Hello everyone.
This has been an emotional weekend in many ways. My "baby girl" daughter of 31 was here from Wisconsin for the weekend as was my sister from Texas to join with my parents and local siblings for a warm family gathering and simple meal on Friday evening. It was hard to send the non-locals back to their own homes not knowing when we'd all be together again.
Saturday I was able to be part of several events around our local communities that have continued a strong emotional response. I've been searching for 24 hours for the right word(s) to describe it, and still it eludes me but I'd like to share some of it:
Community Dinner at Sumner High School on 12/13: I arrived late in the afternoon as things were winding down but what I observed were teens who had been planning for weeks, preparing for days -- in addition to regular school work, sports and jobs -- still cheerfully engaged in greeting guests, seeing to their empty dishes or the need for a beverage; yummy, hot food -- FREE-- for everyone regardless of financial situation to enjoy; a wonderful Children's Corner to keep youngsters amused; a Santa and sleigh filled with donated gifts that a child in need could take home for that special day of waking in the morning to a surprise! There was a table laden with food donations for the food bank. Guests were sitting and chatting together. People were brought together, and there was this sense of complete "community". I guess I expected the teens would be antsy to get things cleaned up and be done with it that late in the day, but they weren't. They were relaxed and chatting with each other and totally attuned to the needs of the remaining guests and focused on their mission.
It is a testament to many: the donors who made the meal and gifting possible; the parents who have raised caring grounded kids; the teachers and educational community who further guide them on their way to help them see the value of working together for a purpose; the kids themselves for their willingness to reach out to others with energy and compassion.
I left there feeling very well fed, blessed and hopeful. I hope those who attended the event who are stretched financially felt even a portion of what I did. It was a very special and touching experience. Thank you to all involved for your vision, your energy, your caring and compassion.
Bazaar and garage sale:
Andrea Henschell, Iona Catonio and April Young have been planning for months the wonderful bazaar and rummage sale fundraiser Saturday afternoon at the Bonney Lake Sr. Center (whom we thank for the use of their wonderful facility). We had asked for donations of "nice" garage sale items and received tons of them from our generous community!
Vendors from such companies as Pampered Chef, Sensy, Sensaria, and others gave an afternoon to share their wares and proceeds from sales with Lions 4 Kids. Baked goods and wonderful creations for immediate consumption or worthy of gifting were available for sale to our guests. We had two Santas and a Mrs. Santa who gave their time for portions of the afternoon; volunteers who showed up at dawn to open the building and help set up like Debbie McDonald and Susan McCammon. Volunteers from Bonney Lake High School helped. Lara of the Sr. Center staff volunteered in the kitchen the entire day helping with the Play-Dayz breakfast in the morning and our event in the afternoon. Unsold garage sale items were delivered to Rainier Thrift to further their outreach.
We didn't have as many guests as we had hoped but those that attended had a good time and got some great stuff and screamin' deals. We earned around $500 that will benefit Our Kids greatly and are deeply appreciative of our volunteers who spent so much time in the planning and execution of the event, to our donors who made wares available, and our guests for their purchases. One added benefit was a connection through Mrs. Santa, Sherry Creson, to Proctor and Gamble who may be able to help with grants for detergent and personal care items.
Lions 4 Kids House and working with clients:
I've been working at our new building every Saturday since August so I've been somewhat removed from the normal goings-on at the clothing bank except for reports from our able volunteers who keep everything running with precision and popping in to help now and then with one thing or another. Because many of these same volunteers were involved in the bazaar and rummage sale fundraiser at the Sr. Center on Saturday I spent several hours working with clients and volunteers. We served 48 kids Saturday, after seeing 200 kids over the previous 3 open days, a total of just 12 hours. The parents are so grateful for the lovely clothing, shoes and warm coats for their kids. The kids themselves just shine with personal pride in their new attire. So many families are new to being in need this year and they struggle mightily with having to ask for help. We didn't have many gifts on the shelf Saturday but were able to promise some later.
We had three adults and a team of four Bonney Lake H.S. teens on duty as Christmas Angels to wrap what we did have. It was so fun to watch little ones -- and not-so-little ones -- select the perfect gift for their parent, then smuggle it carefully off for wrapping. They'd return with this sparkle in their eye and a bounce in their step that now they had a gift to give. Few were willing to have their treasures bagged for carrying, preferring instead to grasp them tightly but tenderly in their hands.
We had donors coming by with bags and boxes of toys for little ones, and gifts for teens -- movie tickets and gift cards -- and cash donations to purchase what we need that isn't donated. We received boxes of granulated detergent we can bag up and send home with clients so they can stay clean.
I left the building overcome with so many feelings, not the least of which is that Lions 4 Kids "IS" and we can make a difference in some small way to so many children, thanks to an incredibly generous community who makes it possible for us to do what we do.
Golf Tournament at Windermere: Friday afternoon Ken and Tyler Freed and Gloria Bechtold had set up a really cool putt-putt course for guests to navigate at their annual holiday open house. The $5 entry fee for the course will benefit Lions 4 Kids. I haven't talked to Ken yet about how the day unfolded but we do sincerely appreciate their efforts. Thanks to Tyler for not crowing too loudly when you trounced me!
Other Community Efforts:
Dana is one of our volunteers and a lightening rod of action! She has a young son and daughter who attend school in Bonney Lake. The daughter's classroom had a box for food donations with only 11 cans of food in it after a couple weeks. Dana and her four-year-old daughter went door to door in their neighborhood asking for food donations and came home with 70 cans of food. Amanda even took money from her piggy bank to buy baby food and cat food.
The Longshoremen's Local again this year has donated boxes and boxes of toys and bikes for us to give in addition to cash to purchase gifts for teens. Curves and Prime Fitness has offered us the toys they collect from their clients so we have them to offer to our families. Jody Barnes, a trainer at Prime Fitness, creates her own resource-raisers to benefit Our Kids which I understand right now is personal care items. And Brent, the manager, has agreed to a warm- coat drive.
Tom Watson at Office Depot has donated a huge box of tote bags; Bruce and Janet Emig donated eight live Christmas trees for our clients to take home to enjoy; Cory McCammon has happened upon more trees we'll be able to put out; Dennis Tompkins donated a gorgeous Noble Fir from the world's premier tree farm in Oregon for us to decorate and have outside our building. Cowgirl's Espresso is collecting clothing and food through the 23rd at their location across from Fred Meyer. Pastor Stew Bowen, director of Bread of Life and Bonney Lake food banks came by Lions 4 Kids last week and reported that their shelves were bare one day and then 6000 pounds of food appeared!
So many anonymous donors have offered so much to children in need throughout our community. They will have a bountiful holiday and will be warm and nicely attired afterward thanks to people whom they will never meet, but nonetheless, care. "Thank you" doesn't begin to seem adequate to express our appreciation and yet that, and a full-to-overflowing, grateful heart, is all we have.
New Building Update:
Saturday morning in the rain and biting cold Michael DaCorsi, Kevin Havener and Cory McCammon were kind enough to take down the chain link fence fabric from the old Lions 4 Kids building so we can erect it at the new one, saving money and recycling the materials. Thank you gentlemen!
Eric from EB Enterprises and his team finished our drywall installation. We'll call for our inspection Monday and hopefully be able to begin taping this week! Thank you!
Sealing, texturing and painting will follow. Beginning Saturday December 27th will be a big push to get everything finished in time for our opening to clients on Wednesday January 7th. I will be creating a list of to-do's that if you have an hour or so to help that week between Christmas and New Year's will enable us to meet our time constraints. We know we won't be all the way "done" but being able to get the place configured as much as possible prior to greeting clients will save a great deal of hassle. Please stay tuned later this week for more information.
Floor update: The floor challenge fund now has $352 thanks to Iona Catonio, Jessica Larios, Candy Moberg and an infusion from my doting parents. Grateful thanks to you all! We have identified vendors who can help with supplying the floor but aren't able to donate all the materials so we are attempting to collect some funds to purchase materials at cost. Every dollar helps and may be sent to the address below with a notation of "floor fund".
I had hoped that this week I'd be able to acknowledge all of our very generous donors and volunteers to date. Please stay tuned for that update as well. You are not forgotten, just scattered on lists and various paper scraps at the moment, awaiting organization. You are Angels, all of you, to so many who are going through the worst time of their lives. With what you give of your time and treasure you are giving them HOPE for the future. And as long as there is hope there is a reason to get up every morning and continue.
Thank you for allowing me to be part of this journey, not just at Christmas, but all the year through. The knowledge that we together are part of a greater good is a most treasured gift that no amount of money can buy.
With a grateful and humble heart, thank you. Carol
Carol Wells-Reed
Founder and Director
Lions 4 Kids House
20825 SR 410 East, PMB #198
Bonney Lake WA 98391
Message phone: 253-447-3844
The Bonney Lake Lions Foundation is a 501(c)3 non profit organization #38-3753543
This has been an emotional weekend in many ways. My "baby girl" daughter of 31 was here from Wisconsin for the weekend as was my sister from Texas to join with my parents and local siblings for a warm family gathering and simple meal on Friday evening. It was hard to send the non-locals back to their own homes not knowing when we'd all be together again.
Saturday I was able to be part of several events around our local communities that have continued a strong emotional response. I've been searching for 24 hours for the right word(s) to describe it, and still it eludes me but I'd like to share some of it:
Community Dinner at Sumner High School on 12/13: I arrived late in the afternoon as things were winding down but what I observed were teens who had been planning for weeks, preparing for days -- in addition to regular school work, sports and jobs -- still cheerfully engaged in greeting guests, seeing to their empty dishes or the need for a beverage; yummy, hot food -- FREE-- for everyone regardless of financial situation to enjoy; a wonderful Children's Corner to keep youngsters amused; a Santa and sleigh filled with donated gifts that a child in need could take home for that special day of waking in the morning to a surprise! There was a table laden with food donations for the food bank. Guests were sitting and chatting together. People were brought together, and there was this sense of complete "community". I guess I expected the teens would be antsy to get things cleaned up and be done with it that late in the day, but they weren't. They were relaxed and chatting with each other and totally attuned to the needs of the remaining guests and focused on their mission.
It is a testament to many: the donors who made the meal and gifting possible; the parents who have raised caring grounded kids; the teachers and educational community who further guide them on their way to help them see the value of working together for a purpose; the kids themselves for their willingness to reach out to others with energy and compassion.
I left there feeling very well fed, blessed and hopeful. I hope those who attended the event who are stretched financially felt even a portion of what I did. It was a very special and touching experience. Thank you to all involved for your vision, your energy, your caring and compassion.
Bazaar and garage sale:
Andrea Henschell, Iona Catonio and April Young have been planning for months the wonderful bazaar and rummage sale fundraiser Saturday afternoon at the Bonney Lake Sr. Center (whom we thank for the use of their wonderful facility). We had asked for donations of "nice" garage sale items and received tons of them from our generous community!
Vendors from such companies as Pampered Chef, Sensy, Sensaria, and others gave an afternoon to share their wares and proceeds from sales with Lions 4 Kids. Baked goods and wonderful creations for immediate consumption or worthy of gifting were available for sale to our guests. We had two Santas and a Mrs. Santa who gave their time for portions of the afternoon; volunteers who showed up at dawn to open the building and help set up like Debbie McDonald and Susan McCammon. Volunteers from Bonney Lake High School helped. Lara of the Sr. Center staff volunteered in the kitchen the entire day helping with the Play-Dayz breakfast in the morning and our event in the afternoon. Unsold garage sale items were delivered to Rainier Thrift to further their outreach.
We didn't have as many guests as we had hoped but those that attended had a good time and got some great stuff and screamin' deals. We earned around $500 that will benefit Our Kids greatly and are deeply appreciative of our volunteers who spent so much time in the planning and execution of the event, to our donors who made wares available, and our guests for their purchases. One added benefit was a connection through Mrs. Santa, Sherry Creson, to Proctor and Gamble who may be able to help with grants for detergent and personal care items.
Lions 4 Kids House and working with clients:
I've been working at our new building every Saturday since August so I've been somewhat removed from the normal goings-on at the clothing bank except for reports from our able volunteers who keep everything running with precision and popping in to help now and then with one thing or another. Because many of these same volunteers were involved in the bazaar and rummage sale fundraiser at the Sr. Center on Saturday I spent several hours working with clients and volunteers. We served 48 kids Saturday, after seeing 200 kids over the previous 3 open days, a total of just 12 hours. The parents are so grateful for the lovely clothing, shoes and warm coats for their kids. The kids themselves just shine with personal pride in their new attire. So many families are new to being in need this year and they struggle mightily with having to ask for help. We didn't have many gifts on the shelf Saturday but were able to promise some later.
We had three adults and a team of four Bonney Lake H.S. teens on duty as Christmas Angels to wrap what we did have. It was so fun to watch little ones -- and not-so-little ones -- select the perfect gift for their parent, then smuggle it carefully off for wrapping. They'd return with this sparkle in their eye and a bounce in their step that now they had a gift to give. Few were willing to have their treasures bagged for carrying, preferring instead to grasp them tightly but tenderly in their hands.
We had donors coming by with bags and boxes of toys for little ones, and gifts for teens -- movie tickets and gift cards -- and cash donations to purchase what we need that isn't donated. We received boxes of granulated detergent we can bag up and send home with clients so they can stay clean.
I left the building overcome with so many feelings, not the least of which is that Lions 4 Kids "IS" and we can make a difference in some small way to so many children, thanks to an incredibly generous community who makes it possible for us to do what we do.
Golf Tournament at Windermere: Friday afternoon Ken and Tyler Freed and Gloria Bechtold had set up a really cool putt-putt course for guests to navigate at their annual holiday open house. The $5 entry fee for the course will benefit Lions 4 Kids. I haven't talked to Ken yet about how the day unfolded but we do sincerely appreciate their efforts. Thanks to Tyler for not crowing too loudly when you trounced me!
Other Community Efforts:
Dana is one of our volunteers and a lightening rod of action! She has a young son and daughter who attend school in Bonney Lake. The daughter's classroom had a box for food donations with only 11 cans of food in it after a couple weeks. Dana and her four-year-old daughter went door to door in their neighborhood asking for food donations and came home with 70 cans of food. Amanda even took money from her piggy bank to buy baby food and cat food.
The Longshoremen's Local again this year has donated boxes and boxes of toys and bikes for us to give in addition to cash to purchase gifts for teens. Curves and Prime Fitness has offered us the toys they collect from their clients so we have them to offer to our families. Jody Barnes, a trainer at Prime Fitness, creates her own resource-raisers to benefit Our Kids which I understand right now is personal care items. And Brent, the manager, has agreed to a warm- coat drive.
Tom Watson at Office Depot has donated a huge box of tote bags; Bruce and Janet Emig donated eight live Christmas trees for our clients to take home to enjoy; Cory McCammon has happened upon more trees we'll be able to put out; Dennis Tompkins donated a gorgeous Noble Fir from the world's premier tree farm in Oregon for us to decorate and have outside our building. Cowgirl's Espresso is collecting clothing and food through the 23rd at their location across from Fred Meyer. Pastor Stew Bowen, director of Bread of Life and Bonney Lake food banks came by Lions 4 Kids last week and reported that their shelves were bare one day and then 6000 pounds of food appeared!
So many anonymous donors have offered so much to children in need throughout our community. They will have a bountiful holiday and will be warm and nicely attired afterward thanks to people whom they will never meet, but nonetheless, care. "Thank you" doesn't begin to seem adequate to express our appreciation and yet that, and a full-to-overflowing, grateful heart, is all we have.
New Building Update:
Saturday morning in the rain and biting cold Michael DaCorsi, Kevin Havener and Cory McCammon were kind enough to take down the chain link fence fabric from the old Lions 4 Kids building so we can erect it at the new one, saving money and recycling the materials. Thank you gentlemen!
Eric from EB Enterprises and his team finished our drywall installation. We'll call for our inspection Monday and hopefully be able to begin taping this week! Thank you!
Sealing, texturing and painting will follow. Beginning Saturday December 27th will be a big push to get everything finished in time for our opening to clients on Wednesday January 7th. I will be creating a list of to-do's that if you have an hour or so to help that week between Christmas and New Year's will enable us to meet our time constraints. We know we won't be all the way "done" but being able to get the place configured as much as possible prior to greeting clients will save a great deal of hassle. Please stay tuned later this week for more information.
Floor update: The floor challenge fund now has $352 thanks to Iona Catonio, Jessica Larios, Candy Moberg and an infusion from my doting parents. Grateful thanks to you all! We have identified vendors who can help with supplying the floor but aren't able to donate all the materials so we are attempting to collect some funds to purchase materials at cost. Every dollar helps and may be sent to the address below with a notation of "floor fund".
I had hoped that this week I'd be able to acknowledge all of our very generous donors and volunteers to date. Please stay tuned for that update as well. You are not forgotten, just scattered on lists and various paper scraps at the moment, awaiting organization. You are Angels, all of you, to so many who are going through the worst time of their lives. With what you give of your time and treasure you are giving them HOPE for the future. And as long as there is hope there is a reason to get up every morning and continue.
Thank you for allowing me to be part of this journey, not just at Christmas, but all the year through. The knowledge that we together are part of a greater good is a most treasured gift that no amount of money can buy.
With a grateful and humble heart, thank you. Carol
Carol Wells-Reed
Founder and Director
Lions 4 Kids House
20825 SR 410 East, PMB #198
Bonney Lake WA 98391
Message phone: 253-447-3844
The Bonney Lake Lions Foundation is a 501(c)3 non profit organization #38-3753543
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