Judy Douglass  -  Presents Project
 
Judy Douglass presented the history of the Presents Project. This program began approximately 15 years ago as a project of a volunteer at the Boys and Girls Club. A single gift was provided to each member of the Boys and Girls Club that year.
 
The following year, the concept of providing gifts to all members of a needy family developed. Outreach was made to the elementary schools and preschools to identify families in need with children and those institutions. Outreach was made to the community for individuals or organizations that would be willing to support purchasing gifts for an entire family.
 
Currently 6 agencies provide the names of families in need. This includes 2 elementary schools, 2 preschools, Foss Creek day care center. Families are interviewed and asked what they need and what they would like to have as gifts. These families are matched with the sponsors who provide the gifts, wrap them, and bring them to the Boys and Girls Club for pickup shortly before Christmas.
 
Last year the program provided services for 88 families with a total of 405 people receiving gifts. In addition to the gifts bought by the sponsors, cash donations are used to purchase a bicycle for each girl or boy that would like a bicycle. Helmets are provided by the Healdsburg Police Department.
 
Presents are dropped off at the Boys and Girls Club on Saturday, December 20 between 9 and 12 in the morning. Families pick up their gifts between one and 4 o'clock.
 
Healdsburg Rotary Sunrise has been a participant in this program since the Club's inception in 2009. Members of the Club are urged to bring their gifts on December 10 or December 17 at the latest so that they can all be delivered on the 20th.