SEQUIM — Whether you have your own young ones to shop for or not, four Sequim girls are hoping you’ll pick out a toy or two this week.
Sequim Irrigation Festival Queen Holly Hudson and princesses Elisha Elliott, Meghan Gammel and Lindsay Merrell have begun a holiday drive for toys and gifts for local kids who would otherwise go without.
But the “Royalty Toys for Sequim Girls and Boys” project is off to a sputtering start, Hudson said Monday. Few gifts have appeared in the six donation bins, while the need is great, she said.
“There are so many kids in Sequim whose Christmases are tough this year because of money issues,” added Hudson, 17.
She’s hoping local residents will add someone to their shopping lists: a kindergartner maybe, or a middle-schooler or a teenager.
Lynn Horton, the royalty mentor, said games, winter clothes and accessories, dolls, toy cars and trucks, sports gear and other toys are hoped for.
The drive, she said, is a new community service project for the Irrigation Festival royalty, one the girls hope will be the start of an annual thing.
The drive lasts just until Dec. 9, however, so time is short.
New toys and gifts may be dropped off at Frick Drug, 609 W. Washington St.; Key Bank, 120 N. Dunlap St.; Kim’s Cafe, 126 E. Washington St.; the SunLand Golf & Country Club, 109 Hilltop Drive; the Sequim Visitor Information Center, 1192 E. Washington St.; or Tinyz Toy Chest, 149 W. Washington St.
The gifts will be distributed around Dec. 10 by the Sequim unit of the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Olympic Peninsula, Horton said.
For those who’d rather skip the shopping, she added that monetary donations will help Irrigation Festival volunteers get out to buy presents. Contributions can be mailed to Sequim Irrigation Festival toy drive, P.O. Box 2073, Sequim, WA 98382. For information, phone 360-683-3336.
Hudson and the rest of the royalty will soon wrap up their year of waving from the “Sequim: A Magical Place” float, as it rolls through the Shelton Christmas Town Parade at 6 p.m. Saturday, weather permitting.
That will be the 17th parade for the teen queen and her three princesses.
They and their float won the grand marshal award in the July 11 McCleary Bear Festival parade, the grand exalted ruler award in the Hoquiam Loggers Playday procession on Sept. 12, the grand sweepstakes award at the May 16 Rhododendron Festival parade in Port Townsend and just plain first place in Forks’ Fourth of July procession.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
