DSHS worker treks gifts, hope to orphans

Adam Wilson
The Olympian

Every year at this time, Phillip Gonzales takes 10 airline cargo boxes to Mexico. Inside the boxes are more boxes, and inside those are Christmas gifts from Department of Social and Health Services workers to orphans.

"The children down there, they would normally not receive Christmas presents. The only support they get is through volunteers, donations," says Gonzales. "When you look at kids and you realize they have nothing, the only thing they have is the clothes on their backs. When the kids look at you with their big brown eyes, they look at you with hope in their eyes. They may not know anything else, but there's hope in their eyes."

Gonzales, 52, lives in Spanaway and works for the Juvenile Rehabilitation Administration in Olympia. He's worked for DSHS for 14 years, and began making the trip to Hogar Infantil La Gloria orphanage near Tijuana after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. He said he had been donating gifts to the orphans through his church, Trinity Christian in Milton, but new airline rules said someone had to escort the boxes, which were shipped via passenger airlines.

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