‘The smiles paid for it all’

Teresa Ramirez (facing camera) gets a hug from First Baptist Church member Gay McWhirter after receiving gifts and food. Del Norte Triplicate/Laura Wiens

This unassuming couple and some local business owners, along with the assistance of a multitude of elves from the First Baptist Church in which the Lawrences are members, came together to make a difference in the lives of almost two dozen needy families this holiday season.

“Christmas is the giving of love,” said Ray.

For the Lawrences, it started with the inspiration of “giving trees” that have been sprouting up for the past several weeks in the community. Slips of paper hang from these trees like ornaments bearing the age, gender and Christmas wishes of local children.

“We wanted to do something for our community,” Susie said as she bustled among the dozen or so volunteers at the First Baptist Church on Friday, preparing boxes containing a complete Christmas dinner for the 20 families that would soon be stopping by to pick up not only the boxes, but wrapped toys for each of their children.

The Lawrences contacted Head Start and got a list of names of needy families. After gaining unanimous approval from the church’s board of directors and pastor Blake Inscore, a tree sprang up in the church adorned with 63 wish-list tags for each of the selected family’s children.

“After the first Sunday, 80 percent of the tags were gone,” said Ray.

At 12:30 p.m. Friday, parents began pouring through the entrance to the church’s makeshift Santa’s workshop as their wide-eyed children took in the scene. A Christmas tree sparkled in a corner on one side of the room and a table laden with a tempting array of Christmas cookies on the other while grown-ups bustled in between, embellishing each box of non-perishable food items with gallons of milk, turkeys, hams, homemade zucchini bread, rolls, butter, bags of potatoes and pies complete with cans of whip cream to top off the meal.

Teresa Ramirez, with seven grandchildren in her care, stood off to the side of the room watching as other families collected their goods. She had recently lost her 24-year-old son due to transplant complications and now helped to care for the ones he left behind.

When it came time to collect her box and gifts, she was overwhelmed with emotion from the giving spirit of the community.

“Without this and Operation Santa, we wouldn’t have had Christmas,” she said, as her 4-year-old grandson, Anthony Garcia, munched on a cookie.

“The outcome grew more than we ever thought,” said Ray. Donations poured in from a number of businesses, incliuding food items from Safeway, Grocery Outlet, Shop Smart and Ray’s Food Place, toys from Fred Meyer in Brookings and Walgreen’s, as well as 60 cinnamon rolls from the Fisherman’s Restaurant and printing services from Del Norte Office Supply.

“The community just jumped in with open arms,” he said. “There were no bah-humbugs.”