Banner Bank sponsors three families this Christmas
Tags on Banner Bank’s Wishing Tree include requests for items, such as a child’s blanket, a woman’s scarf and Walmart gift cards.
Rebecca Pettingill/Columbia Basin Herald
The Wishing Tree, set up in Banner Bank’s lobby, features 11 tags with singular gift requests to provide to one of three families Moses Lake Banner Bank is sponsoring this year through New Hope.
MOSES LAKE — A local bank is sponsoring three families this Christmas through the New Hope Christmas Wish Program.
The Moses Lake Banner Bank branch, 322 S. Division St., is participating in New Hope’s Christmas Wish Program for the second time in the last three years to provide gifts to families in need. New Hope provides free services for victims of domestic violence or sexual assault.
Olga Melnikov, senior commercial loan specialist for Moses Lake Banner Bank, said the branch is sponsoring the three families through what they are calling a “Wishing Tree.” On the Wishing Tree are tags with singular gifts from a list of items put together by the families. The tag explains if it is needed in a specific size or for a specific gender. For example, one of the tags left on the tree asked for a blanket for an almost-2-year-old. Another tag asks for a woman’s scarf.
Most of the gifts from the list were necessities and not items one would see as wants, Melnikov mentioned.
The Wishing Tree is set up in the lobby, so any patron or employee of the bank can grab a tag to fulfill and bring back. Melnikov also said wrapping the gifts is not a requirement and she has wrapping paper if some arrive unwrapped.
Across from the Wishing Tree is a regular 6-foot Christmas tree with the already fulfilled gifts wrapped and ready for delivery. Melnikov said the gifts and tags need to be given to the bank by Dec. 16 so it can deliver them to New Hope.
Melnikov said the bank started out with around 30 tags in mid-November. As of Wednesday, there were 11 tags.
Tara Dieng, legal and community advocate for New Hope said in 2020, through 32 donors, 52 families were sponsored. The families included 52 adults and 130 children for a total of 182 people.
Donors this year come from all backgrounds; service clubs, individuals, businesses, a church and a school.
“We really appreciate the generosity of the community,” Dieng said.
If anyone would like to go through New Hope and sponsor a family or donate Dieng said to contact New Hope’s office at 509-764-8402. New Hope asks gifts be clearly marked with recipient information, such as boy/girl, age and/or type of gift. Donations need to be received at the Moses Lake New Hope, 311 W. Third Ave., by Friday.
Rebecca Pettingill can be reached via email at rpettingill@columbiabasinherald.com.
