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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 24, 2015)
7A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2015 Healthy Kids Inc. helps 130 children The Daily Astorian The Healthy Kids’ Christ- mas toy drive and toy-wrap- ping party was held Saturday at Warrenton Grade School. With donations from in- dividuals and organizations from around the community — even from as far away as New York — Healthy Kids was able to provide 130 chil- dren from 43 families with multiple gifts of toys, books, stuffed animals, coats, socks, clothing and hygiene prod- ucts. Healthy Kids gives a spe- cial thanks to the Warrenton Christian Church for their generosity with the Christmas fundraiser, and to the 70-plus volunteers who showed up at the grade school to select toys and wrap them for each child. Morrow personally shopped for most of the cloth- ing and wish list items. She was responsible for organiz- ing the lists of gifts needed for the children, packing the clothing essentials and di- UHFWLQJWUDI¿FDWWKHZUDSSLQJ party. “Debbie is tireless when it comes to taking care of our (community’s) children,” Pam Ackley, Healthy Kids co-director and a Warren- ton city commissioner, said. “She wears many hats in our community, and I am blessed to know and work with her on these and other important projects.” Healthy Kids is poised to be able to handle this need in the future on its own as a re- sult of this fundraising effort to ensure that the children are served in the years to come, Ackley said. “We will be collecting toys and clothing items throughout the year to ensure we can ad- dress the needs of our local families in need every Christ- mas season,” she said. Club: Staff is developing new expectations for the coming year Continued from Page 1A membership, that’s not what we want or are meant for.” The organization relies on fundraising. The club has nearly reached their annual fundraising goal of $40,000, she said. As of Dec. 22, they were $3,000 from their goal for this year’s cam- paign, which ends Dec. 31. The club’s chief execu- WLYH RI¿FHU $OOLH )ULHVH VDLG the fundraiser is expected to bring in roughly a third of the club’s funding, which sur- vives on donations and state grants. )ULHVHVDLGZKLOHSDUHQWVRU guardians are asked to pay $25 a year for their child’s mem- bership, many students attend on a scholarship. She estimated the club made just $2,000 off membership payments during 2015 so far. “We have a policy that ev- Photos by Natalie St. John/EO Media Group ery child can afford to come,” Maddie Bolton, left, and Chase Cunningham played while helping to set up the gym for )ULHVHVDLG an assembly. Every few weeks, the students stage a ‘showcase,’ where they demonstrate skills they’ve learned in the after school program. Finding a focus )ULHVHDQG:LOOLDPV¶RI¿FH UHÀHFWVDZRUOGWKDW¶VZUDSSHG in kid culture. One corner acts as storage for toys. To the right of a pile of crafts and glue is a jar of cow eyes, which the crew intends to dissect in the new year when a biologist is available. )ULHVHVDLGWKHLUUROHLQNLGV¶ lives is somewhere between the environment of school and home. “We get to focus on the kids’ social and emotional as- pects,” she said. “We look for ZD\V WR LQFUHDVH WKHLU FRQ¿- dence and understanding of the people around them.” )ULHVH VDLG VKH EHFDPH the director last year during a transitional period that left her scrambling. Many of the club’s staff were heading to new jobs. And though the club formed in )ULHVHVDLGLWZDVVWUXJ- gling to gain attention on the peninsula. )LUVW RQ WKH VWDII¶V OLVW RI priorities was to increase atten- dance. Photo courtesy of Pam Ackley Debbie Morrow (left), Warrenton-Hammond Healthy Kids Inc. co-director, and Kimberlee Kaul, from Winder- mere Real Estate, smile for the camera during Healthy Kids’ Christmas toy drive and toy-wrapping party held Saturday at Warrenton Grade School. peninsula’s community, since many are volunteer-led such as Zumba, choir and martial arts. At the end of the six-week period, the students get to show- case what they’ve learned. 2Q )ULGD\ \HDUROG Zoey Parks approached the gym’s outlined stage in a red dress with a velvet top and a se- quin skirt. The club’s space was formerly part of Ilwaco High School. The gym was quiet as she began to sing Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and was Diego Flores-Hernandez, center, shows off his contribu- joined by the rest of the choir. ³.LGV¿QGDQLFKHDQGWKLV tion to a holiday coloring contest. is the time they can share it with Williams said this fall the something we’ll need to keep HDFKRWKHU´)ULHVHVDLG club organized a bus to run in mind as we move ahead.” Since the club reached their kids from Ocean Park to the Il- 2015 goals, the staff has begun ZDFRVLWHDIWHUVFKRRO7KH¿UVW to create new expectations. Kids pick their niche week, they had two Ocean Park Williams said they also pri- )ULHVHVDLGDORQJZLWKIRFXVLQJ students — now they have 15. oritized creating structure for on staff training, they’ll look for After the program is done, a WKHLU VWXGHQWV 7KH ¿UVW KRXU more ways to expand. bus delivers kids back to Long of the day is spent working on “The dream is one day hav- Beach and Ocean Park. homework. Then, the kids get to ing our own space,” she said. “We started looking at what pick a hobby. “We’re going to keep exploring the parents needed from us Every six weeks the pro- for ways to bring in more stu- to be able to work with their gram offers a different set of GHQWV DQG ZH FDQ RQO\ ¿W VR kids,” Williams said. “That’s FODVVHV7KH RSWLRQV UHÀHFW WKH many here.” FAMILY OWNED & OPERATED AN N U AL “BA C K REL IEF” M A T T R ES S EVEN T S torew ide S ale and Clearance h ea dqua rters Smarter. Cooler. 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