Members of St. John's No. 9 again provided food and clothing for families at Thanksgiving, and distributed food, clothing and toys for the children at Christmas.  Families given assistance at Thanksgiving were in the Seattle area.  For Christmas, we add many families living at Fort Lewis, whose loved ones are in harm's way overseas.   We call this Operation Kid Smile, and it really does bring happy expressions to the faces of the children and their parents.

For the past six years (and counting) St. John's has sought out families of soldiers stationed at Fort Lewis who are in need of assistance and a little love at Christmas.  We have worked through the Command Sergeant Majors to get enough information to provide them with their needs.  There is a great deal of prior planning that goes into an event like this.  First, there is the coordination with the CSM to get the information on the families, i.e., ages, sizes, addresses, phone numbers, etc.  And, of course, we need to arrange for brothers and friends from the lodge to set a day aside to make it all work.  The snowy weather did not cooperate with our plans and this year we had to delay the event by a couple of days.

This year we helped eight families and fifteen children of the 555th Engineering Brigade.  Members of the Brigade are partially deployed in Iraq or Afghanistan, so many of the soldiers were unable to be with their families at Christmas.

The ages of the children ranged from 6 months to 15 years old.  We provided every family with a complete Christmas dinner plus clothing and toys for each child.  The families were overwhelmed with emotion; several were nearly speechless.  The children beamed with excitement and joy as the photo shows. This year the team gathered at VWBro. Chuck Brockway's home for coffee and to organize the day, then loaded into the motor home to allow room for transporting all the gifts and everyone to get through Fort Lewis gate security.  The morning  was  spent   purchasing  food,  clothing

and toys on base.  We assembled all of these items and tagged them for delivery and placed a St. John's brochure on Freemasonry in each box. We then proceeded to the Engineering Brigade Headquarters building for a Christmas party for the children.  Santa's "Grand Entrance” was spectacular and fun for all ages.

Our own Santa Claus clearly had the most fun and the elves all enjoyed it as well. The children are really special... the looks and smiles tell it all!!  Christmas is a special time and the enjoyment we are able to bring to those families is very rewarding.  These families may not have had such a bright holiday prior to our deliveries.  Every elf was moved by the experience, and Santa is still... Ho, Ho, Ho-ing...  Back at home. it was unanimously agreed that we clearly made a difference for these military families.  We thank St. John's and the Brothers for their generous donations and gifts which made this event possible.

 Again this year, St. John's Lodge continued to supply Christmas cheer for families in the greater Greenwood area.  Working with one of our charities - the Greenwood Food Bank - along with local churches and direct appeal, we assisted nine families.  These were comprised of three seniors, six adults, eleven children and two cats!  Faced with the recent downturn in the economy, many seniors and even people fortunate to have jobs have become working poor families unable to afford gifts.  Many that we assisted were receiving help for the first time and were saddened with the prospect that this may be a Christmas without presents for their children.

 Not to be deterred, we were even better than the U.S. Mail - neither rain, sleet nor snow kept our cheerful band from shopping, wrapping presents and delivering them on time Christmas eve! We met the tearful parents, who with gratitude and thankful hearts warmly gave us hugs and expressed their praise to the Masons for making a difference in their time of need. We were welcomed into their homes where most did not have a Christmas tree or a single present.

Merry cheers issued from two of the small kids, a boy and a girl who received their first bike, letting us know that we had delivered what Santa could not.

Many thanks go to the Brothers and family members who participated in making this such a wonderful success.  With the sudden change in our weather, special thanks for delivery sleighs and many hours of driving in four-wheel hazardous conditions. Thanks Brad Greco, Rick Heston, and Brian Downie.  You took us where reindeer couldn't.  We wouldn't have been successful in our deliveries without you!