PORT ANGELES — Bless, blessed, blessing.
Salvation Army Major Cherilee Ramsey knows the words well, but she spoke them even more often last week as the Christian charity distributed toys to more than 400 families.
“We just feel blessed over and over again,” she said Saturday after a second day of giving out presents for needy children. “That’s the word I use.”
Toy distribution
The toy distribution ran for 12 hours Friday, she said. It entered a second phase Saturday morning at the former Hartnagel Building Supply building at Front and Race Streets.
And it will stretch to an unprecedented third day starting at 9 a.m. Monday thanks to an overflow of donations that came in the wake of last week’s theft of toys from a Salvation Army storage facility.
Those who want to receive gifts Monday first must register at Salvation Army headquarters, 206 S. Peabody St., from which they’ll be sent to the distribution center.
Thieves broke into the storage building early last Sunday morning and made off with at least $1,500 worth of toys, picking over them to take the costlier items for older children, including bicycles.
Community donations
But the community has replaced them many times over, Ramsey said, in an outpouring of toys and cash, including late donations like the dozen-plus bags of toys that Les Schwab employees delivered Friday.
The generosity won’t benefit only children, Ramsey said.
Cash donations will help fund the Salvation Army’s year-round programs, which include its weekday soup kitchen, rental assistance, help with utility payments, bus tokens, gasoline money, emergency lodging and medicine.
“It’s going to last far beyond Christmas,” Ramsey said.
“The community outpouring was tremendous. People were very upset that someone would steal from children.”
Port Angeles police have arrested Michael William Tripp, 24, a transient, who will face charges of possession of stolen property in Clallam County District Court in conjunction with the theft, and they’ve recovered some of the stolen goods — although none of the four bicycles that were swiped.
The recovered items apparently had passed through more than one pair of hands before they were given up anonymously, said Major Scott Ramsey, Cherilee’s husband.
“The toys had kind of been on the move,” he said.
No new arrests
As of Saturday, police had made no new arrests nor recovered more property, according to Sgt. Glen Roggenbuck.
That the theft resulted in a bounty of toys was ironic but perhaps divinely deserved, according to the Ramseys.
“There’s definitely a ‘happily ever after’ ending to this story,” Cherilee Ramsey said.
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Reporter James Casey can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5074, or at jcasey@peninsuladailynews.com
