Toys and financial donations sought for Operation Friendship
CHERYL SCHWEIZER | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 3 years AGO
Unchained Brotherhood MC founder Jack Watrous, known as Papa Jack, hands out candy canes during the group’s 2021 toy drive. The toy drive benefits Operation Friendship, the toy distribution sponsored by the Moses Lake Food Bank.
FILE PHOTO
Senior Reporter Cheryl Schweizer is a journalist with more than 30 years of experience serving small communities in the Pacific Northwest. She began her post-high-school education at Treasure Valley Community College and enerned her journalism degree at Oregon State University. After working for multiple publications, she has settled down at the Columbia Basin Herald and has been a staple of the newsroom for more than a decade. Schweizer’s dedication to her communities and profession has earned her the nickname “The Baroness of Bylines.” She covers a variety of beats including health, business and various municipalities. | December 5, 2022 2:33 PM
MOSES LAKE — Distribution is scheduled Dec. 17 for Operation Friendship, sponsored by the Moses Lake Food Bank. Operation Friendship is the annual toy drive that provides new toys to families in need.
Food bank director Peny Archer said signups started Monday.
“We’ll do signups the first two weeks of December,” she said.
Parents and guardians can sign up at the food bank, 1075 W. Marina Drive in Moses Lake. Children must be 12 years of age and younger and residents of Moses Lake to qualify.
Food bank officials are soliciting donations of new and unwrapped toys with a value of $10-$20.
“We would much rather have four toys at $15 than one $60 toy,” Archer said.
Toys and monetary donations can be dropped off at the food bank. Checks can be mailed to P.O. Box 683, Moses Lake, WA 99937. Checks destined for the toy drive should be marked for toys.
All of the money donated goes to toys and nothing but toys, Archer said. People who help sort and distribute the toys are all volunteers; some have volunteered for years. Members of the food bank staff volunteer their time to check the required paperwork for clients.
The Unchained Brotherhood Motorcycle Club will be collecting Operation Friendship donations Saturday at 711 N. Stratford Road. It’s been a charitable project of the club for 19 years and is its biggest charitable project. Club members and other volunteers line up along Stratford, soliciting donations and distributing candy canes. Club members also will have a truck parked at the site for toy donations. Unchained Brotherhood members use the money donated to go shopping at the Ephrata Walmart for toys, and will volunteer their time to help sort and distribute toys Dec. 17.
The club has been raising money for the toy drive so long that men and women who were kids tagging along with their parents on those first toy drives are now bringing their own kids, said club founder Jack Watrous in a 2021 interview.
Any toys that aren’t distributed will be available for distribution at the food bank during its business hours until it closes for Christmas. Food bank hours are 11 a.m. to 2:45 p.m. Monday through Thursday.
Cheryl Schweizer can be reached via email at [email protected].
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