Toys, clothes and books streamed out of the Snoqualmie Valley One VOICE event last week, as gifts and supplies for area families in need. Donations of the same were coming back in almost as fast, along with pizzas and other donations to feed the army of volunteers who helped to put on the fourth annual event.
“I just want people to see this,” said Debby Peterman, a member of Snoqualmie Valley Kiwanis, which helped organize the event. This season, the holiday drive included more than 2,400 tags for children or adults, on more than 40 Giving Trees. “It’s such a community outpouring!”
Peterman may have been exhausted from the many weeks of work she put into the two-day event, but she wasn’t exaggerating. At least 40 area churches, clubs, schools and businesses have contributed to the joint effort to help struggling families, and that’s not counting the individuals.
Genie Industries in North Bend sent over at least 45 of its employees—with pay—to help sort clothes in the clothing bank, work with clients to “shop” for holiday gifts, drive to various Giving Tree sites in the Valley and collect donations, and, before the event opened, to help convert the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in North Bend from a church to Santa’s workshop, of rooms filled with new toys and clothes, plus, of course, a gift-wrapping station.
“I’m here for whatever they need me to do,” said Sabrina Steinback, a human resources staffer at Genie.
“She can probably run the place by now,” added Stacey Cepeda, community activities manager with Encompass, also a key player in the creation of the annual event.
The gifts
Now that it’s started, though, One VOICE seems to be running itself. Any job that needs doing, gets done. Volunteers check in the clients, who previously signed up at the Snoqualmie Valley Food Bank for a specific time to shop, then brief them on the process. They get a bag, and a personal shopper who helps them gather up items and tracks them on a score card—each gift is worth one or more points—and they collect other necessities, like toilet paper, shampoo and diapers, contributed by other churches.
Then they head to the gift-wrap and raffle room. During check-in, each client got raffle tickets to try to win a gift from the especially choice items that were set aside, including a radio-controlled helicopter, air hockey table, Tonka fire truck, Easy-Bake oven, and a large stuffed Olaf, from the movie “Frozen.”
Anything “Frozen” is the hot item this year, so not all the Olafs hit the floor at once. There are a few tucked away in a storage room, along with four or five basketballs and footballs, Lego sets, and Star Wars toys, and they come out of storage as needed.
“We try to keep it so the clients who come in the afternoon or after work have the same opportunity,” said Kim Irvine, a volunteer with the LDS church.
One mother, then shopping in the gift room, was considering her opportunities. “My daughter actually has these books,” she told her shopping helper, as she picked up a gift set in a pink box. They looked at the listed contents, art supplies like paper, glitter and stickers, and she put it back on the shelf. “Those stickers would be all over the floor,” she sighs.
One VOICE is the collaborative effort of many Valley service organizations. It was started four years ago as a way of extending the help that organizations could offer people, both during the holidays and in a summer event, without duplicating efforts.
And, says Steinback from Genie, “It’s fabulous. You’re doing good work for the community.”
Get involved
The Giving Trees will be on display throughout the Valley until Christmas. To contribute, take a tag from a tree and buy a gift appropriate for the gender and age listed on the tag. Donations will be accepted through Christmas, and anything not distributed by the holidays will be stored for next year’s event.
Megan Burch of North Bend wraps a gift at the OneVOICE event in North Bend Thursday. She volunteered for the job because “I’d just heard about this for several years, and I wanted to help.”
Sarah Ricks, a volunteer personal shopper, helps her client keep track of the items she’s collecting. The Snoqualmie woman went above and beyond her job by helping her client decide on various options for her children.
