Santa's elves in Wallowa County, Melanie and Barb Harvey, pose in front of the Tree of Giving at the Enterprise Flower Shop. They will be wrapping and preparing gifts for delivery at the Elks Lodge, and volunteers are welcome today and Tuesday. - Photo/RON OSTERLOH

The Christmas elves are real and working hard in Wallowa County.

Barb and Melanie Harvey of Enterprise, along with numerous

friends, family members and volunteers, have set the Tree of Giving

Program in motion at “full speed ahead” in cooperation with the Elks’

Christmas Basket Program for the 2007 holiday season.

The work begins months before Christmas so the

efforts of several organizations and groups of volunteers can be

coordinated. Each year a list of candidates is generated by the

Department of Human Services and local community members who recognize

families or individuals who would benefit from receiving a food basket

and gifts for Christmas.

The Harveys also gather names from the adult foster care group

homes, the Wallowa County Care Center, Alpine House and foster care

families. Family size, needs and delivery information is gathered by

mail and ornament tags with a coded name and gift suggestions are

placed on the Tree of Giving at the Enterprise Flower Shop on River

Street.

People who wish to contribute take an ornament, supply the

suggested items on the tags and return the gifts with the name coded

tag to the Tree of Giving drop site at the flower shop. These gifts are

delivered along with the food baskets, this year, on Friday.

The Elks Club buys meat for the food baskets. Every basket

includes dessert, vegetables, fruit, dressing ingredients, and rolls

and an assortment of whatever other food is available from community

donations. The Enterprise High School FCCLA organization sorts the food

and fills the boxes. Elks Club members and volunteers deliver the food

boxes and the Tree of Giving gifts in time for a Christmas Day

celebration.

Lois Harvey of Enterprise started the Tree of Giving Program as

the community service component of her job with Children’s Services

where she worked for almost 30 years. Lois retired in 1996 and was

diagnosed with cancer shortly after that. She died in 1997 but not

before teaching the ropes to her daughters, Barb and Melanie, so the

Christmas gift giving to families in need would continue.

“Some people don’t understand that what is donated is the

Christmas meal, the gifts that are donated … this is their Christmas –

for many people, this is all they receive. Mom understood that. She was

a single mom with seven kids when she came here. I was 13 and I know

she was so worried – but we had a wonderful Christmas because of a

program like this.

“And she said, ‘You give back,'” Barb Harvey recalls.

According to Barb and Melanie, the program started as a “toys

for kids” program. Lois Harvey felt no child should go without gifts

for Christmas, but donations of toys often included broken and

incomplete items.

Melanie Harvey remembers the year they received an antique doll

with a missing leg. They didn’t include it in the gifts, and the next

year they received the missing leg in a box of other items.

Sometimes businesses would donate defective items they had taken in as returns and exchanges.

One year they got a huge box of nylons that weren’t usable, Melanie says.

“That was when Mom said we need to make some changes and she started the Tree of Giving.”

Donations of new or gently used toys and games are encouraged.

The information gathered from families includes clothing sizes, genders

of family members and suggestions for gifts. No promises or guarantees

are made that all items will be forthcoming, but efforts are made to

make wishes come true.

The program used to be just for children but according to Barb

Harvey, now includes many single adults who may not have families to

remember them at holiday time.

“The number of single adults on our giving list has gone up and

up every year. People call and ask to be on the list, and we don’t have

very many calling who are taking advantage. Mom always said, ‘If

they’re calling, they need help,'” she says.

The Harvey family of elves is a well-oiled machine where

everyone has a role to play. Barb is the head elf, the first assistant

is Carol Batten, second assistant is Becka Reed. Melanie is in charge

of wrapping, and their nephew, Derek, a senior at Enterprise High

School, is the general elf.

“Derek can do everything,” says Barb. “He’s been helping since he was 18 months old.”

Barb remembers her mother, Lois, volunteering her and the other siblings for everything.

“We asked her once if she could ask us first, before she

volunteered our help. She didn’t listen. If there was a need, we were

there … and we do the same thing,” she says with a laugh.

Barb and Melanie Harvey are convinced of the importance of

young people getting involved in community service projects like the

Tree of Giving. This is the first year a Tree of Giving has been set up

at the high school. Ashley Morehouse, a junior at EHS, has organized it

and coordinated it through Barb.

It has gone really well. According to Barb, all the ornament tags have been taken from the tree in the hall at the high school.

“Kids learn the true meaning of Christmas by helping others. Giving and sharing brightens your life,” she says.

Many people who have received the food and gifts in the past

like to volunteer to help any way they can. Even if they can’t buy

gifts or donate money, they give time instead, Melanie says.

Sometimes people take an ornament tag from the tree and fail to

return it with a gift. Melanie says it happens every year. The program

has a fund of donated money to buy gifts for people who are on the

list, but whose ornament tag and gifts were not returned. They feel it

is important to fulfill the gift expectation even though it is hard to

do at the last minute and find what is needed by the delivery day.

“The great thing about Wallowa County,” says Melanie Harvey,

“is if there’s a need, people come. If we need extra food, somebody

provides it; more gifts, we get them. It really is a Christmas

miracle.”

“We try hard to not make mistakes or miss someone in need,”

Barb Harvey adds. “This is one of the best programs of its kind. Even

though the information letters are supposed to be returned to us by

December 8, we are still receiving them and we will still accept phone

calls to request a food basket and gifts up to the 20th of December. We

really do try to cover everyone who is in need. I’ll be checking my

phone messages at least a couple of times a day.”

If anyone is interested in volunteering, the Harvey elves will

be at the Elks Lodge on West North Street in Enterprise today at 1 p.m.

through Thursday. Questions can be addressed to Barb or Melanie Harvey

by calling 426-3378.