Share the Spirit serves 400 local families
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News from Share the Spirit
LAKE COUNTY — Share the Spirit Holiday Assistance Program was started in Lake County in December 1998. Share the Spirit Holiday Assistance was created by a group of community-minded folks to assist county agencies and organizations, plus provide a clearinghouse with a database which was designed to avoid duplication, while increasing efficiency, and that in turn provides help to those families in most need.
Detailed Share the Spirit applications are given to all of the Lake County agencies and elementary school counselors in October so families have plenty of time to check kids’ clothes sizes and fill out the forms which are then returned to STS to check for accuracy, suitable sizes etc. At that point each family is assigned a number and each child a number within the family. Kids must be 12 or younger to be considered. Tags are made for distribution to our trees, which are erected in various businesses throughout the county in November and filled with tags asking folks to buy specific requested gifts for each child. All information is entered into an Access database. Folks take tags off the trees, shop for their child and then bring the gifts to STS to package with other children in the family. At that point STS volunteers add more toys to the bags if the shopping list is not complete. That’s also the time where we can add bikes or wagons or family gifts before we distribute the Christmas presents.
Share the Spirit purchases food gift certificates from local grocery stores to give to families who apply, and in most instances, the participating grocery stores match our purchase.
With the struggling economy over the past several years, STS grew appreciably and typically serves more than 400 Lake County families per year with approximately 1,100 to 1,200 children 12 and younger. Since we started our program we have helped more than 12,000 children with toys, books, games, dolls, bikes, coats, clothes, food, school supplies and personal care items. We are very pleased to collaborate and partner with the local Toys for Tots program and work closely with them to make sure there are no duplications of efforts. Their organization is outstanding in the toys they collect both locally and nationally. Share the Spirit would not be as successful in helping Lake County children’s dreams come true at Christmas without our partnership.
Share the Spirit is managed 100 percent by volunteers. We use the generosity of landlords who have empty buildings for our space and we work with utility companies for electricity, propane and trash pick-up to get as much as possible donated. We are very diligent in how we spend the money that is donated to us, but it does include food certificates, a telephone, and office supplies.
We are a 501 C 3 tax-exempt organization that not only handles holiday assistance, we also provide school supplies for elementary schools in the county each August, and twice yearly personal care bag distribution. Share the Spirit purchases personal care items for needy families, which we distribute through all the county agencies and Helping Hands. These include toothpaste, toothbrushes, shampoo, body lotion, bar soap, diapers, wipes, laundry soap, toilet paper – all items that cannot be purchased with food stamps. Local churches and a generous public help us purchase these items twice each year. We also take advantage of grants from organizations whenever possible to lessen the burden on our local community. All of this is a huge undertaking but our volunteers are committed to our mission.
You can help Share the Spirit Holiday Assistance by taking a tag from one of our trees this holiday season or by donating any size diapers, baby wipes, toothpaste, toothbrushes, body lotion, shampoo or bar soap in travel or family size packages. We gratefully accept all donations. Reach us at our post office box P.O. Box 1341, Polson, MT 59860 or call (406) 883-1046 for more information.
Share the Spirit 2013 Tree Locations
Polson
Cherry Valley School, Glacier Bank, Eagle Bank, Lake County Courthouse, Linderman School, Port Polson Inn, St. Joseph Medical Center, Walmart
Ronan/Pablo
Community Bank, The Gift Gallery, Harvest Foods, Hanson & Granley, S & K Electronics, St. Luke Hospital, Valley Journal
St. Ignatius
Lake County Bank and
Rod’s Harvest Foods
