Office of Public Affairs
U.S. Coast Guard Thirteenth District

Date: Dec. 18, 2007
Contact: Public Affairs
(206) 220-7237 

COAST GUARD, FRIENDS DELIVER JOY TO HOMELESS KIDS

By Petty Officer 3rd Class Jeff Pollinger

More than a decade ago, Jan Maxson and her husband were shopping for Christmas gifts in New York City when they decided that they wanted to purchase a few extra gifts for some disadvantaged kids. So Maxson and her husband, a Coast Guard pilot, bought some toys and donated them to a local Salvation Army center. 

The satisfaction of giving hooked her, but she figured there must be a better way to help more children during the holidays. Her solution: stuff holiday stockings with toys and distribute them to local homeless children's shelters. So, with the help of a few friends, Coast Guard personnel and her husband, 350 stockings were stuffed and distributed to needy children in New York City. 

Ten years later, Maxson leads a group of more than 100 volunteers who collect, stuff and distribute Christmas stockings to homeless children in Washington.   

Maxson and her husband moved to Seattle in 1996. Since then, more than 15,000 holiday stockings have been handed out and the program is still growing. The group stuffed 2,438 stockings to be distributed to more than 70 shelters in the Puget Sound area Dec.8 - 399 more than the year before. 

"The stockings are hand-made year round", said Bobette Scheid, president of the group.

The volunteers, which include Coast Guard personnel, Coast Guard spouses and civilians sew, collect gifts and stuff the stockings year-round.  One volunteer even received stockings from the group several years ago while living in a shelter.

"We get calls from people who say that they didn't know that anyone cared about them until they received a stocking from us", said Scheid.

Scheid assists Maxson in managing the not-for-profit group. She's been volunteering since the group first started stuffing the stockings in 1994. Like Maxson, she understands how far-reaching the program is.

Schied recalls that when she purchased more than 200 yards of red fabric needed to sew the stockings, the clerk asked her what she needed so much fabric for. When Schied told her the fabric would be used for holiday stockings, the clerk told her that two of her own children received stockings the year before.  

Maxson and Scheid are proud of how much the program has grown and hope to expand the program in the coming years. As long as homeless kids don't always receive presents during the Christmas holiday, there's plenty of work to do.

"When I was growing up, we didn't have a lot of money. But one thing I learned from my mother is that every child deserves a gift for Christmas," Maxson said.

For more information about the group or to donate, visit the Holiday Stockings for Homeless Children website here: http://www.holidaystockings.org/

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Coast Guard, saving lives since 1790.