Santa Claus is coming to town and he is bringing gifts to the underserved families this holiday season.

Since 1976, The Forgotten Children’s Fund has been collecting, wrapping and delivering gifts to kids and their families in the most need. After owner Dick Francisco received a letter addressed to the North Pole, instead delivered to his Seattle restaurant Francisco’s, he was moved by the child’s plea for Santa to find his house that year after getting lost the year before.

That year, the organization brought Christmas to 285 children in 81 families, according to their website. Current President Greg Bakke said last year they served 794 families and around 2,400 kids throughout western Washington.

“From Lewis County, like Centralia, Chehalis, up to Bellingham, predominantly working in King and Snohomish Counties, we cover the whole Puget Sound Area,” Bakke said.

Bakke said they are the only charity that he’s knows of that provides the full Santa Claus experience to families with 30 to 45 “Santas” along with a team of elves, visiting homes with gifts on Christmas Eve. Bakke has been a part of this experience for more than 25 years, first as an elf while his father played Santa and now as Saint Nick himself.

“We go into people’s homes and we sit down with them for 30 to 40 minutes and each kid gets to open a toy while we are sitting there and then we leave behind a bunch of stuff whenever they want, usually the next day on Christmas morning,” Bakke said.

The deliveries for each child include a new winter coat, three toys or gifts, two books, hat gloves, socks, a full stocking, warm blankets, food for Christmas dinner and possibly a new bike and helmet. Bakke said their job usually doesn’t end with Christmas gifts.

“If we walk into a home and maybe their heat’s not on or they don’t have furniture, which happens more often than you would think, we take notes on that,” Bakke said.

Bakke said they have an aftercare program that can help people with their bills for a month or two or provide furniture like a couch or a table for the family to have a meal together.

“I distinctly remember a house up in the Renton Highlands, probably ten years ago, and there was literally no furniture,” Bakke said. “There was no place for Santa Claus to sit down and have a kid on his lap. We ran down to Ikea and got them a table and chairs because you are not breaking the bank by any means doing that and think of the difference that makes for that family not coming home to an empty house everyday.”

Bakke said people will apply for help on the organization’s website, while churches, other families or school counselors will refer a family in need for the program. He said they have a team of screeners to read through the applications and interview the families to make a selection. He said they receive 2,500 to 3,000 applications each year.

“We try to help families that aren’t being helped by a multitude of other charities or even the government. We’re trying to help the working families that are working really hard and doing their best but just not making ends meet,” Bakke said. “Obviously, we would love to help everybody, but we don’t quite have the capacity to do that and so we pick the ones who are the most in need.”

Bakke said he usually finds himself delivering to homes in Auburn and Kent and nearly half of the Santa teams go to the south King County area. He said their “North Pole,” the warehouse they use for storing and wrapping the presents, is located in Kent this year. Each year, they seek a company to volunteer a space to use and the company Prologis offered up one of their warehouses this year.

“They actually send employees to come and wrap toys with us too. They’re an amazing company,” Bakke said. “We usually need north of 4,500 square feet to have enough room to wrap the toys, store them and build 400 to 500 bicycles.”

Bakke said this is a year-round effort for the volunteer-only companies. During the year, they do fundraising events with small businesses to support the costs. He also said Les Schwab tires and Top Pot Donuts are two major partners for the organization with toy drives. Because of Les Schwab’s toy donations over the past eight years, Bakke said they have been able to funnel more money into their aftercare program.

“People think that we’re out there trying to raise $50,000 out there at an event and we’re not. If we raise 100 bucks here and 500 bucks there, every single little bit helps us because we are grassroots and we are incredibly grateful for every single dollar we get,” Bakke said. “92% of the money we raise goes back to families. Our overhead is very small: gift wrap and Scotch tape. It really frees up our funds to be able to help people in different ways besides Christmas Eve.”

Bakke said even a small act like a small business putting a donation jar on the desk or posting a QR code to date helps while building a community focused on helping each other. Another way to help is by coming to the “North Pole” to wrap gifts as Christmas approaches. The volunteers will wrap 2,300 toys in three weeks leading up to Christmas Eve.

“You just wrap toys for two hours and you get to know the kids’ names and their interests so you really develop a connection to the family if you go volunteer,” Bakke said. “We’re always looking for more Santa Clauses too, because that takes a special person.”

Links to volunteer sign-up and donation options can be found on The Forgotten Children Fund’s website.

“It sounds corny, but it completes me, being able to serve our community. It’s tough to read some of those letters, but to know that we can help those people and put a smile on their face, at least for a day, is amazing,” Bakke said. “Every one of our volunteers feels the exact same way and I know that 100%,”

Rows of bike will soon be given to kids in need. Photo courtesy of Greg Bakke.

Santa and his elves will be delivering gifts to families who otherwise might not be able to afford Christmas throughout western Washington. Photo courtesy of Greg Bakke.