Editor:

Every Christmas, the Rotary Club of Edmonds manages four gift-giving trees to support the Snohomish County CASA (Court-Appointed Special Advocates for Children) and the Volunteer Guardian ad Litem (VGAL) program. This long-standing Rotary project allows CASA advocates the ability to provide gifts for infants, children or teens who are victims of alleged sexual abuse, physical abuse, or neglect. Mittens are created with the child’s name, age, and gift requests, which are then placed on four trees at Harbor Square Athletic Club (HSAC) , Gallaghers’ Where-U-Brew (GB), Axis Pharmacy (AP) of Mountlake Terrace, and Crucible Brewery (CB) of Everett. This year, we had a herculean 290 requests to fill. Miraculously, we fulfilled all requests.

A huge thanks goes to Mr. Jack Tawney and the staff and members of HSAC who every year maintain the main tree with about 150-plus mittens. We also wish to thank Chris Dufore and Jesse LaCasse and their crew and patrons of GB; Dick Mergens and Shawn Dowling and their crew and patrons of CB; Tom and Beth Sanger and their staff and clients from AP, and our Rotarians (noon club). We had two large donors this year — $1,000 from Ms. Sharalyn Ramm and $2,300 from Ms. Lorraine Meitzer — that allowed us to buy over 60 gifts request or over 120 items.

The generosity of everyone’s contributions was overwhelming to those who work this program; we cannot express how much joy and love filled our hearts while we processed these gifts. Special thanks to Santa Jim, who made over a dozen “sleigh” runs — some days he made two.

Those 290 kids had glee on their faces and warmth in their hearts on Christmas Day. Everyone should feel delight in their hearts as once again, we had another successful year of giving.

Should you wish to donate to this cause, please contact us at Rotary www.edmondsrotary.com and donate (specify for CASA). For more information about CASA visit snohomishcountywa.gov/881/CASA-Program.

Funds that are not spent will be used for our new “Literacy Project,” which is a partnership with CASA, Rotary and Edmonds Bookshop. Over 200 books were purchased this year, so volunteers can read to them and then leave the book with the child. For more details, visit myedmondsnews.com/2021/06/noon-rotary-teams-up-with-edmonds-bookshop-to-support-at-risk-kids.

Happy Holidays,

Diane Buckshnis
Edmonds
(On behalf of Santa Jim, Tom and Gary, Elves Sharalyn, Skylar, Nina, Lindsay, Joelle, Kay and all CASA volunteers that processed all those gifts)