FIRST REPORT, 7:03 AM: The sun’s not up yet and 200 volunteers, teens and adults, have been hard at work for a while at Sears SODO, preparing for the 37th annual Rotary Club of West Seattle Children’s Holiday Shopping Spree. Busloads carrying about 100 kids from four West Seattle elementary schools have just started to arrive for the spree – which will net each one a holiday haul including coats, socks, new clothes, and a few other surprises. In addition to Rotary members, the volunteers who are standing ready to help the kids – as well as joining them for breakfast before shopping and lunch afterward – are members of the affiliated InterAct clubs from several metro-area high schools. Besides being an en-masse event for holiday giving, this is quite the logistical challenge too, with both donated and purchased items to be set out in a way that’ll allow each child and her/his designated volunteer “buddy” to move along without too much chaos:

(video added) WS Rotary past president Josh Sutton delivered the marching orders (and helpful hints) to volunteers:

The shopping has just begun:

As you might have noticed in today’s morning preview, this is the start of an action-packed Saturday … we’ll have more on this (and other events) later! ADDED 3:48 PM: Santa and friends:

The kids, by the way, were from Arbor Heights, Sanislo, West Seattle, and Schmitz Park Elementary Schools. We spoke post-shopping with volunteer Anita MacPherson and “her” student, Uriel; Anita says this volunteer work is a family tradition:

You can help the Rotary pay for future shopping sprees by donating here.