. 10-19, except for Dec. 13, at the Spokane County Fair and Expo Center.

Year after year, 400-plus volunteers prepare months ahead for recipients, although it’s never known exactly how many families in need will arrive during the nine days the bureau is open.

During seven decades, the community’s generosity remains a common thread.

After the fund’s start with the Bonds for Bill campaign, the fund in 1946 sought help for an 8-year-old girl in Benton City, Washington, who needed an operation to correct a congenital defect. The condition caused her to appear blue, and the Blue Baby Fund raised thousands.

Carol Lee Davis, the “blue baby,” received more than 700 letters and almost $6,000 toward an operation.

In 1949, two Review reporters spearheaded a Christmas effort to raise $10,000 for the families of 18 Air Force personnel from Spokane who were killed in a B-29 crash in Stockton, California.

The Christmas Fund was suspended from 1952 to 1954, for reasons not included in newspaper records. When revived, the charity focused on needy families, especially “fatherless families,” and provided toys, shoes, clothing and Christmas food baskets.

By 1955, the Christmas Fund sought to “provide that something extra” for Christmas. “Their lack may mean the difference between a bright and a dismal Christmas,” said one story.

More than 700 donors gave $3,623, along with donations of clothing and household items. It meant a turkey, chicken or beef roast for dinner. A Christmas party was held for “skid row men,” gifts were given to nursing home patients, and small cash amounts went to “catastrophic victims’ families.”

Over time, donations increased, and focuses changed. By 1975, part of more than $39,000 raised went to buy gifts for shut-ins, gas for the vehicles of the working poor, and toys.

In 1980, charities joined the effort with the Review’s Christmas Fund and opened the Christmas Bureau, asking people to come get items rather than making deliveries to homes. That first year of the bureau, 3,142 families – more than 10,200 people – were served.

In 1981, the Christmas Fund raised more than $100,000 for the first time. It doubled the next year, when readers gave more than $200,000. The fund passed the $300,000 mark six years later. By 1990, it closed in on $400,000, helping more than 27,000 people.

In 1992, gifts were given to 15,324 children and $413,597 was donated.

Some years were lean, including 2002-04. In 2003, the fund on Christmas Day still needed almost $60,000 to meet a $500,000 goal. Over the next four days, the community narrowed the gap to $17,000.

Many donors remain faithful to contributing each year, as a tradition among families.

The fund’s annual goal is often based on how many families were served the previous year, how much was donated, and current costs of toys and books. As longtime participant Marilee Roloff, CEO of Volunteers of America, once said, “It’s not a science.”

Rather, it’s believing that Christmas miracles will happen. Over a 70-year span, they have in Spokane for thousands of children.