Sean C. Morgan
Sweet Home residents took every name off of both of the community’s sharing trees this season after a sluggish start, and police and fire personnel delivered them to more than 500 children in the Sweet Home area last week.
The Sharing Tree at the Sweet Home Police Department served 84 children, mostly teens, Police Chief Jeff Lynn said.
Every name was taken from the police tree, but in the end, 12 weren’t returned.
“Through donations we already saved, we were able to fill the 12 that didn’t come back in,” Lynn said. “So we had to do a little last-minute shopping.”
Donations included proceeds from the annual Steakout and a Thanksgiving dinner, both hosted by the Point Restaurant, as well as direct contributions.
The recipients were excited Thursday as Blue Santa delivered gifts, said Det. Cyndi Pichardo, who assisted Blue Santa, played by retired Chief Bob Burford. She was especially moved by Angailica Brown, an 8-year-old girl with red hair, who was highly appreciative of her presents.
“She was adorable,” Pichardo said. “She gave Blue Santa a hug and asked for her picture with him. She’s the one that wouldn’t stop saying thank you.”
A 15-year-old boy shook Blue Santa’s hand and asked for a hug, Pichardo said. He told Blue Santa and the officers to “be safe” as they left.
“That’s what makes it worth it,” Pichardo said. “That’s where you leave smiling. That makes you feel good.”
Some children list only needs, like pants or shoes, Lynn said, but they also get fun “want” gifts.
“Those make you feel good about giving the ‘want’ gift,” Pichardo said.
The Sweet Home Fire and Ambulance District Firefighters Volunteer Association provided gifts to 433 children 12 and younger in 189 families. The numbers were about average.
“It was an amazing, amazing response this year,” said association member Shannon Strubhar, who co-organized the project with Cassie Richey. “We had lots of donations, cash donations, toy donations. It was a huge response this year. It was just amazing. The city of Sweet Home, the citizens of the community came through in amazing fashion.”
Sweet Home Sanitation donated 22 bicycles, Strubhar said, and Toys for Tots provided toys for distribution. Bi-Mart completed a toy drive for the program as well.
By the time shopping ended two weeks ago, every single name had been taken from the tree, Strubhar said. This is the first time that ever happened.
Response from the public started out slower than usual, and early in the month, the Sharing Tree was falling well behind the usual pace of getting names taken from the tree. A week before the shopping deadline (two weeks ago), the tree still had 240 tags left on it.
Strubhar and Richey began publicizing the situation everywhere they could, and people responded, Strubhar said.
Gifts were distributed on Dec. 16 and Dec. 17.
“There were lots of very grateful families,” Strubhar said. “It was nice to see. A lot of people were overwhelmed by the generosity of people.”