SPOKANE SUPPORTS A LOCAL CHARITY WITH A POST-HOLIDAY EVENT.

With the holidays well in the rear view mirror, it’s easy to forget how busy that time of year is. November and December weekends and evenings fill up quickly with kids’ activities, club events, family functions and other demands, and before you know it, it’s January.

Our team in Spokane could see this happening as they were trying to schedule a holiday get-together, and their ingenious solution was to schedule an “after Christmas” party instead.

On a Saturday evening in early February, employees and spouses from Spokane Truck, Rental and “Dirt” got together at the Shriners Event Center to casually enjoy the post-holiday season with catered BBQ and a corn hole tournament. The event stayed true to the giving spirit of the holidays by benefitting a local nonprofit organization with a charity auction, too. While local charities get lots of attention around Thanksgiving and Christmas, those organizations need support year-round, so the team selected the Vanessa Behan Crisis Nursery as the beneficiary of their post-holiday fundraiser. The charity provides refuge for children and support for families, including child care, parent education, crisis counseling and referrals, and has supported the Spokane area for 31 years.

Customers, vendors and WSECO donated items to be auctioned off, and the corn hole tournament added a clever twist to the fundraising effort as well. Each department designed its own corn hole boards, and after the tourney the boards were also auctioned off, again with the Crisis Nursery as the beneficiary.

Ultimately the Spokane team pulled together $4,647 on behalf of the Vanessa Behan Crisis Nursery, enough to positively impact several children and their families in the coming year.