On Christmas morning children in Covington and Maple Valley who may not have expected to find much under the tree will be pleasantly surprised.
That’s because on earlier this week parents were able to shop at the Maple Valley Food Bank’s Christmas store, which was set up in a vacant storefront in Four Corners, for toys, clothes, gift cards and even bicycles.
The food bank expected a slight increase in clients this year which would be in line with the trend of more requests since the economy took a nosedive in 2008.
Volunteers began setting up the Christmas store last week, explained Angela Wilhelm, a project coordinator for the food bank who started working part-time in June for the non-profit.
“This is my first Christmas and it’s huge,” Wilhelm said. “Families who are already clients are invited to participate in this program. They get an appointment time. We distribute gifts on Sunday and Monday. We have this wonderful new place.”
The store is decorated with donated Christmas decor “to make it look welcoming,”
Wilhelm said.More than 20 volunteers helped sort through donations, set up the tables in the store and prepare for the clients who would be visiting on Sunday and Monday.
During the days parents visited the store to select gifts for their children, Wilhelm explained, there were four shifts with about 150 volunteers with hundreds of hours contributed.
Wilhelm stated that community support of the food bank, especially for major holiday events such as the Christmas store, “it’s the life blood.”
She described the process clients went through while shopping, so to speak, for gifts.”Clients will come in, check in… then a personal shopper will meet them and bring them through the process,” Wilhelm said. “Then they choose their items.”
Clients had the chance to start at a soft goods table overflowing with hats, scarves and gloves for babies all the way up through teens.
From there, parents could select items from a table of stuffed animals, then choose from a table with books and puzzles, followed by picking some gifts from tables with age-appropriate gifts ranging from tiny tots to teenagers and wrap it all up with picking small items from a table piled high with stocking stuffers.
Jake Whitbeck, 18, was helping out by hanging up baby clothes. Generally speaking the donations were brand new or near new.”This is my third year doing this,” said Whitbeck, a Tahoma High class of 2011 graduate. “I come every year and do what I can.”
