It’s that time of the year when you see people with smiles on their faces and packages in their arms walking in or out of the large, lower building at Helpline House. Those going in are giving because it’s in their hearts and means to do so, while those exiting are receiving because they also want to give (often, to their children), but don’t have the means to do so.

Linda Henry, manager of Helpline’s Holiday Store, estimated that an average of 75 families visited daily, with about 250 people shopping there during one week this month.

Most gifts were store-bought items, but there were also some special ones. For example, since 1998, an island resident who chooses to remain anonymous has been making as many as 15 high-quality hobby horses each year that he donates – the majority of which go to Helpline House. Imagine the glee of a child lucky enough to get one of those beauties for Christmas.

His father was a tradesman living in the Midwest who used a paper pattern from a local woodworking store to build a hobby horse for his first grandson. When the the man died, his son (our islander) found the pattern and built a horse for the fun of it. “It turned out pretty good and so I decided to build a few of them and ask various charities, like Helpline House, if they’d want them,” he said. They did and still do.

He has also donated wooden horses to the Christmas Angel program in Bremerton, Children’s Hospital in Seattle and various other charities in the area. He figures it takes him about 160 hours or so to create up to 15 horses “because there’s some mass production involved now.”

It takes a few months, but it’s well worth the effort.

He received a letter last January from a woman in Snohom-ish County who had just given one of his horses to her daughter. The family was homeless at the time but the pony, now named Ben, will forever be a cherished family heirloom.

She wrote, in part: “We don’t know who you are… but the gift of compassion and love given to a child you have never met… you will remain in our hearts and prayers always.”

Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah!