GIVING

Jackson High School helps Salvation Army Food Bank

Student leaders and staff advisers from Henry M. Jackson High School in Mill Creek took the call for food donations from the Salvation Army Food Bank in Everett to a new level this holiday season.

For years, Jackson students have typically collected about 10,000 pounds of food donations from Thanksgiving to Christmas. This year’s total exceeded 20,200 pounds.

A local company, Kalani Packaging, donated its staff and delivery truck to take the food from the school to the food bank.

Monroe volunteers distribute food and toys to needy families

The volunteers at the Sky Valley Food Bank in Monroe worked hundreds of hours preparing and wore Santa hats while distributing food, Christmas food and toys for the holiday season.

Food bank volunteers, Monroe Kiwanis and Key Club members provided hot cocoa and cookies to the clients who stood in line and waited for food and toys.

Volunteer Greg and Kathy Anderson of East Side Rentals provided temporary heaters. Monroe Rotarians handed out the stuffed stockings that Diane Wilton purchased and worked on all year. Many anonymous women knitted sweaters, hats, scarves for children.

More than 570 families and 2,800 individuals received food at the Sky Valley Food Bank during the holiday season. More than 700 children received new toys and stockings.

Elks hold successful Toys for Tots drive

Lynnwood Elks Lodge 2171 held a Toys for Tots drive on Dec. 12.

They collected 437 toys and more than $1,400.

Stanwood Camano Rotary Club boosts new playground

The Stanwood Camano Rotary Club recently presented $50,000 to the iHeartParks project committee in support of the community-built playground to be constructed in the spring at Freedom Park on Camano Island.

“It is clear that this is no ordinary playground,” said Mike Ganz, president-elect of the club. “The size, the construction and the connections to community and to family make this a project that is an ideal match with the goals and objectives of our club.”

The playground project requires more than $200,000 in donations and thousands of hours of volunteer effort. Rotary’s donation brings the project to nearly 50 percent of its fundraising goal.

Premera Blue Cross gives $25,000 to United Way

Premera Blue Cross recently presented United Way of Snohomish County with a Christmas gift of $25,000.

Premera pledged $396,714 in employee and corporate gifts during their 2009 United Way campaign.

With the additional $25,000, Premera has donated a total of $421,714 in 2009, making them the largest United Way campaign in the county.

Retired educators help Salvation Army

Sno-Isle Unit 22 of the Washington State Retired Educators teamed up with the local Salvation Army to provide items to benefit local needy families during December.

Members sewed doll clothes to outfit more than 150 dolls. Other members donated all toys for parents at the charity’s Toy and Joy Shop. Many also provided groceries for families or made more than $750 in monetary contributions.

Harvest Foundation grant helps Snohomish Senior Center

The Snohomish Senior Center recently received a $10,000 operations grant from the Harvest Foundation in support of the 2010 Comprehensive Senior Center program.

The grant will be used to assure that vital programs and services are provided for area senior citizens while the center develops other operations funding sources.

The Snohomish Senior Center’s Comprehensive Senior Center program provides more than 50 low-cost and no-cost programs in health, nutrition, education, recreation and socialization. The Harvest Foundation was created in 2000 as a private, family foundation to provide funding primarily in the areas of social services and education.

Firefighters and baristas collect food and toys

North County firefighters and baristas from the Haggen Starbucks and Stanwood Starbucks drive-through stores worked together to help collect food for the Stanwood and Arlington Food banks and toys for the Stanwood and Arlington Christmas Houses during the holiday season.

Approximately 6,500 pounds of food, cash donations and more than 1,300 new toys were presented to the local communities.

“This was a record year for toy collections,” battalion chief Christian Davis of North County Fire said. “It is truly a privilege to be part of such wonderful communities who truly help each other in their time of need.”