Bureau accepts sweat donations

The Christmas Bureau opens Wednesday, but dozens of volunteers will arrive at the Spokane fairgrounds at 9 a.m. today to begin setting up. The bureau depends on hundreds of volunteers, local companies that donate services and generous donations to the Christmas Fund.

With donations of $5,060, the fund reached $109,808 today, far short of the goal. Bureau organizers estimate $495,000 will be needed to pay for the 16,000 toys and 10,000 food vouchers given to needy families during the 10 days that the charity is open.

Veteran Christmas Bureau volunteers and staff from Catholic Charities and Volunteers of America have the bureau setup well organized. The toys are unloaded first because the trucks, provided by Estes West Trucking, must be backed into the building. The volunteers need ladders to get into the trucks, and they hand boxes down the line and onto a motorized loader.

The toys will arrive in four 27-foot trailers this morning. Another crew of warehouse volunteers will open big boxes of toys, checking them off the inventory list and sorting them by intended age groups. The cardboard boxes are flattened and stacked, ready for pickup by Earthworks Recycling.

It will be at least noon before the last toy truck leaves and the remaining bureau equipment is delivered.

L&M Truck Sales donated transport services for the computer network, folding tables and hundreds of folding chairs. The bureau stores its equipment in space donated by ABC Mini-Storage, National Storage Center and Assumption Parish.

Following are Christmas Fund donors and the amounts of their donations:

Terry and Kathryn Deno, of Spokane, donated $650.

Steven and Lorrie McNutt, of Spokane, donated $300, as did Loretha Hitchcock, of Spokane Valley.

The International Footprint Association, Chapter No. 34 Spokane Falls, donated $250, as did an anonymous donor, of Spokane.

Steve and Judy Mongelluzzo, of Spokane, sent $200, as did Peter and M.L. Bach, also of Spokane, and an anonymous donor, of Veradale. Richard and Burma Williams, of Spokane, gave $200 in honor “of all who make this fund possible.”

Beatrice Scheele, of Spokane, gave $100, as did John and Rita Leland, Marianne Iwasa and Claude Hire, and two anonymous donors, all of Spokane. An anonymous donor, of Spokane, sent $100 in honor of the women in her TLC Bible Study and prayer group.

Mr. and Mrs. Gerald Gilmore, of Veradale, donated $100 in memory of Louie Aquino. Mabel Morrison, of Spokane, sent $100 in memory of Dale Conboy.

Mari Sullivan, of Spokane, donated $100. She volunteered for years at the Christmas Bureau, but at 95, she says she’s no longer able to do so.

Rosemary Twomey, of Round Lake, Ill., sent $100.

George and Ruth Swan, of Spokane Valley, donated $75, as did an anonymous donor, of Spokane.

Cyril and Cheryl Deitering, of Spokane, donated $50, as did Jean and K.A. Flechel, and Olevia and Ewing Page, all of Spokane, and the Wilson Family Trust, of Spokane Valley.

Robert and Irene Plough, of Spokane, donated $50 in memory of Pat Ryan.

An anonymous donor, of Spokane, gave $40.

Martin Bavuso, of Spokane, donated $25 in memory of Kit King, a prize-winning Spokesman-Review photographer who died in a fishing accident in 1991. An anonymous donor, of Spokane, also donated $25.

Jong Soon Whang, of Spokane, brought $20 and a note to the newspaper office. “I want to express my deep appreciation for the years you’ve helped me out during the toughest times. I want to dedicate this to all my street kids and to the poor and homeless. May the Lord bless everyone at the Bureau. Thank you so much,” Whang wrote.

The Early Ford V-8 Club of America, Inland Empire Group, of Veradale, donated $10.