Daily Sitka Sentinel

Sitkans Step Up To Provide Holiday Cheer

By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
    Fun and festive events fill the calendar this month, but a number of organizations are asking fellow Sitkans to take the time during the Christmas season to think about those less fortunate, and help make their holidays a little brighter or at least less burdensome.
    “People think about giving first to their families, and that turns into giving to the community,” said Salvation Army Capt. Charleen Morrow. “We get a little more awareness at this time, but hunger has no season of rest.”
    The Salvation Army has several programs over the holiday season that need Sitkans’ help, including a food and toy collection at both Sea Mart and AC Lakeside grocery stores on Dec. 15.
    “It’s the last opportunity to fill up Christmas food boxes and toys for needy children,” Morrow said.
    A donation of $15 buys a bag containing $27 worth of food, in a partnership program between the Salvation Army and the grocery stores.
    “Buy one of those bags, and you are feeding two people in hunger,” she said.
    The goal is to fill a truck with food at both stores.

Christmas decorations are displayed for sale in the Salvation Army’s Little Store this afternoon. (Sentinel Photo)

    There are also toy donation bins at the grocery stores. Particularly needed are items for teens, Morrow said.
    The Salvation Army has a list of 118 families who signed up to receive Thanksgiving food baskets, which automatically puts them on the list for Christmas. Morrow said at least a dozen more families will sign up to be added to the list to receive the fixings for a Christmas meal, food for three days and presents for the children, seniors and veterans in the home. Families may sign up through Dec. 20, or may go by the Salvation Army office on Sawmill Creek Road beside the SA Little Store, Morrow said.
    The organization has an “Adopt a Family” program, in which Sitkans can provide gifts for an entire family.
    A Candlelight Memorial will be led by the Salvation Army on the longest night of the year, 5:30 p.m. Dec. 21, at the Crescent Harbor Shelter. The service commemorates the lives of the homeless who have died.
    “Participants will join community groups, service providers and individuals in more than 175 cities across the United States who are holding their own services on that day,” said a news release from SOS:Lifeline Group, which sponsors the event. Those attending are asked to take canned goods for the Salvation Army. Candles will be provided.
    “It’s a nice reminder of what our homeless community in Alaska goes through in the winter months,” Morrow said. “It keeps people aware of how cold it is, and that we need to step together as a community.”
    The organization plans to announce the start of a “warming shelter” at the Salvation Army that will be open starting in January on nights when the mercury dips below 40 degrees. “They can come in and have a snack and stay warm,” Morrow said. “It’s something my husband and I have had in our hearts.”
    Volunteers are being sought for the shelter, which will be open 6 p.m. to 7 a.m.
    A number of other projects are under way to help the needy over the holidays.
    The local Marine Corps League, Robert B. Johnstone Detachment, works with the Salvation Army to collect toys for families in need. There are collection boxes for new, unwrapped toys at Sea Mart, A/C Lakeside, Market Center, True Value, Ben Franklin, White’s Pharmacy, Harry Race Pharmacy, SEARHC-Mt. Edgecumbe Hospital, Old Harbor Books, Lakeside Furniture Store, the Cellar, and Mt. Edgecumbe High, Sitka High, Blatchley, Keet Gooshi Heen and Baranof schools.
    The official box pickup date is Dec. 15.
    ‘‘Toys for Tots’’ has been a program of the Marine Corps Reserve since 1947. More than 15,400 toys were distributed nationwide in 2017.
    Nels Lawson, one of the volunteers and a Marine Corps veteran, said toy donations have been relatively slow since the boxes were set up on Nov. 23.
    “It picks up when we go to the grocery stores on the last day,” Lawson said. He estimated some 600 to 1,000 toys are collected in Sitka during the holidays every year.
    In another program, volunteers at the United Methodist Church for years have put up the Giving Tree for collecting toys and other gifts in the lobby of Wells Fargo Bank. The tree, formerly run by a local sorority, is covered with paper ornaments that have a child’s age, “teen” or “senior” and the sex of a prospective gift recipient.
    The 150 designated recipients are from the Sitka Community Hospital long-term care unit, the Pioneers Home, SAFV Shelter, Hanson House and the Head Start program.
    Residents can take one or two ornaments, purchase appropriate gifts, and return them, unwrapped, to Wells Fargo. They are left unwrapped so the organizers can select the appropriate gift for each intended recipient.
    Volunteer Julia Smith said the Giving Tree is a natural fit for the United Methodist Church.
    “Our church has always had a strong social justice (mission), and we see this as a part of our Christian life,” she said. “This is one way for us to express that in our own community. It’s important to help the folks around us.”
    Smith always selects one or more of the “senior” ornaments. “I worked at the Pioneers Home and I have an understanding of the things they need there,” she said.
    Senior recipients may find themselves with a cozy hooded sweatshirt or fuzzy fleece blanket on Christmas morning, if Smith has done the shopping. Good gifts for teens include gift certificates for coffee shops, the movie theater or ice cream, she suggested.
    Smith’s daughter, Lauren Allen, was a volunteer for the Giving Tree when it was sponsored by Sigma Beta Phi, and suggested it as a worthy charity for the church when the sorority disbanded.
    She and Smith said it’s part of their family’s Christmas tradition.
    “It’s really part of our Christmas – we have lots of other folks that help us with the detail part,” Smith said.
    Allen estimates she has been involved with the Giving Tree for two decades.
    “I really have enjoyed doing it,” she said. “It gives me such a sense of community to see all the things they go out and get, and bring back. You can tell they really care, that they would take the time out of their busy holiday season to think about somebody else.”
    Organizers thanked Wells Fargo Bank for their ongoing participation in the Giving Tree.
    The Sitka Fire Department sponsors the annual foster child Christmas gift tree for those in foster care.
    Individuals can stop by the Sitka Fire Hall to choose ornament tags from the tree and then drop off unwrapped gifts (with the tags) to 208 Lake Street, Suite 2G, above Davis Realty. Gifts should be dropped off no later than Dec. 14.
    For more information call Donna at the Office of Children’s Services, 747-2802.