Given the number of people running around the Camas-Washougal Fire Department’s Station 42, the amount of supplies moving around the engine bay and the multiple vehicles coming and going, one might be forgiven for thinking there was a fire.
Really, firefighters with the department and East County Fire & Rescue, along with volunteers, were delivering food and toys Wednesday to families in need ahead of Christmas.
They call it CAROL, or Christmas Activities Relief Organization Limited.
The local fire departments have been at for so long, organizers weren’t precisely sure when they started. Camas-Washougal Capt. Brooks Cooper has been a part of the annual effort, and a lead organizer, for more than 30 years. His best guess for when the gift and food drive started was around 1950.
He got started with the event as a volunteer with Camas’ fire department, he said, and after starting work full time, he took over when the previous organizer retired.
“And I’m working on guys now that are going to take it over when I retire,” he said.
Cooper and one of the department’s administrative assistants, Alicia Ramsey, start assembling names of people in need the Sunday after Thanksgiving every year, he said. Then organizers gather toys and food and rally volunteers.
On Wednesday, the station buzzed with people hollering about which gift box and bike goes where, and kids and parents stacking boxes in truck beds.
“We’re going to do about 105 families, with food. Thirty of those families are super-big, like, over six per family — we’ve got one that has 13 — so they’re going to get double of everything,” Cooper said.
Cooper said most of the nonperishable food comes from local high schools’ Stuff the Bus events. The department buys fresh food, which they packed late that afternoon, through cash donations.
Boxes come through the Touchmark Foundation. The Georgia-Pacific mill donated toy boxes, and Waste Connections put up 50 kids bikes, which it does yearly.
Teachers at Skyridge Middle School raised $3,700 toward toys and gift cards. Nearby Les Schwab stores also paid for toys. Other times, families might work to “adopt” another family and buy some toys.
“This will all be gone in about three hours,” Cooper said, gesturing around the station’s three-engine bay, which was lined with bikes and stacked with boxes of toys and food.
Ramsey said about 40 people showed up to help pack dry goods Saturday. About 25 came to pack dry goods later, and there were roughly 50 at the station Wednesday to help with packing perishable food and making deliveries Wednesday.
Extra food goes to local relief groups, who help refer those in need to the program. Participating families, who must live in the Camas or Washougal school districts’ boundaries, sometimes can include a wish list for any kids. Cooper said he holds on to any extra toys to build up for next year, and to have on hand should a mistake arise, like a family of four boys getting a box full of Barbies, he said.
“All our donations come locally, so we try to keep everything here, locally,” Cooper said.
Ramsey said many of their referrals come through the counselors at local schools. Fifteen percent of Camas School District students, and about 37 percent of Washougal School District students, are eligible for free or reduced-price meals.
Other times, Cooper said, CAROL may just cut a check to a family in need after a particularly rough year. One year, when a man lost his wife in a car crash, CAROL helped him out over the holidays as he struggled with his wife’s death and taking care of their three kids.
The next year, Cooper said, the man gave them a $1,000 check to help the program.
Cooper said he’s delivered to three generations of some families, judging by the names he sees.
Still, CAROL had fewer names on their list than last year, he said, which he took to mean not as many people needed the help.
“Somehow, it always just comes together,” Ramsey said, as volunteers swirled around the station. “Part of the reason why it comes together so well is because it is an institution, and people know, ‘Oh, it’s December, we should give to the fire department.'”
