By Daniel Nash | The Courier-Herald
Sumner High School will host a community dinner and toy drive in its gymnasium Saturday.
The free community dinner is organized by the high school’s leadership class, taught by John Norlin. The Northwood Christmas Community House toy drive is organized by Northwood Baptist Church and has been a Sumner tradition in one form or another for more than 20 years.
Both events will be on Saturday. The toy drive will open its doors at 8 a.m. and remain open while supplies last. The community dinner will run from 12 to 4 p.m.
The events will include pictures with Santa and a craft area.
The community dinner will be held in the high school’s gymnasium and the toy drive will be held in the high school Triangle by the stadium.
The events are separate, but have been consciously scheduled together for the past three years, toy drive organizer the Rev. Robert Thurman said. Thurman’s wife Barbara is the event’s chair.
“At first, it was an accidental occurrence, when their dinner and our toy drive just happened to overlap,” Thurman said. “But it worked out so well that we’ve scheduled them together on purpose ever since. It’s worked out marvelously because we can send people from here over there, and they can tell people about us and they can run over here.”
Both the toy drive and the community dinner are entirely free to people who choose to participate. The community dinner is open to all arrivals. The toy drive is intended to help families in need, but operates on the honor system.
“We don’t take ID at the doorway and we won’t turn anyone away,” Thurman said. “Our only goal is to make sure every family gets presents for Christmas.”
Families will be given a number upon arrival to the toy drive, and kids will be taken to a play area while parents pick out gifts.
Many of the gifts were donated by Sam’s Club of the Auburn Supermall and Northwood church had a $5,000 budget of cash donations to buy gifts from budget stores like Wal-Mart.
The high school leadership class has been working hard to promote the community dinner to Sumner.
Students are passing out fliers to local businesses during their non-class hours. One hundred Sumner students are participating in the planning, set up, clean up, wait staff, photos and crafts. Some students are trying to have the dinner mentioned on the Delilah Show on KRWM 106.9.
The school’s construction trades class has been employed to build a sleigh as part of the decor.
“It’s been typical of the leadership class this year to reach out to all student organizations in getting involved with projects in the community,” District Spokesperson Ann Cook said. “It goes beyond just inviting all the clubs to set up booths, to real involvement across organizations.”
Two students who have distinguished themselves as leaders on the project were Rachel Hillburn and Dakota (last name witheld), Cook said.
Senior Alissa Ramberg is responsible for the Santa area this year. She borrowed a chair from the Old Cannery furniture store to stand in as Santa’s chair. Santa will be played by school employee Robert Mann.
“I did a lot of organizing that hasn’t just been in class,” Ramberg said. “I’ve spent a lot of time writing letters to businesses in the community for donations.”
Major donors to the community dinner include Starbucks Coffee Co., Minute Man Press of Puyallup, and Shari and Phil Roberts of the Make Your Marks grant.
For more information about the Northwood Christmas Community House or the community dinner, contact Bob Thurman at 253-882-8841 or Ann Cook at 253-891-6070.
