EVERETT — When it comes to feeding the hungry, the congregation at Our Savior’s Lutheran Church in Everett doesn’t flinch.
One way or another the church manages to keep its annual holiday basket drive going.
This year, a fleet of four-wheel-drive vehicles helped volunteers plow through snow to make deliveries.
In the end, the congregation delivered 208 holiday baskets filled with food for Thanksgiving and Christmas meals to 104 families. They also gave 235 gifts to kids, said Marianne Harvey, who along with her husband, Jim, has helped lead the effort since 2002.
The annual food and gift-giving event has been going strong for 31 years. The 2008 holiday season could have turned out differently. More people needed food and basic necessities than ever before. Volunteers of America in Everett was processing 100 applications for food and assistance each day, Marianne Harvey said.
And then there was the snow.
On the Saturday before Christmas, a room upstairs at the church was packed wall-to-wall with boxes of wrapped gifts and groceries. Cookies and coffee and hot cider beckoned from nearby tables. Volunteers were ready to greet families as they came to pick up their loot.
Just one thing stood in the way. Many streets in Everett, where most of the families who needed help lived, were clogged with snow. Many families couldn’t get out of their driveways.
That’s when roughly 30 volunteers, including Al Butler of Snohomish, came to the rescue. Snow doesn’t faze him, the Wisconsin native said.
So Butler and his wife, Sue, revved up their family’s four-wheel-drive vehicles, loaded them with gifts and food and headed out with their two sons to make deliveries. Volunteers made deliveries to 70 families.
“This particular year, there were more people needing deliveries,” Al Butler said. “It was hard for people who didn’t have money for fuel. We delivered to five families.”
Like others at their church, the Butlers have been helping with the holiday basket drive for years, he said.
Mary Miller, a preschool teacher at the church, also helps with the effort.
“What touched me this year as I was looking through the lists is that so many people were asking for basics like socks and shoes,” Miller said. “When teenagers ask for socks and shoes, it’s pretty sad.”
The increased need didn’t deter members of the congregation from giving. Each family received three to four boxes of groceries filled with fruit, vegetables, applesauce, pasta, rice, cereal, flour, sugar and other staples. Families also received a fresh food voucher for $20 to $60 depending on family size, Marianne Harvey said.
The congregation also contributed more than $8,000 to the drive, she said.
Everyone from seniors to children played a part, said preschool director Debbie Cooper.
The kids in Miller’s preschool class gathered 80 sets of gloves, socks and hats for the baskets, Miller said.
Other church members baked cookies, called families and sorted items for the baskets. Some contributed baby items, hats, mittens and scarves. One member, Dick Jones, created 100 hand-crafted wooden cars to give to the youngest children.
“Lots of folks got in on the act — mostly members, but friends, too,” pastor David Parks said.
Scouts, Camp Fire Cheetahs and other community groups that meet at the church also helped out, he said.
Volunteers are already thinking about the next drive, Marianne Harvey noted.
That’s what keeps the holiday basket drive marching on.
And sometimes, people who have received a holiday basket return to give something back to help another family in need, said Cooper. That’s one of the biggest joys for the church.
“It’s great that so many families have felt a sign of hope and possibly God’s love through a simple basket of food and gifts,” she said.
Reporter Leita Crossfield: 425-339-3449 or crossfield@heraldnet.com.
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