At least 144 families across Clark County will have a brighter holiday this year thanks to the efforts of the Clark County Veterans Assistance Center, where volunteers are working to collect gifts for the children of needy veterans.
The center was full to bursting Monday afternoon, where packages for kids from infants to high schoolers took up most of the upstairs floor space. And they’re not done yet.
“We’re getting another delivery tomorrow,” said Sharon Tyre, administrative assistant at the center. “The delivery we’re getting tomorrow comes from the county, comes from Toys for Tots.”
Last week, center president Judy Russell told the Veterans Advisory Board that CCVAC was working with several veterans support groups like 40 et 8, the Community Military Action Committee and Sunshine Division to collect enough food and gifts to ensure that no local veteran families would go without for the holiday season.
Downstairs, boxes upon boxes of food crowded the center hallway. In the freezer are around 15 frozen turkey dinners — dozens of others went to CCVAC visitors and Kleen Street Recovery Cafe, said center volunteer Nick Herber.
“They called me in mid-October and said, ‘Safeway and Albertsons got together and donated a thousand meals — frozen turkeys, frozen potatoes,’ ” Herber said. “He said, ‘I got a thousand of these meals I’ve got to get rid of. How many do you want?’ ”
“We’ve still got a freezer full of food, but it’ll all be gone,” Herber added. “We don’t want to keep it.”
Through the year, the veterans center identifies and keeps a running list of the veterans they help who have children, Tyre said. By the time December rolls around, they have a comprehensive roster of everyone who might need some help to keep their holidays bright. This year, that list has 144 families on it, though that number is a moving target as families move locations and financial situations change.
The CCVAC then invites those parents to visit the center in the week before Christmas to “shop” the selection, selecting the gifts that will be the biggest hit with their sons and daughters.
“What we like to do is have the veterans come in and pick. They know their children better than we do,” Tyre said. “We let them take them home and wrap them like it’s from them, and not from us.”
The center doesn’t have the resources to deliver the packages to each and every family. “We would need an actual Santa to do that,” Tyre joked. Parents will come to the center Friday to collect the holiday gifts.
Anyone who wants to donate can still do so this week. Just drop off the goods at the center at 1305 Columbia St. in downtown Vancouver. Or, if the item is big or bulky, they can call the center at 360-693-7030 and schedule a pickup.
“If a truck is needed, some of our volunteers have trucks and they can go pick stuff up,” Tyre said.
Clothes, too, are extra helpful this time of year. Cold-weather accessories like gloves, scarves and hats are in high demand.
“One person’s gift that they received might not be exactly what they like,” Tyre said. “But for a child that doesn’t have anything, it’s a great gift.”
