Christmas Fund fills key need
The Christmas Bureau is best known for providing a toy for every child whose family comes to the bureau for help. But every child also gets a book, and this effort is no less important.
Sometimes the children select their own book from hundreds stacked on tables outside the toy room. More often it’s a parent or grandparent who thumbs through a number of books before picking one out as a Christmas gift.
The Christmas Fund pays for the toys and the food vouchers given to needy families. The Volunteers of America, one of the nonprofit agencies that partners in the Christmas Bureau effort, provides the more than 15,000 books given out each year.
Scholastic Books donates crates full of thousands of books to the Spokane Volunteers of America, according to director Marilee Roloff. She distributes them throughout the year to needy children in the community. But she also reserves enough books to provide one to every child served by the bureau.
It’s a huge effort for Roloff and her crew at VOA. The books are all mixed up in the crates. Roloff and others sort the books by the intended age group and then she sets aside enough in each group for the Christmas Bureau. These then must be boxed and stored until December and then trucked to the bureau.
Because not all recipients at the bureau speak or read English fluently, volunteers at the book tables are kept busy helping parents with their selections. And parents often have specific requests for their boys and girls – sometimes it’s stories about pirates, sometimes fairies. It’s all part of this charity that provides the fixings of Christmas for thousands of needy families.
On Tuesday, the bureau distributed 689 food vouchers worth $20,200 and gave out Christmas items to 1,103 adults and 1,097 children.
Tuesday’s tally of $33,969 brought the Christmas Fund to $208,315.44. An article with additional names and donations is on Page A1.
Bob Frank Homes Inc., of Spokane, donated $100, as did Marc and Bobbi Anderson, of Spokane; Harold and Marcia Mielke, of Liberty Lake; Donna Roloff, of Spokane; Hal and Cindy Nelson, of Greenacres; and the Plymouth Congregational Church Martha Chapter, of Spokane.
Roger and Catherine Crum, of Spokane, gave $100, as did James Perkins and Erika Balazs, Richard and Karen Steele, Steve and Nancy Davis, Dick and Mary Schroeder, Edna and Harold Hart, Pete and Ruth Clarke, and Colleen Birchill, all of Spokane.
Lisa Love, of Spokane, sent $100, as did Millard Jones, Jill and Jerry Skogstad, Rita Purkett, Lloyd and Harriet Jacobson, Margaret Cunningham, William and Beverly Honeycutt, Evilena Cozzetto, and six anonymous donors, also all of Spokane.
Henry Baker, of Spokane Valley, sent $100 in memory of his wife, Elizabeth Baker.
Lorraine Burghard, of Moses Lake, gave $100 in memory of Vicki Burghard, “who lost her life to a drunken driver. Please don’t drink and drive.”
Gary and Jane Graham, of Spokane, sent $100 in memory of their daughter, Kelly.
Carol and Clint Allen, of Veradale, sent $100 in memory of their friend, Maureen Fochtman.
Stefan and Kathy Fechter, of Spokane, gave $100 in memory of Ken Gallaway and Shirley Williamson.
An anonymous donor of Spokane sent $55.
Shirley Miller and Dan Felgar, of Spokane, gave $50, as did Harold and Diane Watters, of Cheney; James and Deborah Repp, of Spokane Valley; Robert and Patti Edelblute, of Spokane; John and Kathleen Roche, of Liberty Lake; Charleene and Arlen Ristuben, of Spokane; and four anonymous donors, all of Spokane.
Deborah Walter and Timothy Clinton, of Spokane, sent $50, as did Jack and Doris Primmer, C.R. and M.L. Anderson, Jeanette Loehr, all of Spokane, an anonymous donor, of Cheney; and an anonymous donor, of Nine Mile Falls.
Ernie and Jo Ann Brenden, of Spokane, sent $50 in memory of their grandson, Scott Peterson.
Betty Frost, Jack E. Frost Jr., Nancy Frost-Brandt and Patti Frost, of Spokane, sent $50 in memory of Jack E. Frost Sr.
Beatrice Wilson, of Spokane Valley, donated $40, as did an anonymous donor, of Spokane.
Larry and Bea Sorenson, of Spokane, donated $35.
An anonymous donor, of Spokane, gave $30 in memory of John and Emma Peereboom. Mark Johnson, of Nine Mile Falls, also gave $30.
Theodore and Robbie Beadle, of Spokane, donated $25, as did Gary and Cheryl Allen, of Spokane Valley; Willabelle Godfrey, of Spokane; Charles Heitman, also of Spokane, and Warren and Joni Omans, of Otis Orchards.
Mr. and Mrs. Neil Maxwell, of Spokane, donated $25, as did Martin Douglas, of Spokane, Janet Davis, of Liberty Lake; and anonymous donor, of Spokane.
Erica Chasse, of Spokane, sent $25.
Becky and David Dragoo, of Spokane, sent $25 and a note: “This donation is being given to honor the fact that we are about to be grandparents to a second baby girl any day now, for that seems perfect to us since it is all about the children.”
Anita Kernie, of Spokane, sent $25 in memory of Mary Ramsey.
Iva Borden, of Otis Orchards, donated $25 in memory of her husband, Gary Broden.
Louise Delaney, of Spokane, sent $25, and a note saying she wished it could be more, but she “took a hit on her Kaiser benefits.”
Connie Thoorsell, of Spokane, donated $25 in memory of her dad, Stanley Ault. The Snip N Stitch Sewing Club, of Spokane, also gave $25.
Cynthia Dusek, of Spokane, donated $20, as did Francis and Agnes Gonder, also of Spokane. Elizabeth Hartman, of Spokane, gave $20 in memory of all the service people who have died this year. “May their loved ones have peace,” she wrote.
Andrea Watts, of Spokane Valley, sent $20 in memory of her daughter Jennifer Hornstra and nephew Kenny Beach.
An anonymous donor, of Spokane, sent $15.
Dorothy Nilsen, of Spokane, sent $10, as did Stephen and Cynthia LeBlanc, of Greenacres; Jack and Nancy Wood, of Spokane; Dorothy Carter, also of Spokane; and Rebecca and James Stultz, of Coeur d’Alene.
The memorial from a donation listed on Dec. 3 was inadvertently omitted. Joseph Toombs, of Veradale, gave $50 in memory of Lois J. Toombs.