‘These people show up no matter what’: Valley Hospital employees load up ‘fun and essential’ presents for needy Spokane Valley families

Presents for local families in need filled up five cars outside Valley Hospital Wednesday morning amid the windstorm.

The bad weather did not deter employees at the MultiCare hospital from scrounging up more than 400 presents for kids at nearby Broadway Elementary and North Pines Middle School.

“Us that work at a hospital, we just want to give back. Obviously, we do that when people come to us for care. But this time of year, there is so much more need folks have that are not necessarily health care related,” said Valley Hospital COO Dan Springer. “If we can give back like this, we want to.”

As she threw presents in the trunk of her car, Valley Hospital director of inpatient services Lisa Zolman said each kid and their parent gave them a list of wants and needs for their gifts.

“Honestly, it is a lot of stuff we take for granted each day. Coats, hats, gloves, boots. We have somebody ask for diapers. We also have fun presents too,” she said.

One of those fun presents is a bicycle with hot pink accents that one student requested.

“When we help people, we don’t always immediately see the joy, so it’s nice to see that when we support our community like this each year,” Zolman said.

The tradition of Valley hospital employees coming together to buy presents for nearby students started nine years ago. According to North Pines School counselor Rhiannon Catlett, the tradition did not stop even in the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“These people show up no matter what the heck is going on. When they brought gifts in during COVID, I felt like we should be giving back to them with everything they were going through. But they just wanted to bring that joy to our kids,” she said.

Three-quarters of students at the two schools qualify for free and reduced lunch. At North Pines, 5% of families of enrolled students are unhoused. According to Catlett, delays in SNAP benefits because of the government shutdown earlier this year have made the holidays especially precarious for families at the school.

“The amount of basic needs … our families need to just, like, let their kids get an education has just skyrocketed, and we’ve been super blessed to have people help with that,” she said. “Just two days ago, I got an email from a mom saying, ‘I’m having a really hard time picking between paying rent and giving Christmas presents.’ MultiCare is helping them not have to make that choice.”