Deck the halls, help dreams come true

Some wish on a small scale: A huckleberry milkshake and a cruise around town, a birthday party or a fishing trip.

Others have a bigger ask, like the cancer-stricken mother wanting to visit Disneyland with her 5-year-old daughter or the octogenarian who wanted to see Willie Nelson in concert.

Whatever the wish, One More Time Northwest is determined to make it come true.

Proceeds from the organization’s fifth annual Deck the Halls holiday benefit will help One More Time Northwest continue granting wishes. The event will be from 6-8 p.m. Thursday at Garden Plaza of Post Falls, 545 N. Garden Plaza Court. Guests will enjoy food, drinks and live and silent auctions with elaborately decorated trees and wreaths and many other items up for grabs.

One More Time Northwest is a North Idaho-based nonprofit that has provided memorable experiences for adults with life-limiting conditions since 2017.

Founder Tiffinay Vargas said the organization has yet to turn down a request.

Vargas, a home health care and hospice worker, unexpectedly lost her father in 2017 when he developed an acute case of pneumonia and went into septic shock. He was only 58.

As a hospice worker, Vargas had experience helping others process grief.

“You think you know how you’re going to deal with things, but grief is different for everyone,” she said. “I kept saying, ‘I wish I had one more time to do this with my dad. I wish I had one more Fourth of July.’ That was Dad’s favorite.”

Just a few months after her father’s death, Vargas enlisted the help of a nurse friend to transport a woman with Huntington’s disease to a doctor’s appointment. The appointment was quick; as they pulled back into the woman’s driveway, she asked them to keep driving.

The request was the first sentence the woman had uttered in months, Vargas said. It was a beautiful fall day and as they circled the block, the woman sat with her face resting against the window, looking outside.

“Hospice came out that night and she died hours later,” Vargas said.

With her emotions still raw from her father’s death, Vargas said the woman’s death hit her hard.

“I was saying to my now ex-husband, ‘Why didn’t I take her for a ride before?’” Vargas said. “He told me, ‘Why don’t you do it? Take someone for a ride.’”

That morning, Vargas went to the library and checked out a book on starting a nonprofit organization.

Within weeks, she was helping people in the community experience the things they wanted to do “one more time.”

One More Time Northwest initially focused on the Coeur d’Alene area, but has expanded to grant wishes throughout the Idaho Panhandle, as far south as Kamiah and into the Spokane area.

Tickets for Deck the Halls are $20 per person, available at www.eventbrite.com/e/427676320387 and at the door.

Email Vargas at [email protected] or call 208-512-0814 for details.