This Tuesday, December 6, when you stop in at the Spooner Family Restaurant between the hours of 6:00 am and 9:00 pm, not only will you be waited on by law enforcement personnel, but all of the profits that owners Naim and Liridona Vrangalla make that day will go to the Christmas for Kids outreach, which was started sixteen years ago by a deputy of the Washburn County Sheriff’s Office, Dave Dennis.
It continues to this day, now organized by Gretchen Nielsen, a dispatcher/jailer for Washburn County for the past sixteen years. She starts early in the fall writing letters to previous donors and new businesses looking for donations to help fund this project that has grown tremendously, providing Christmas gifts to over 140 local children.
Two years ago, Naim contacted Gretchen and proposed that he would donate all of his sales from one day in December to the program if she could arrange to have law enforcement, both the local police departments, the deputies, EMT’s and the ambulance crew along with the state patrol employees do the serving. She said yes enthusiastically and last year his donation was well over $3000.
Naim is from Macedonia, and his dream had always been to become a citizen of the United States. It was a lengthy process starting with him coming as an exchange student. He then became an international student and finally last February he became naturalized and even voted in his first election ever this fall.
“I know what it is like to not have much,” he said, growing up poor as he did. And this is why he volunteered to help this program that provides a wonderful Christmas to kids who would otherwise have very little.
The kid’s names come from Health and Human Service employees and from teachers and counselors at the schools and they are not the same families as the year before. The parents are contacted to see if they want to participate and then Christmas lists are made out by the kids and parents and it’s the Sheriff’s Office employees that take one night to do all the shopping, making a long chain of shopping carts at the checkout and this year their shopping night is just a week after the restaurant’s fund raiser.
A week later after that, law enforcement employees gather at the Shell Lake Community Center, which has been donated by the City of Shell Lake for both that night and the party night, to wrap the hundreds of gifts; much of the paper and tape also donated by local businesses.
Party time is on Wednesday, December 21. This is when the chosen families are invited to a night with Santa Claus, who is portrayed brilliantly by Brett Dodge, and they receive their bags of gifts with Christmas snacks completing the evening.
The best part of it all is all the hugs. Not only for Santa, but many of the kids hug the uniformed cops and say thank you.
Naim comes during the evening and even gets his own picture with Santa Claus, which just seems right for some reason.
If you would like to make a donation, or pick up a list that one or two of the children have made out in order to shop for them, call the Sheriff’s Office at 715-468-4700. You can also send a donation by snail mail to:
- WC Sheriff’s Office
- 421 Hwy. 63
- Shell Lake, Wi 54871
Or stop by and donate in person, and if you know Gretchen, give her a pat on the back, even with a department that has worked short-staffed for years, she makes time in her already full schedule to accomplish this amazing task year after year that makes Christmas truly merry for so many.
Last Update: Dec 05, 2016 12:27 am CST
