Comfort and joy: Huge effort, dramatic donations to One VOICE, Giving Tree only just keep up with need

Published 1:24 pm Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Sorting toys at the North Bend Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Zoe Thompson, 13, is impressed with the wall of Barbies and babies in front of her.

“I was a big fan of baby dolls,” Zoe remembers. She’s not here to play or reminisce, just volunteer, but she smiles as she sorts toys that will soon go out to hundreds of needy families in the Valley.

“It warms your heart,” said the Twin Falls Middle School student, who helped drum up support for the Kiwanis Giving Tree toy drive at school. “It makes your own Christmas better.”

The Giving Tree is just one facet of the new One VOICE Holiday Event that drew on volunteers from local schools, churches and clubs from across the Valley, and is helping a growing number of needy people in the Valley.

The big cultural room at the church was overflowing with goods as volunteers set up the holiday event on Wednesday, Dec. 14. Over the next two days, the One VOICE Holiday Event drew more than 300 families, including some 750 children, to the church, where they could pick up children’s gifts, clothing, household and hygiene items collected by the Kiwanis Club, Encompass, Snoqualmie Valley Alliance Church, Cascade Covenant Church and local businesses and charitable organizations. Leftovers will go to the Mount Si Senior Center, Gift of Apparel, Eastside Baby Corner and the Valley Teen Closet.

“One VOICE umbrellas all of it,” said Stacey Cepeda, a facilitator for the group who works for Encompass Northwest.

The group didn’t eliminate other group’s drives, but helped to get them acting in concert. It helped charge up the toy drive, referred families to the Snoqualmie Fire Department for their food drive, and funneled its own food donations to the food bank.

“As a group, we can strategize,” Cepeda said. “It prevents people from being overloaded.”

“It’s only going to get bigger, smoother, more involving,” added fellow Encompass employee Clay Eals. “Just think about what it will be next year, or five years from now. It’s a sum greater than its parts.”

Families are referred to One VOICE through partners including the Mount Si Food Bank, Encompass, the Kiwanis and school counselors. There are no eligibility requirements. Participants simply have to tell someone they need help.

Ongoing need

That solid wall of toys that Zoe Thompson and her fellow Twin Falls Key Club members had helped stack was down to nearly bare shelves as the last families arrived Friday afternoon.

“It’s getting down there,” Kiwanis Club officer Paul Tredway said. “We’re just hoping we don’t have to go shopping again.” The group had already spent $2,200 to shop for toys.

Witnessing the outpouring of donations, Tredway has two reactions: Amazement at the generosity, and a more sober awareness of the Valley’s growing needs.

The list of children in need of holiday gifts rose by about 100 this year.

“We keep seeing more need,” Tredway said.

At the same time, he is impressed by the triumph that One VOICE represents.

“This partnership was incredible,” Tredway said. “It was really the thing to do. From now on, we will keep this going.”

Likewise, the North Bend Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Days Saints is the right place for the distribution.

“We couldn’t have done it without them,” Tredway said.

Not every Giving Tree placard had been taken, but that’s typical, and the group usually has to do some shopping in the final run-up to distribution.

But there’s also an ongoing wave of need that continues up to Christmas.

“After today, we will get all kinds of requests,” Tredway said. “Hopefully, we will have some donations in after the fact, because we’re real low.”

“For struggling families, the outpouring of generosity is so big in November and December,” Cepeda said. “February is a tough month… Transition periods are hard for families. By the time they’re geared up for winter, it’s summer.”

While there are no answers today about how to meet unending need, the group is already planning ahead. One VOICE will meet in January to consider 2012’s solutions.

If the success of One VOICE’s Holiday Event is any indication, those solutions will continue to happen with unity.

“There is the effort of so many people here,” said Diane Garvey, an LDS volunteer who was helping ready the Kiwanis Club’s big toy display. “You have all these other organizations stepping in.”

“It’s very rewarding,” added fellow volunteer Joanne Perry. “It’s like a perpetual motion machine. Once you get going, you don’t want to stop.”

• Toys and money donations can be dropped off at the Sallal Water Association’s office through Christmas to help the Giving Tree. The office is located at 44021 S.E. Tanner Rd., Suite E. Or, visit the Holiday Event web page.