Making Christmas magical

We all live in a wonderful community called Whitefish, and the Rotary Club of Whitefish sincerely appreciates the opportunity to serve within that community

Each year, the Rotary Club of Whitefish accepts donations for the purpose of making Christmas a magical time of the year for all children.

This year was no exception, as the Rotarians collected donations, purchased gifts, then wrapped and delivered those gifts across the greater Whitefish community.

Those children, who may not have experienced the joy of family sharing gifts or receiving that special gift from Santa, did so with your kindness.

Our club is so thankful for the following people and businesses that participated in our Magical Christmas of 2005. Your generosity is sincerely appreciated, as the success of our program can only be witnessed by the families and children whose lives we touched as they received their gifts.

A special thank you goes to Tom Krause, manager for the Mountain Mall, for donating space for gift wrapping; store managers who donated gift boxes, Gary at Herberger's, Dave at J.C. Penny's, and Dean Gianos at Sportsman & Ski Haus; Janie and Mary at Super 1 in Whitefish, Gary at RMI, and Frank at Wright's Furniture for delivery boxes; Ron and Pat at Ben Franklin for wrapping paper and boxes; KOFI and Bee Broadcasting for public service announcements on the radio; Rick Hanners at the Whitefish Pilot for news coverage of our Magical Christmas; Deb House for organizing the volunteer gift wrappers; and to all the volunteers who took time to gift wrap.

A special thanks to Cliff Hayden, Bambi Goodman and Megan Gordley for shopping for those families not sponsored

Another huge thanks to all who donated gifts or gave monetarily donations. Without them, we could not of had 1,200 gifts given out to our 313 children which represented 118 families

And thanks to Santa's helpers (Rotarians and friends) who delivered all the packages on Dec. 24.

The committee, chaired by Lin Akey, and members Mike Robinson, Marty Gilman, Mike Dowaliby, Jerry House and Cliff Hayden, gave their all to make this "Magic of Christmas" program a huge success.

On behalf of all Whitefish Rotarians, a big thank you to all who took part in our program. You once again demonstrated the true spirit of caring, of giving and of sharing from your heart.

Jerry House

Whitefish