How to help: Opportunities for charitable giving around the Basin
Cheryl Schweizer/Columbia Basin Herald The Salvation Army has set up Sharing Trees around Moses Lake, including one at the Moses Lake Civic Center.
Cheryl Schweizer/Columbia Basin Herald The Salvation Army has set up Sharing Trees around Moses Lake, including one at the Moses Lake Civic Center.
MOSES LAKE — Along with many other things, Christmas is the season of charity, and there are a number of charitable opportunities around the Columbia Basin.
The Salvation Army has set up Sharing Trees at locations around Moses Lake, among them Moses Lake Civic Center, 401 South Balsam St., and the Moses Lake branch of U.S. Bank, 203 East Third Ave. The tree has gift tags with the age and gender of a child, along with suggestions for presents. People are encouraged to pick up a tag, buy a gift and return the tag and gift to the Sharing Tree. Gifts will be collected Dec. 16.
Organizers are accepting donations of money, food and gifts for the all-town Othello Christmas basket project, celebrating its 40th year in 2016.
In one way or another almost every resident in Othello gets involved, donating or collecting food and toys, clothes, blankets, stuff for the baskets, which are delivered to needy families in the Othello area.
Merritt Johnson, one of the organizers, said in an earlier interview that the food drive conducted by McFarland Middle School is one of the major sources of non-perishable food. Junior high students and classes also raise money and work on individual projects; so do students from Othello High School. Service organizations, churches, businesses all get in on the project.
The Othello Fire Department donates space to collect all the donations – and they take up a big chunk of the fire truck space – and Othello residents volunteer to sort and organize it all. And on one hectic Saturday right before Christmas, volunteers wrap presents and fill food boxes and deliver Christmas baskets to residents around Othello. Recipients are chosen via referrals, Johnson said, with one basket per address.
Donations are being accepted right up until distribution day, which is Dec. 17. Food, toy and gift donations can be dropped off at the Adams County Fire District No. 5 hall, 220 South Broadway Ave. in Othello. Accounts for monetary donations have been set up at the Othello branches of Columbia Bank, 605 East Main St., and U.S. Bank, 401 East Main St.