PHOTOS BY JENNIFER COLTON
On Saturday, a little girl pressed her face to the glass door of the Altrusa Room at Agape House. With her arms wrapped tight around a fluffy, stuffed Teddy bear, she eyed the wrapped gifts stacked high on the tables inside while volunteers hurried through lunch in order to re-open the Christmas Express.
“They’ve been lined up for hours,” Krysta Marlow said after a quick lunch of chili and cornbread. “I think there’s a greater need this year. Hopefully people will finish eating and we can re-open a little earlier.”
Now in its 44th year, Christmas Express brings food, toys and hygiene products to 500 needy Hermiston families each year. All children receive one age-appropriate gift, and every family receives a hygiene pack and one or two boxes full boxes of food, including a turkey, onions, potatoes and canned goods.
Every family is nominated by a local service organization, such as the Department of Human Services or a school counselor. Saturday, families had their first opportunity to pick up their goods at Agape House.
A sign on the door warned families the program was not accepting applications, but that didn’t stop some families from coming in anyway – even when they weren’t on the list.
“Maybe they heard about it through word of mouth or they aren’t connected to an agency who could put them in (the program),” Marlow said. “We always have some stuff left from families who go to Mexico and don’t pick up, so we tell them to come back. We try to help as many people as much as we can, but there are a lot of people out there.”
In the Altrusa Room, wrapped gifts towered against every wall, and a huge pile of stuffed animals occupied one corner. Volunteers stood by to verify families, to wrap last-minute donations and to distribute stuffed animals.
Jessica Gilham, 14, was one of the “present runners,” volunteers who hand out gifts to families with children.
“They come in, they say how many kids they have, and I go around and get all the presents from each table,” Gilham said. “If there are a lot, I take them out to the car for them.”
This is Gilham’s third year volunteering with Christmas Express. “I really like doing it. It’s a lot of fun,” she said.
While some volunteers have decades of experience with Christmas Express, others came out for the first time, such as Jared Sandy, who volunteered his time while on leave from the U.S. Army.
“I’m just out here helping the community,” he said. “I figured it was a good opportunity to come out here, wear my uniform, hand out gifts and make people happy.”
After receiving their designated gifts, families were directed to drive around to the back of the building, where they received their food box. Volunteers, Hermiston police officers and local officials stocked the boxes over the past week, filling 11 pallets of boxes filled with dry and canned goods. Before delivery, the box lid is filled with a turkey, fresh produce, milk, chips and frozen hash browns. Any boxes not used for Christmas Express will remain at Agape House.
“All the boxes people don’t pick up will stay right here, and Agape House will give those out for as long as it takes, including the turkey,” Richard Schoen said. “This is a community effort, and everything stays right here in the community.”
Almost everything in the food boxes is donated from local businesses or raised through canned food drives at Hermiston schools. The police department supplements the donated food to make sure families get a filling, well-rounded supply of goods.
Some boxes – and gifts – are delivered to families who cannot make it to Agape House on the pick-up days. This year, three of those deliveries went to the same location: Martha’s House, the family homeless shelter in Hermiston. Martha’s House is celebrating its first holiday season after opening earlier this year.
“We are so thankful that Christmas Express has taken a special interest in Martha’s House by going out of their way to make sure our people were included,” said Dave Hughes, Martha’s House supervisor and executive director of Agape House. “Our families receive the same items as everyone else, but it means a lot that they reached out.”
Three families are living at Martha’s House over the Christmas holiday. Over the past few weeks, three additional families have graduated from Martha’s House programs into their own homes, just in time for the holidays.
