Valley drives garner a lot of support
December 26, 2008
By Laura Geggel
When called upon, Snoqualmie Valley stepped up to the plate, hitting home runs for toy drives, food banks and coat collections for those in need this winter.
Donna Padilla, the North Bend organizer of Baker’s Angels, added seven new bakers to her fold after locals recently learned about her team of kitchen wizards that baked treats for wounded soldiers.
Mount Si High School students launch a final push in their Foodball drive Dec. 13, asking shoppers at North Bend Safeway to “fill the truck” with holiday contributions of food and cash for the Mount Si Helping Hand Food Bank, two food banks at Fall City churches and the Encompass Respectful Giving campaign. Above, Dylan Glaser hefts a sack of food to the arms of Austen Bolves, while (from left) Karly Thompson, Brett Duncan, Savannah Maddux, Ben Olson, Brielle Buhner, Molly Meyers and Melanie Jenckes wait with other foodstuffs to load.
Normally, Padilla gave the goods to Operation Homefront Washington President Janice Buckley, who then drove the sweets to Madigan Army Medical Center. But on Dec. 5, Padilla personally delivered food and stocking stuffers to the soldiers at the medical center and Fort Lewis.
“I had the pleasure of helping out for the Christmas party,” Padilla said. “It was emotional, because it was the first time I’ve been to a military hospital since my son was shot.”
Several soldiers at the party came back to her treat table for thirds, fourths and even fifths.
“It’s really a morale booster,” Padilla said. “Now I really understand what it’s all about. It makes a difference.”
She thanked the community for “their wonderful response” and the fifth-graders in Kim Wagner’s fifth-grade class at North Bend Elementary for donating items for armed forces who were wounded or serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Bakers interested in helping Padilla collect more goods can meet her at the North Bend Post Office at 208 Main Ave. S. between the hours of 9-10:30 a.m. Jan. 11. All treats should be placed in disposable containers and have a list of ingredients to alert people who may have allergies to items like peanuts or gluten. For more information, contact Padilla at 922-0685 or BakerAngels1@aol.com.
Dressbarn also had a successful drive for their Toys for Tots campaign. Store Manager Tammy Alford said the store collected 219 toys and $197 dollars.
“We had a couple of Marines here and they were encouraging people to donate,” Alford said.
The Snoqualmie Valley Kiwanis amassed several dozen carloads of toys, as well. With Christmas trees propped up in local stores for the Giving Tree Foundation, the Kiwanis club counted about 20,000 toys — a number on par with last year — for 351 children. People collecting gifts at the Si View Metropolitan Park District could get up to five points a child, allowing each person to get each child between one and five gifts.
“I appreciated the outpouring from the community because, without the community, we would have nothing,” said Tina Maloney, the chair for the Kiwanis’ Giving Tree Foundation.
Several student groups at Mount Si High School, including the National Honor Society and Key Club, organized a drive of a different kind. They set a goal to gather 10,000 books for Ugandan students.
“We’re almost at 10,000, which is our goal,” said senior Gillian Kenegy, co-president of NHS. If the school reaches 10,000, the Invisible Children non-profit will ship them for free.
Kenegy said people had donated all sorts of books, from picture books to manuals and Hannah Montana paperbacks to bibles.
The drive at Mount Si High School will continue until the magic number is reached, which Kenegy hopes will be at the end of January.
Another high school drive, Foodball, benefited from the generosity of Valley residents. Breaking their goal, students and community members raised 40,128 pounds of food.
When counting the donations, the ASB Foodball chairs realized they were short of their mark. Luckily, Gregg Myers’ construction class, which had been mistakenly left out of the total count, came to the rescue.
After counting the more than $800 dollars in donations, Myers class not only helped the school achieve its goal but also won a party for the class with the most donations.
In Foodball terms, $1 equates to three pounds of food.
Foodball chairs distributed the food and money to Encompass, Mt Si Helping Hand Food Bank, United Methodist Church and Fall City Food Pantry.
Fill the Truck at Safeway and a fundraiser at the school’s basketball game helped Foodball amass the goods, said Mount Si senior Dylan Glaser.
Even Mt Si helping Hand Food Bank rolled in the food and cash.
“Once the (SnoValley Star) article came out, the response from the community was phenomenal,” said Gail Gergasko, coordinator for the Mt Si Helping Hands Food Bank. “There were financial and food contributions. We saw people walk in with five turkeys at a time.”
Two financial donors even wrote checks valued at $1,000 and $2,000, Gergasko said.
With the Foodball donations, Gergasko said the food bank had hundreds of bags of food to sort.
In spite of the holiday cheer, Gergasko asked the community to keep the needy in mind.
“Now is the season where everyone thinks about giving, but hunger is year-round,” Gergasko said. “Once the holidays are done, people stop thinking about the giving process. The need doesn’t go away.”
Reach reporter Laura Geggel at 392-6434 .221 or lgeggel@snovalleystar.com.
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