Help a Laramie Family this Christmas with the Giving Tree

The Holidays can be an especially stressful time for some families who are struggling to provide a happy Christmas morning for their children. The Giving Tree at Security First Bank is a way to help out those children who might not otherwise receive any gifts on under the tree.

Susan Bulgrin, from Security First Bank, says the Giving Tree is covered with labeled and numbered envelopes so you can pick a boy or girl of whatever age you'd like and purchase gifts for that child. There is information inside each envelope that gives sizes for shirts, pants, and shoes and says what the child needs and what they would like. Return the gifts, unwrapped with the numbered envelope attached, by December 12th to Security First Bank at 608 Grand Avenue.

Sam and Linda Kotby started the Giving Tree approximately 20 years ago when they were delivering turkey baskets at Thanksgiving and saw the need in the community. So he got names of children in need from family services and started the Giving Tree. In 1997 Karen Royce and others formed the Community Holidays program to avoid the duplication of efforts by other organizations. The program operates as a type of clearing house that makes sure families in need are receiving assisstance. When the Kotby's retired last year, Security First Bank was asked to carry on the tradition.

Families apply to the Community Holidays program, which approves the applications and then finds sponsors to fill the wishes. The gifts for the children on the tree will be picked up by the families on December 15th and 16th in the basement of the Washakie Center at the University of Wyoming so the each family take the gifts home and place them under thier tree.

Security First Bank will accept gifts until December 15th, but asks that they be turned in by December 12th if possible. Remember not to wrap them, as the Community Holidays program will check over each gift and make sure it is appropriately sorted to the child it is intended for.

For more on the Giving Tree, listen below to Susan Bulgrin's interview on Laramie Live.