Everyday Heroes

Over the Thanksgiving holiday, our Executive Director, had issues with her furnace.  She called on Poulsbo Heating and Cooling and the repairman instantly recognized her from Fishline.  He lamented that, after helping so many others have a warm home, it just didn't seem right for her to have a cold one.  In an act of spontaneous generosity, he repaired the furnace without cost.  

For 12 weeks through the holiday season, ROTARY CAN DO collected different types of food during their regular Friday morning meetings.  Every week, they added an inch of string, representing a pound of food collected.  The campaign started with a few feet of string, and by the end wrapped around the entire meeting space.  At the end, Rotary brought in over 1330+ lbs of food, 127lbs of ham and turkey AND $1020+ of monetary donations! 

One Saturday morning, a gentleman named Gary came to the back door of Fishline and asked if we could use a few brand new electric blankets, with the price tags still on them! He dropped off 20 of them and said he would return on Monday with more.  He asked specifically that they go to our elderly clients to help save on their heating bills! 

The local Kiwanis club typically donates $5 each to bring their district governor to the meetings, a sort of mileage reimbursement.  Since this person lives locally, he asked that the Kiwanians donate the collection to Fishline and we received a check for $110.

The Historic Downtown Poulsbo Association hosted visits from Thanksgiving to Christmas with Santa and collected money and food donations.  After Christmas they donated $960 plus food to Fishline. 

On a Wednesday evening, when Fishline was open late, here seemed to be an extraordinary number of food donations from individual citizens.  People were stopping in all evening, bringing cans and boxed meals and other fun stuff.  But to cap it off, one couple came in and found each and every volunteer who was working and gave them $10 each.  No questions, no names, just holiday generosity.

Our local fire department showed up at Fishline's door before Christmas with over 443lbs of food donations that they had collected during their holiday food drive. 

Early Christmas Eve, someone was POUNDING on Second Season's door after closing.  The volunteers working were hesitant to open it.  When they did, they found several junior high age girls and their mothers.  They had been playing music out on the main street with a sign that all donations would go to Fish Line and they had a WAD of cash -- over $40!  Great kids and just so happy!  They had a fun time playing and people kept giving!  Then they were so sad that we were closed, but caught the volunteers at the back door.  Such a fun thing on Christmas Eve!

In the last few weeks, volunteers and construction professionals have stepped forward to work on the new building project. The work has happened quickly --  a family has stepped forward to clear out the brush behind the building, other groups have come in to do clean up work, a painter has volunteered his time to paint the walls. 

These examples (and many more!!) week after week through the holiday season left us in awe of the many different ways people found to give.  These special acts of kindness from private citizens, organizations, and businesses mean so much, especially to make sure that those in need have enough during Thanksgiving and Christmas.  We so appreciate these holiday Hunger Heroes!

As we begin the new year, we hope you will join us to fill our Hunger Heroes food drive and event calendar.  This important program is designed to highlight the everyday heroes that contribute to Fishline beyond the holiday season.  Contact us at nkfishline@gmail.org to include your event!