In partnership with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the Snoqualmie Valley Kiwanis wrapped up their annual giving tree program on Friday, Dec. 16.

Giving Tree is a way for members of the community to help buy Christmas gifts for families who may not be able to afford to provide such things for their children. Valley organizations and businesses placed Christmas trees, hung with small red and green cards, in their buildings. To participate, shoppers selected cards from the tree and then purchased gifts for the age and gender specified on the card.

Signups for the program were done at the Snoqualmie Valley Food Bank in November and December. Families that signed up came to the church in North Bend to pick up gifts on Thursday and Friday, Dec. 15 and 16.

Debby Peterman, one of the organizers of the program and a member of Snoqualmie Valley Kiwanis, said the program served more than 550 people.

“We had about 550 kids that got presents here in a day and a half,” she said. “We probably will still get some other calls and we will have additional presents available at the North Bend church (North Bend Community Church, which hosts the Snoqualmie Valley Food Bank) so if they missed out they can go over there and get a present or two for their child.”

Peterman said that the Giving Tree program, established long before Peterman joined Kiwanis 10 years ago, has been run by the same group of people every year and they have been refining the process and have seen improvements in the operation every year.

Kiwanis also gets help from community volunteers to run the gift pick up and gift wrapping.

“The same group of us are doing it every year, we are refining it, it runs smoother, we get great participation from businesses like Genie Industries, they sent their volunteers to help all day long, they were just phenomenal,” Peterman said.

More than 35 community organizations put up a Giving Tree to help spread the word and contribute to the donation of gifts this year. There were trees in grocery stores, banks, shops and government buildings, Peterman said.

She was also grateful for the effort by local Girl Scouts who collected winter coats for the program.

“The Girl Scouts did a great job at collecting slightly used coats, so those were made available to the families,” she said. “We have people from all over the Valley participating.”

“We are very happy to be able to pick out toys and clothes for kids.”