Email to the Editor: Kindness of Enumclaw Basketball Teams Helps Cast Light Over Recent Sadness

When there is so much sadness in the world around us, I still believe there is more good around us than bad. My daughter Sydney is a player on the JV Enumclaw High School girl's basketball team this year. We hosted the annual Christmas party for the Varsity-JV and C Teams at our house last Friday evening the 14th. They traditionally do a gift exchange. This year Sydney had the idea to do a collection of toys for the children at Seattle Children's Hospital for the kids that don't get to be home for Christmas rather than the girls doing a gift exchange. She said "Mom, all of us girls really have everything we need so let's do something for people that aren't that lucky." 

We had help from teammate Rechelle and Stacy Dunn (her Mom) who co-hosted with us; they had the idea to also have the girls bring a non-perishable food item as well for our local Plateau Outreach Ministries food bank. I was amazed at how many toys and how much food was collected. I wish I would have gotten a picture of the food too. Yesterday I dropped the food of at the food bank and I can tell you that was my Christmas present. The girl working there was so happy that the girls did the collection. I am really looking forward to taking the toys to Children's later this week. 

I spoke with Head Coach Beth Madill and we have talked about getting the girls together to come up with some ways to give back to the community we live in, and the world around us.  In the new year we are going to start offering the girls some opportunities to volunteer as a team. Beth tells me the girls will love it. I believe that, because on top of the wonderful gifts and food they collected, they are a group of the nicest teenage girls you could ever want to meet. I would encourage other sports teams to join in and show the world we can over shadow the bad. 

There truly is some wonderful things going on out there!    

Kellie Andersen