POTLATCH — The Potlatch Rural Fire Department may not be Santa’s workshop, but it might as well have been on Wednesday evening.

That is when families arrived to pick up Christmas presents donated by generous community members on the Palouse.

It marked the end of the 36th year of the Sharing Tree, a local effort led by Janie Nirk and Jo Minden.

Every year, volunteers set up a tree at the Palouse Mall in Moscow with tags listing gift suggestions for families in Latah County. People can take a tag and donate presents, gift certificates or money to that family in time for Christmas.

Nirk said she was pleasantly surprised by the amount of donations there were this year.

“I just thought, with the pandemic, I thought people were more conservative,” she said. “But I’ll tell you, it was a good year.”

Minden estimates there were 150 tags on this year’s tree. Nearly all of them were taken by donors and a dozen families received gifts.

She said they tried to provide each child two items of clothing, two fun presents that they ask for, hats and mittens, a sled, a board game and a food gift certificate.

Minden said the Potlatch School District sends information about the Sharing Tree in a newsletter every fall to local families with information on how they can be recipients of these gifts. She said teachers at other Latah County school districts let her and Nirk know about other families who would like to participate.

Minden said one man who arrived Wednesday in Potlatch to pick up gifts for his five children was overwhelmed by the amount of presents he received.

“He said, ‘You don’t know what this means to our family,’ ” Minden said. “So, that makes it really worthwhile to be able to help someone who really appreciates it.”

She added that one man living in Boise sends a check for the Sharing Tree every year.

“People are so generous,” she said.

Nirk started the Sharing Tree in 1985 with the help of volunteers after learning of a similar effort happening in Spokane. She received a $100 grant from the Idaho Education Association at the time to fund it.

The group partners with the Palouse Mall to set up a tree and a sleigh in the building each year. They used to get their trees from Princeton-based Hash Tree Farm until deciding to switch to an artificial tree that does not need maintenance.

Nirk said the key to the Sharing Tree’s success is the kindness of the public.

“I think it’s really our community,” she said. “We have a giving community.”

Kuipers can be reached at akuipers@dnews.com.