About 600 kids and their parents packed the auditorium at Sarah J. Anderson Elementary School in Hazel Dell on Thursday night — with the crowd milling slowly, elbow to elbow, in a controlled chaos of smiles, laughter and children’s yells.
It was the 11th Annual Community Youth Holiday Event, put on by a whole bunch of neighborhood association volunteers and made possible by many local business donors. And everything was free.
For some of the kids, it might be their only Christmas, organizers said, and they meant to make it a good one.
A line of about 15 new and soon-to-be raffled kids’ bicycles stood waiting on their kickstands in front of the stage, and, across the room, Ronald McDonald was tossing tiny Frisbees out into the crowd and asking a girl to see how loud and long she could blow a duck call. Ducks beware: she did pretty well.
As parents stood patiently, some holding infants, kids of all ages were milling around with cat whiskers and snowflakes painted on their faces — and carrying decorated cookies, cups of hot chocolate, new books, photos of themselves with Santa and just-opened presents.
“Lord have mercy,” said one man, carrying a large bag and trying to move through the crowd with his kids in tow.
That’s when a boy, his blond hair in a crewcut and wearing glasses, walked up to volunteer Art Stubbs, saying he didn’t get a ticket for a wrapped gift.
Asked where his mother was, the boy said she was standing in line, holding his place.
It was a situation that called for action.
Stubbs took the boy into the hallway to get a ticket, then returned and helped the boy find his mom in the line.
At this party, every kid gets a gift and a bag of snacks to take home.
The first guests began arriving about 5 p.m., an hour before the party was to start, and it was about 6:45 p.m. before long lines of people, beginning 100 feet outside the school, had been given their raffle tickets and made it into the auditorium. The parking lot was packed.
The first families to arrive were offered a food box, with bread and a frozen chicken in each. About 100 boxes were distributed.
More than 1,000 books were given out at tables, said Stubbs, who was helping the main organizer, Bud Van Cleve of the Northeast Hazel Dell Neighborhood Association.
“Any kid who wants a book gets to take a book home,” said Stubbs, who is vice chairman of the Neighborhood Association Council of Clark County, an umbrella for 34 neighborhood associations.
When it was time for the raffles, a woman took the stage with a microphone. In English and Spanish, she asked the crowd for silence and called out the winning numbers. A man on the stage translated her words into sign language.
Excited children who won bikes also were fitted for free helmets and given bike locks.
Neighborhood associations that sponsored and whose members volunteered included Northeast and West Hazel Dell, North Salmon Creek and Felida.
The Clark County Sheriff’s Office and Fire District 6 also were sponsors that sent volunteers to help with the party.
The long list of volunteers and donors included Yard ‘N Garden Land, Hewlett-Packard, Altrusa, Kohl’s, Waste Connections, Walmart employees, Burgerville, McDonalds and Frito-Lay.
John Branton: 360-735-4513 or john.branton@columbian.com.
