PORT ANGELES — The spirit of Christmas begins today for Salvation Army volunteers who have spent the past week organizing, packaging and gift-sorting in 18-hour-long days.

About 650 families signed up for meals, which include a turkey, ham and all the fixings, said Sue Williams, Christmas coordinator for the Salvation Army.

About 1,500 children were identified in need of gifts this year as well, Williams said.

“This is more than we had last year — you can tell because of how far out the bags are coming,” she said pointing to the bags of gifts which were piled high and encroaching onto the walkway through the Clallam County Fairgrounds warehouse, where the gifts are gathered, sorted and distributed.

Of the children who needed gifts, about 100 of them hadn’t signed up in time to get an angel for the Angel Tree Project — in which community members “adopt” a child and purchase gifts off a wish list for them.

“And then there are all the ones that never got picked up and the ones that were picked up but people never brought the gifts by,” said Williams, who is in her 15th year of organizing the event.

Unsponsored recipients

In all, that meant about 350 children will be left unsponsored.

Some of the gift-giving gaps are filled in by groups like Toys for Tots — the Clallam County Mother’s Club always holds an annual gift drive for that campaign — and the Olympic Peninsula Eagles, the semipro football team which held toy drives for the Salvation Army.

Although gifts will begin to be distributed at the fairgrounds, 1608 W. 16th St. in Port Angeles at 9 a.m. today, Williams said the group will accept donations from community members for unsponsored children starting at 8 a.m. today, also at the fairgrounds.

Because of the increase in need — many of the people who asked for gifts this year were some of the donors in past years — volunteers have been working from 8 a.m. to about 2 a.m. each day for a week, Williams said.

Salvation Army Maj. Darvin Jordan said the group’s Kettle Program — in which community members ring bells at local establishments asking for donations — has seen an increase in donations, but costs are astronomically higher than past years.

“I’ve said it before, but we are about $30,000 behind for this year,” Jordan said.

“We aren’t in debt to anyone, but we’ve got to do better than we did last year.”

More clients

In addition to the $17,000 it takes to do the Christmas food distribution alone, the organization is feeding roughly a third more clients on a daily basis than last year, Jordan said.

“We have quite an uphill situation to get through,” he said.

“I’ve had several clients this year who have reminded me of some very, very generous donations they made in the past.”

The organization is also holding its holiday meal on Christmas Day for the first time, he said.

“We have no idea how many might show up [Friday],” he said.

“There could be 100 or there could be, well, I’ve invited all of our clients, so 2,000.”

Volunteers sought

He said that likely most of the 2,000 won’t come to the meal served at 206 S. Peabody St., Port Angeles, but he is hoping for volunteers to cook a turkey, prepare some food at home and then drop it off on Friday morning.

For more information or to donate, phone 360-452-7679.

To volunteer to help sort or distribute gifts at the fairgrounds today or Wednesday, contact Williams at 360-460-3738.

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Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at paige.dickerson@peninsuladailynews.com.