The Forgotten Children's Fund has found a warehouse to stage its large giving operations every December for over four decades. That was until 2017, and a hot commercial real estate market left the organization scrambling to find 50,000 square feet of empty space.
That space was used to stage and wrap some 21,000 gifts of toys and clothing and assemble some 600 bikes for needy kids and their families.
"We were desperate," said Gary Bakke, a Forgotten Children's Fund board member.
Bakke had started driving around Bellevue's warehouse district along the old railroad tracks looking for something when he found a group of large commercial buildings scheduled to be torn down to make way for Sound Transit's light rail expansion and eastside maintenance base.
He contacted some engineers he found on site, and they put him in touch with the transit agency.
"And I said, is there any way we could keep any of those buildings through the end of December so that we could have a home base?" he said.
KING 5 produced several stories about the 41-year-old charity's plight, and dozens of you stepped up with leads to promising properties. To those, FCF says thank you and hope you will be in a position to offer something in December of 2018.
