Groups come together to meet the hidden need of the Christmas Bureau: new kids pajamas

The Christmas Bureau is well known for providing toys and books for families that need a little help with Christmas, but what isn’t as well known is the effort to collect pajamas for the youngest children.

In previous years, students at St. Mary’s and St. John Vianney Catholic schools have joined with employees at Providence Health Care to collect new pajamas for distribution at the Christmas Bureau. Last year, students at St. Thomas More Catholic School joined the effort.

But those pajama drives were only able to collect enough sleepwear for a small portion of the children served at the Christmas Bureau.

Last year, the bureau served 13,123 children and received fewer than 2,000 pairs of pajamas.

They flew out the door in the first days the bureau was open.

Parents were always very grateful to get them, Christmas Bureau Coordinator Heidi Meany said.

“The response from clients has been overwhelming,” she said.

This year, there has been a big push to get more pajamas. Meany started making plans in May, working to recruit more schools and businesses to the pajama drive effort.

“That’s what it takes, is planning early,” she said.

The goal of providing pajamas to all young children has been discussed for years, but this seemed like the time to start, Meany said.

“The rest of the bureau is going so smoothly,” she said. “There was room to expand the pajama drive.”

While the bureau provides gifts to children up to age 17, the pajama drive is focused on collecting pajamas for younger children, not teenagers, Meany said.

“We need to have success with the child and infant sizes,” she said.

Donated pajamas must be new with the tags still on, Meany said, though people are free to choose whatever style or design they like.

“We are leaving it completely open to the consumer, as long as it’s new,” she said.

In addition to the previous pajama drive participants, this year All Saints Catholic School and Summit Spokane have joined the effort.

Businesses that have signed up to collect pajamas include Garco, Ignitium, Incyte Labs, Volex/Servatron and Velocity Clinical Research.

The Spokane Racquet Club has also signed up, along with the Shadle Park Lions Club.

The Knights of Columbus and Catholic Daughters groups at Assumption Catholic Church have dropped off about 750 pairs of pajamas. A couple of Knights have been volunteers at the bureau and suggested the church help collect pajamas, Deputy Grand Knight and program director Art Smalley said.

“We held a donation breakfast for our parish to be able to donate to the cause,” he said.

Parishioners brought 120 pairs of pajamas to the breakfast, and there were also cash donations in addition to funds provided by the Knights of Columbus and the Catholic Daughters. Smalley went online in search of bulk discounts and said he was able to buy 630 pairs of pajamas at a 50% discount with the money raised.

“I was very pleased with the 750,” he said. “For the first year, it was very, very good.”

Meany called it a “massive” donation and said there have been a total of 1,350 pajamas donated, while most groups haven’t even dropped off their collections yet.

People in the community can drop off new sets of pajamas at the main Catholic Charities office, located at 12 E. Fifth, between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. Monday through Thursday. Donations are being accepted through Dec. 10.

“The individuals dropping off pajamas has just been amazing,” Meany said. “We’ve had people dropping off bagfuls of pajamas.”