Nearly 700 local children in need have signed up to receive Christmas gifts from a special program, and you can help. Christmas trees in businesses throughout the Eastern Sierra are set up to encourage the spirit of giving this holiday season. Known as the Wish Tree, the idea is to sponsor a childs Christmas by buying a gift for those in need.

Each year, the Wish Tree program is set up by the Inyo-Mono Advocates for Community Action. The way it works is that families in need sign up their children to receive a gift. Basic information about the child, age, gender and size, but no names, is put onto a Christmas tree ornament that is hung on a “Wish Tree.”

Anybody who wants to help a child can take one of these ornaments from the wish trees that are placed in local businesses. Using the information on the ornament, the donor then buys a present and drops it off at the IMACA office by December 15th.

This year, IMACA staff reports that there are between 600 and 700 kids signed up for the Wish Tree program.

You can pick an ornament off a “Wish Tree” at the Mountain Light Gallery, Studio 27, Value Sports, Independence Chamber of Commerce, the Inyo Register, and the IMACA office in Bishop. Discounted gifts can be purchased at J.C. Pennys, Value Sports, Dwaynes, Spellbinder Books, Bee Gees, and Wilsons’ Eastside Sports. Gifts can be bought through December 15th.

Another way you can help out is through food donations. IMACA has placed food barrels at local grocery stores to collect food donations for holiday food baskets.

Discover more from Sierra Wave: Eastern Sierra News

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading