Veterans Home tree at Kalispell mall for 20 years

The Montana Veterans Home has a Christmas tree set up at the Kalispell Center Mall for the community to buy gifts for veterans until Dec. 21. More than 100 tags hang on the tree for each resident and a few extra tags for items that the home needs such as batteries or clocks.

The Veterans Home activity coordinators check in with the residents to find out what they need or want, which is then put on the back of each tag. Some want practical gifts like a sweatshirt, socks or shaving supplies, others have a sweet tooth and want candy, popcorn or a Coke. Younger veterans have come into the home recently who are more tech savvy and have requested tablets, Christmas tree program coordinator Sue Haverfield said.

Haverfield is a member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Auxiliary and United Veterans and sits on the memorial board at the Veterans Home. She has volunteered to help bring gifts to the veterans for years. She recalled that the tree has been up for at least the last 20 Christmases, and before that the VFW set up a Christmas gift tree.

Gifts can be dropped off at the collection box next to the veterans tree and the Salvation Army tree. The Salvation Army volunteers keep an eye on the box for Haverfield and let her know if the box overflows. Although, she does pick up the gifts from the mall nearly every day.

The deadline to drop off gifts at the mall is Dec. 21 because the veterans have a party Dec. 23 to open gifts. If she doesn’t receive all of the gifts by that date, she scrambles to find one. Fortunately, she is connected with a couple of groups who will volunteer money at the last minute.

Participants should sign the book when they take a tag off the tree and mark the date in the book when they return the gift. She prefers the gifts to be wrapped, but if not, she gets volunteers to help wrap them with her. The Veterans Home keeps track of all the gifts they receive to make sure that every veteran gets a gift for Christmas. Dropping off the gifts at the Veterans Home is also an option, Haverfield said. Each year they have some of the same people who buy gifts for multiple veterans.

“We appreciate their generosity and their time doing it,” Haverfield said.

Call Haverfield at 892-3783 or 897-3304 for more information.