By SCOTT JOHNSTON
For North Coast News
Ocean Shores retirees Donovan and Pat Scott feel fortunate that they are able to enjoy two Christmas celebrations each year. They have family festivities, complete with gorgeous grandchildren. And then there’s the children’s holiday party, to which they both dedicate hundreds of hours each year, usually starting no more than a day or two after the current celebrations are completed.
The Scotts are the driving force behind one of the area’s biggest and most generous community events, the Kiwanis North Beach Kids Christmas, at the Ocean Shores Convention Center this Saturday, Dec. 17 from 1-4 p.m. Upwards of 400 kids ages 12 and under from the North Beach and Taholah school districts will share in over 1,300 gifts at the event.
It takes place under the Kiwanis Club banner, which means contributions of cash and merchandise are tax deductible. But it is supported by many people throughout the community and beyond. Scott said there are at least two dozen active volunteers each year, about 18 of whom will be on hand to operate the actual event.
Active in the “Kids Christmas Party” since retiring to Ocean Shores 15 years ago, the Scotts have developed plenty of opportunities for folks who want to help. The event has grown such that nearly 400 area kids plus parents fill the Convention Center.
Simply put, the event involves a whole lot of free toys for kids, and is the culmination of everything it takes to obtain, store, wrap, transport and distribute them, all done with donations and volunteers.
At the party, each child receives three gifts, choosing one toy from selections offered at each of three value levels. In addition, each has a chance to win one of about 120 premium gifts such as bicycles and giant stuffed animals. The kids and parents also enjoy refreshments and each child who wishes receives a photo with Santa, from Associated Arts of Ocean Shores.
The effort doesn’t end there. Kiwanis Kids Christmas also partners with Faith Community Church for a Teens Party that draws 125 or more local teens. This year’s event is Sunday, December 18, from 5-7 p.m. at the church, 240 Canal Drive SE in Ocean Shores. The group also purchases new clothing for less fortunate area youngsters, 66 of them this year.
The endeavor seems to be resonating in the community: “This is the only thing I’ve ever been involved in that I don’t know what to do with all the volunteers,” Donovan Scott chuckled.
“And just a string of people that write checks,” his wife added, “some for 10 or 20 dollars, some for hundreds.” They also mentioned folks bringing van-loads of toys and clothes from Kirkland and Kent, and more than two dozen bicycles donated by the Los Hombres motorcycle club.
The event was at the Ocean Shores Elks Lodge when the Scotts first became involved. It outgrew that facility and has been at Convention Center for 12 years. The Elks continue to support it with a huge gift-wrapping party.
Since the biggest part of the effort is giving away new toys, well over 1,200 each year, the “business model” is simply to receive and store donated merchandise, to raise funds and to spend them throughout the year as the best toy bargains come along. The month before the event is when volunteers like Bob Tinker put together lots and lots of bicycles and other assembly-required toys.
The Scotts have dedicated several hundred square feet in two buildings at their bayside home. That space is nearly empty this weekend, as the move-out to the Convention Center takes place the Thursday and Friday immediately prior to the Saturday afternoon party. Volunteers form a human chain to pass all manner of toys from second-level storage down to waiting vehicles.
Left behind are some of the non-toy items that folks donate to the Scotts year-round for their annual July 4th weekend garage sale that raises several thousand dollars for the kids party.
Barely a week after this year’s big event, the couple will start the really fun part of the cycle all over again. They love to buy new toys at 75% off in the days immediately after Christmas.
About this time next year, the Scotts and a couple dozen volunteers will be getting ready to once again move truckloads of toys out of their home and into the Convention Center, on their way to becoming holiday warmth and cheer in the arms of several hundred North Coast kids.
Tax deductible donations can be made, checks payable to, the Kiwanis Kids Christmas, P.O. Box 98, Ocean Shores, WA 98569. For more information, call Donovan or Pat Scott at (360) 289-4608.
