The Christmas Activities Relief Organization Limited, or C.A.R.O.L program, is run by the Camas-Washougal Fire Department during the holiday season and provides food and toys for families in need.

“The whole point is that for that day or two, everything is solid. They have food, there’s something for the kids to open,” Firefighter and Paramedic Jeff Martizia said.

Community members can fill out a form to request these resources from the program. These families are then put on a list. 

“A lot of times it’s from outside agencies such as schools and church groups that will reach out and tell us which families need assistance this year. Then we get them on the list,” Martizia said. 

Once a family is put on a list, the program members need to decide what specific items they may need based on many variables. 

“We have a form. [It asks] ‘How many people live in [the] house?’ ‘[How old are] the kids?’ We try our best based on what we get to match everything to them,” Martizia said. 

The fire department has many processes to acquire the resources to donate. Community members are encouraged to drop off any food and toys they may want to donate to the fire department. 

“You can drop it off at the downtown location in Camas. You can drop it off at Station 43 which is the Washougal station. Then all of that arrives at the station on Parker Street,” Firefighter Victor Compher said.

Another major source of their donation resources comes from the Stuff the Bus program which is a program run by the Camas and Washougal school districts that also works to collect food for community members in need.

“We collect food from all the different schools on Stuff the Bus day. We load up a big truck and take it to the fire department where we sort the food,” Juliana Corbett, Camas High School senior and ASB student said.

The C.A.R.O.L program receives donations from Waste Connections which has provided them over 50 bikes to donate this year. They partner with Grocery Outlet to receive turkeys and other food items. They also receive many financial donations so they can go and purchase items themselves. 

Once this process is complete, it is time to disperse the donations to families in need. It is also taken to the Children’s Society in Washougal. 

“[Dec. 18] we will package all of [the donations] into the boxes and on [Dec. 21] it gets dispersed to the families,” Compher said. 

Each year, the C.A.R.O.L program aims to assist dozens of families and spread comfort throughout the community during the holiday season.