You can help needy children this holiday season even if you can’t spare any cash

Editor’s note: For this year’s Book of Dreams fundraiser, The Modesto Bee is asking readers to donate directly to some of its favorite charities. They will be featured in occasional stories throughout the holiday season.

It’s a little bigger challenge this year to bring Christmas to Modesto-area needy children. For the 32nd year, the Soroptimists clubs of Modesto are sponsoring the Community Christmas Tree at Vintage Faire Mall, where families can pick up tags and buy gifts for children whose own families don’t have a lot of money. But there’s a bit of a time crunch this year: the tree is up for a week less than earlier holiday seasons, publicity director JoAnn Found said.

The reason: a shortage of volunteers. The clubs need people to help staff the tree and help out in the wrapping room, sorting and tagging gifts that will be distributed to the children through schools and other agencies that refer them.

“We really could use some more volunteers,” Found said. Anyone over the age of 17 is welcome to work at either site; the tree is open and staffed from noon to 8 p.m. most days, opening at 11 a.m. on Saturdays. It’s on the second floor of the shopping center, in front of Forever 21.

At the tree, volunteers work with people who select a tag, each with a first name, sizes and needs and wants of a child on it. On Sunday, that meant assisting Trey Regalo and his children, Quinn, 10, and Cash, 7.

It was the Regalos’ first visit to the tree. As Quinn and Cash looked at tags — and explained to a bystander what “Roblox” were — their father said they had been meaning to come for some time. “We’ve talked about it, but life gets in the way,” he said.

However, Quinn and Cash were eager to take part this year.

“We had a conversation about it, about getting them a little less for Christmas and getting something for someone else,” Regalo said.

The Soroptimists started with roughly 2,500 tags. In the first two days, people picked up about 140 tags a day, Found said. That’s a great start, but weekdays tend to be much slower than weekends. Families or individuals pick out a tag, then go shopping for the gifts on it and return them, unwrapped, with the tag to the tree by Dec. 18. Several of the stores in the mall offer discounts to people who are buying items for the tree.

Monetary donations also are accepted. These go toward gifts for children whose tags aren’t returned — last year, that was about 33 of them, project co-chair Cathy Line said. And the Soroptimists also will augment gifts that need them. For instance, they try to make sure everyone gets a coat for chilly winter days.

Donations may be sent to SCCT, P.O. Box 1353, Modesto, 95353.

Information on donating or volunteering is available at the project website, www.simodesto.com/?p=723, or by emailing Scctmodesto@yahoo.com.

This story was originally published November 26, 2017 at 5:52 PM with the headline "You can help needy children this holiday season even if you can’t spare any cash."