Editor,
The La Center Lions Giving Tree team would like to thank everyone who participated in our inaugural year facilitating this event. A special thank you to the Friends Next Door, who originated the giving tree for La Center and who successfully ran the program for 13 years. They set the bar pretty high.
Thank you, Mayor Tom Strobehn for guiding this project into our club; we are proud to count your robust giving heart among our number. You are a mighty Lion.
La Center Lions Giving Tree was born in October 2023 and the new team started work immediately. One of our first actions was to open a gift giving registry on Amazon. Thirty-eight individuals from our La Center area and beyond responded. Thank you for the early, encouraging support. Your personal generosity and graciousness spurred us on.
Thank you to: Katie, Lion Dana Hantho, Jennifer L. Peterson, Dorri E. Oldham, Megan Maygra, Tara McMahan, Lion Judy Hickman, Mark and Rachel Smith, Nancy I. Hokanson, Kate Healey and several other generous folks who chose to remain anonymous.
We respect your privacy and applaud your philanthropy. By purchasing gifts through Amazon, you helped us be more efficient and streamlined the donation-giving process. By knowing what we had or would soon receive, we could concentrate on what we were lacking. This alone saved us countless hours. Also, hugs and more hugs to the staff of the LaCenter Post Office. We know you don’t hear thank you nearly enough for the long hours and higher-than-usual volume you deal with daily.
Thank you to the following businesses and organizations who have helped make La Center the best place in the world to live and raise families:
Altered Image, Podunk Pizza, New Phoenix, Last Frontier Poker, Silo Barber Co., Sadie and Josie’s Bakery, Stonehill Coffee House and La Center Church.
These entities hosted giving trees, made donations and supported their customers and members’ involvement with grace, great products and services. Your enthusiasm and holiday spirit demonstrate how the nicest people can succeed. Thank you to the following businesses who graciously donated goods and services:
My Auto Works, Jennifer Overbay Guillen, Chelatchie Prairie Railroad for trip passes, Opal Wynter, Laurie Bergheimnd and Riverview Dental.
The spirit of Christmas is alive and thriving in La Center because you are part of our community.
A special recognition to the faculty and staff at La Center Elementary School, La Center Middle School and La Center High School.
La Center School District faculty and staff not only put up their trees and made sure that tags were available for students and parents, they went above and beyond and satisfied many, many tags themselves out of the goodness of their hearts. We have the greatest team of educators, para educators, counselors, librarians, janitors, kitchen staff and maintenance employees. They are absolutely lovely people!
As well, we thank the La Center Community Library, the U.S. Post Office of La Center and La Center City Hall for enthusiastically providing our La Center Lions Giving Tree nomination forms. Your initial one-on-one interactions at the beginning of our giving tree drive helped tremendously to remove any perceived stigma. Your hospitality and thoughtfulness helped our families in need receive proper, correct information.
We would be remiss if we didn’t applaud the philanthropic support from Clark County Fire and Rescue; Santa’s Sleigh Ride; ilani Community Foundation, and other private individuals who made spontaneous contributions.
A successful early start is a great indicator of a successful fait accompli, which is what we as a Lions Club will celebrate throughout the coming years.
Thank you La Center public schools for opening your familiar doors to us for a sorting and distribution space.
Dec. 21, the La Center Lions Giving Tree provided 28 area families with Christmas gifts they might have otherwise gone without: from tiny Pop Its, to a new mountain bike and board games to oil changes, and clothing, from hand-made hats and scarves to Nike Sneaks, warm coats and the ubiquitous Christmas socks and underwear.
Last, but not least, thank you to our Lions families at home. We know that when we “step up” someone on the home front needs to step in. Thank you for supporting us, doing extra chores, etc. in all families who take care and love to keep a household moving forward.
La Center Lions facilitated the giving tree but you made the giving tree possible!
Twenty-eight families were blessed with Christmas presents, and hundreds of other families were enriched by this shared experience.
We couldn’t be more proud. Thank you!
Edie Brannon
President, La Center Lions Club
