By Nina Culver
The Spokesman-Review
Christmas Bureau recipients are eagerly awaiting word about their toy vouchers as Christmas marches closer, but the procedures to get those vouchers in the hands of thousands of families is still being worked on.
The plan to distribute toy vouchers instead of a drive-thru toy distribution is new and has been put together at the last minute, said Christmas Bureau Coordinator Sierra Heinen. Many different options were discussed as organizers tried to be fair in the amount given to each family and also tried to help as many as they could with limited funds.
The annual fundraising currently underway will pay for the toys and the books that organizers spent all year buying. Those now sit in storage, the plans to distribute them thwarted by the rising COVID-19 pandemic. Since those items still have to be paid for, there isn’t money in the budget to pay for toy vouchers. Organizers have scraped together what money they could in the hope of being reimbursed after the 2021 Christmas Bureau fundraising drive.