Fund is year-round opportunity for restaurants

Generous donors who contribute to The Spokesman-Review Christmas Fund year in and year out have enabled this traditional holiday charity to operate for 60 years. While many donors associate this effort only with the year-end holidays, one local business makes the Christmas Fund a yearlong and a company-wide project.

Landmark Restaurants of Spokane, which operates The Onion Restaurants and Frank’s Diners, brought a donation of $7,600 to the newspaper, along with a note from Landmark owners Larry and Jan Brown and Ken and Christy Belisle.

“Our locally owned company has roughly 200 employees who contribute to the Christmas Fund all year long through voluntary payroll deductions,” they wrote. “Our team members from the downtown and North Division Onion Restaurants and Frank’s Diners are excited to be able to participate in such a worthy cause. We are truly proud to be associated with them.

“This year our crews from Frank’s Diners and The Onion Restaurants raised $3,800. Landmark Restaurants matches this amount and is grateful for this opportunity to participate. Our company values that 100 percent of this money goes directly to creating a merrier Christmas for deserving children and families in the Spokane area,” wrote the Browns and Belisles. “God bless you all for the work you are doing for our community.”

The generous Landmark Restaurants donation brought the daily tally to $11,758, bumping the Christmas Fund to $131,361.80.

The goal of the fund is $485,000, the amount that organizers estimate will be needed to pay for the food vouchers and toys distributed to needy families at the Christmas Bureau. Donations of all amounts are welcomed. The bureau opens again this morning at 10 and will operate weekdays through Dec. 21 at the Spokane County Fair and Expo Center.

Following are additional donors and their donations:

John, Kristi, Kerry and Sully Blake, of Spokane, donated $1,000, as did Dr. and Mrs. Bill Bronson, of Spokane Valley.

Dave and Sharen Robertson, of Spokane, gave $200 in memory of their grandson, Austin McKenzie.

Nancy Warner, Karen Reinhart and Terry Smeton and At Your Service catering, of Colbert, sent $158 and a note: “At Your Service is our new personal chef and catering business. We are excited to bless others out of the profit from our very first job.”

Tak Petroleum Inc. of Spokane, gave $150.

Kenneth Waters, of Spokane, donated $100, as did John and Joan Cooper, of Veradale; Harriet and Bill Plucker, of Spokane; Paul and Peggy Smart, of Veradale; and George Vasil, Bud and Donna Pardini, Carrie Prentice, the Roy Howerton family, and two anonymous donors, all of Spokane.

Russ and Peggy Wiggs, of Spokane, gave $100 in honor of their parents. The Gail Burchetts, of Spokane, donated $100 in memory of their son, Tim, and granddaughter, Brenda Gail.

Deborah Walter, of Spokane, gave $50, as did the Resident Council at Merrill Gardens, The Academy, of Spokane; Ann Wilkson, of Spokane; William and Linda Dean, of Colbert; Raelee Easton, of Spokane; and an anonymous donor, of Spokane Valley.

Haley and Matthew Stephens, of Spokane Valley, donated $25, as did Joanne Nelson, of Cheney; Mary Lou Steckel, Lois and Rayford Goehri, and Ellen Nelson, all of Spokane.

An anonymous donor, of Spokane Valley, gave $25 in memory of Rudy John, Georgiana Seartozzi and David Madson, “who are greatly missed, especially during this Christmas season.”