Project Santa brings Christmas to those in need

The sun broke through the clouds to reveal the glistening Sierra as Project Santa Claus director Marilyn Malkmus prepared to go to the Douglas County Fairgrounds on Wednesday to see all the hard work done over the past few months distributed to 395 families.

Presents wrapped over the past week by volunteers and gathered in a variety of ways, including angel trees, dedicated shoppers and donations, went out to 841 children.

"You just do the best you can where you are," Malkmus said. "That to me is a fabulous thing. This is going on in little communities all over the country. All over the country, people are taking care of their own."

Malkmus pointed to the response to the Share Your Holiday Food Drive in explaining Carson Valley's generosity.

"People have a sense of community here," she said. "They realize their neighbors are out of work, that the people who help them at the store are hurting, that there's little or no help out there. They empathize with people who are in need. It takes that kind of a feeling and a community to make something like this happen."

Malkmus asks herself each year how something as big as Project Santa Claus can succeed, especially when the demand has increased each year.

"Every year I say to myself, 'how will this all happen?' But it does because it all gets wonderfully done," she said. "We have just had an incredible outpouring of both physical help and donations of money, which help take care of kids who were signed up too late for the angel trees, dedicated shoppers all wrapped by volunteers. It's just such a community."

She said the number of those helped by the project grew by 55 children and 50 more families this year.

"Keep thinking some year it will go the other way," she said. "Maybe it will in three or four years. That would be wonderful."

But despite the increases in demand, she has never had any trouble finding help for the charity founded in the 1980s to provide a Christmas to those Carson Valley residents who need help.

"It makes my heart swell every year," she said. "We're just very, very grateful to those who donate - the clubs, churches, people who pick an angel and buy a toy, the bikes that people donate that get repaired at China Spring, the guys at Starbucks Roasting Plants that got 40 bike helmets. We had a helmet for every kid who got a bike."

There are so many who help that she has given up trying to name them all.

"If they do it to have their name in the paper, they're doing it for the wrong reason," she said. "They do it out of the goodness of their hearts. Some of the moms from families that have successfully gone through the program contribute as a thank-you for the help. My philosophy is that you just do the best you can where you are, that to me is a fabulous thing. Sometimes you're up and sometimes you're down. When you're up you should gratefully share, when down you should graciously receive. That's not always easy."

Project Santa Claus helps children of Carson Valley Community Food Closet families, children of Family Support Council families and children in the Court Appointed Special Advocate program among others.

2010 841 children 395 families

2009 786 children 345 families

2008 811 children 344 families

2007 657 children 297 families

2006 605 children 261 families

2005 675 children 292 families