For most of the year Mountain View resident Kendall Willis, 30, is a design engineer. But in December, Willis is one of more than 1,500 volunteers who bestow The Family Giving Tree presents to Bay Area children who might otherwise not have any Christmas gifts at all.
"Sometimes as an adult, you forget what Christmas means to a kid," Willis said.
The non-profit Family Giving Tree relies on local communities for volunteers to fulfill underprivileged children's wish lists. The organization is currently asking for help in locating 80,000 square feet of temporary warehouse space, which it needs to store and sort 60,000 Christmas presents from Dec. 4-31.
Cisco, 3Com, National Semiconductor, Sun Microsystems, Silicon Graphics and Hewlett Packard are among 500 local companies sponsoring wish trees. Staff decorates each tree with wish cards from Bay Area children. The cards are collected by local charities and turned into The Family Giving Tree staff of three, who then assign an identification code to each card.
The cards are used as decorations on the company trees. Individuals at each company select a card and buy and wrap the wish-list present. Company volunteers return presents to The Family Giving Tree, which sorts them to ensure each present is returned to the appropriate agency. The gifts are then handed back to the specified child.
This Christmas will mark Karrie Colette's 10th year as a Giving Tree Volunteer Coordinator. Collette is passionate in her commitment. "This event is my life. My family understands that I don't do Christmas with them anymore," she said. "The second year we went to a charity to deliver gifts to the kids, they had this line and they were sending all the kids through. This little girl was walking through, crying, but with the biggest smile on her face." Colette said that's when she realized she'd just handed the child the only Christmas present she'd get that year. "That little girl sums up Christmas for me forever," Colette said.
If you know of available warehouse space, or would like to help as a volunteer in December, contact The Family Giving Tree at (408) 274-3224. Visit their web site at: www.familygivingtree.org.