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Home / Press Releases - 2005 / AWB Contributions to Needy Families Approaching $200,000 As State's Capitol Holiday Kids' Tree Moves Back to Rotunda |
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AWB Contributions to Needy Families Approaching $200,000 As State's Capitol Holiday Kids' Tree Moves Back to Rotunda |
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Written On: December 01, 2005 |
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OLYMPIA—The Association of Washington Business is again proud to help sponsor the Capitol Holiday Kids’ Tree. The Holiday Tree will be lit on Dec. 2 in the state Capitol Rotunda. The lighting ceremony is at 6 p.m., and the public is welcome to attend.
Weyerhaeuser delivered the tree to the state capitol on Monday, and it is currently being decorated. The beautiful 32-ft Noble Fir was planted and harvested from Weyerhaeuser land inside the Mt. St. Helens blast zone.
“It is a stately tree, and it great that it is back in the Capitol Rotunda where it belongs,” said Don Brunell, president of the Association of Washinton Business. “It is a lot of hard work but it is all worth it to see the finished result.”
The Holiday Tree is the symbol of the Capitol Holiday Kids’ Project, sponsored by the Association of Washington Business in cooperation with the Washington Forest Protection Association and the Capitol Campus Volunteers. “It is an example of a public-private partnership between the State of Washington and the employer community.”
Since 1989, AWB members have donated the tree, funds to decorate it, and contributed money for gifts and toys for needy children. This year more than 100 AWB members and friends from Colville to Vancouver have contributed over $15,000 to make the holiday brighter for children in rural areas of Thurston, Pierce, Mason and Grays Harbor counties. Santa’s helpers, who moonlight as volunteer firefighters in the participating counties, distribute gifts to needy rural families.
“Since the project started 16 years ago, AWB members have donated nearly $200,000. All the money goes to the rural fire fighters to buy the gifts,” Brunell said. “Too often the needy in rural areas are forgotten. The rural fire fighters and AWB members have filled that void, and it is one of the best things we do at the Association of Washington Business each year.”
* Please send contributions to Capitol Campus Volunteers, PO Box 658, Olympia WA 98507 which is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) with tax ID 91-1485899
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