Christmas Fund 1997 S-R Christmas Bureau Creates Holiday For Needy Grateful Neighbors Line Up To Register For A Chance To Make Spirits Merrier

Without The Spokesman-Review Christmas Fund, many families simply would not have a Christmas.

Sure, the day would come. But Santa wouldn’t.

That message was clear Wednesday, as scores of people stood in line at the Christmas Bureau, waiting to register to receive toys for their children and a food voucher to help with holiday groceries.

“A serious blessing” is how Donna described the Christmas Bureau. She asked that we not use her last name.

She’ll use the food voucher to buy ingredients for Christmas cookies, a treat she couldn’t otherwise afford.

The single mom stays home to tend to her disabled baby.

Stacey, who didn’t want her last name used either, lost her job last year. She said she has no money for extras, like Christmas.

The holiday season, supposedly a time of fun and good cheer, has her extremely stressed.

But Stacey is grateful for the toys she’ll receive for her two youngsters, 9 months and 7 years old - and because she’s treated with respect and compassion at the Christmas Bureau.

“They don’t look down on us because we’re on unemployment or welfare, or whatever,” she said of the bureau volunteers.

People would not stand in line at the Christmas Bureau if they didn’t need help.

Pauliann and Alan Goyne fell on hard times this year. Their fourth baby, a surprise, was born three weeks ago.

Pauliann worked until the very day her baby was born and Alan earns minimum wage as a janitor. But “there’s no money for Christmas at all,” she said.

“The kids wouldn’t have a Christmas without the Christmas Bureau,” she said. “It’s a great sense of relief to know our kids will have a Christmas this year.”

Another woman standing close by said, “It’s hard to explain to your little kids that their mom and dad don’t make enough money” to buy them presents.

“I’m here because I need it,” Carolyn Trott said bluntly. “I don’t have hardly anything to buy my kids anything.”

At least her three children - 9, 7 and 4 - will each have a new toy to open on Christmas.

If the Christmas Bureau weren’t there? “I don’t know what I’d do,” Trott said. “It’d be rough; it’d be hard. There aren’t many places that will help.”

Sandra Caldwell doesn’t have a job. She hasn’t been able to work since an injury in December 1994 forced her off the payroll and onto the waiting list for a Labor and Industry settlement.

But Caldwell feels blessed.

She has a house; it’s warm and the electricity is on. Her husband works as a laborer for minimum wage.

Sometimes scraping enough money to make the mortgage payment is tough, but they’ve done it so far.

“I feel pretty blessed,” Sandra said.

“I feel lucky.” Before the bureau closed at 3 p.m. Wednesday, volunteers served 814 people, giving $26,355 in food vouchers.

Parents selected toys for 834 boys and 754 girls.

The bureau, in the University City Mall, will be open from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., weekdays, until Dec. 23.

If you need help this year, call 459-5532 to learn what’s needed to apply.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo