All you can give

It’s official! By time this article makes it to print, most if not all of the gifts from The Giving Tree have made it to their respective families. And the Mirror-Reporter can happily report that every ornament from the tree was taken by a member or group from the community. And there were over 200 of them.

It has been a wonderful experience, seeing all the support this project has gotten. Even after they were all gone, we still had people coming in or calling to see if we had any ornaments left. Some people even made donations to the Clear Lake Kids and Families in Need instead. One stand out donation came from the Elly’s “Sippin’ for Santa” event, featuring Spenser Rahm, Beau Bonner and Maclane Powell (The Tipsy Troubadours) playing music and bartending, their tips coming out to a $900 donation.

And soon enough our office began overflowing with gifts wrapped in colorful paper or in festival gift bags as our local Santas returned their ornaments.

I commend the work of those who have been keeping the project organized. Namely, Marianne Gasaway, who had been in and out of our office, prepping gifts to go out to families.

Everyone who picked up the gifts from the office was extremely grateful and even surprised at the generosity of the shoppers, some of them taking home boxes of gifts or multiple bags for their kids, which ranged from just one to as many as five.

It warms the heart to see everyone coming together to help those in need. Like a Christmas movie, it reminds you what the season is truly about; giving what you can and getting what you need. Even if it’s just a pair of pajamas, it can make a kid’s whole year. 

You always hope that there will be no people in need in the next year. But as long as people need help making their Christmases a little more magical and there’s a group to make sure those people have somewhere to ask for it, we’ll put up the tree and let the community remind us that they care and they want to help.