This group has helped thousands of Tri-Citians in need. Now it’s closing its doors

When Holli Calder-Cox moved to the Tri-Cities, she wanted to find a place to volunteer.

She ended up at Project Warm-Up, providing hats, blankets, toiletries and other items to the community’s neediest residents.

Before too long, Calder-Cox wasn’t just assembling donations, she was leading the nonprofit.

For nearly 40 years, she’s put her heart, energy and time — so much time — into the group and its mission.

But health issues the last few years have zapped her energy, and it’s time for her step down.

The group — which dates to the 80s — doesn’t have anyone else able to fill the demanding, unpaid director role.

So Project Warm-Up is dissolving at the end of the year.

“I truly believe that at the end of every path, a new journey beings. We’re all starting new journeys,” Calder-Cox said Tuesday, while working at the group’s headquarters at Community Action Connections in Pasco.

The group will provide its final “Bags of Joy” this holiday season. The bags are filled with hygiene items, handmade gloves and the like, plus other surprises, and they’re distributed to those in need through local social service agencies.

A final fundraiser is 4 to 6 p.m. Sunday at the Branding Iron in downtown Kennewick. It will feature Ed Dailey, Chris Loid, Allen Osborne and Cory Potter, Faith Martin and Bobby Nelsen, and Zac Burrell, with attendees encouraged to bring donations.

Everything raised and collected at the event will go directly to the final round of “Bags of Joy,” Calder-Cox said.

The 72-year-old Kennewick woman spends as many as 50 hours a week on Project Warm-Up business.

In her tenure as the group’s leader, it’s expanded greatly.

When she first came on board, it was distributing about 800 hats a year.

This past year, it provided more than 40,000 items to people in need — blankets, hats, scarves, deodorant, snacks and so on.

“And it doesn’t have to be Christmastime. It’s all year round. That’s what I’m going to miss the most. It’s the giving,” she said.

Seven volunteers help run the office, which is open 9 a.m. to noon Mondays through Thursdays.

And about 55 volunteers make the hand-crafted goods.

Longtime volunteer Sherry Banks said she’s sad to see Project Warm-Up dissolve, but it’s time.

Calder-Cox has been a tireless leader. “She’s worked very hard to make it a success, and she’s leaving it as a success,” Banks said.

The group’s good work will continue.

Banks and some other volunteers plan to keep making warm items and donating them directly to Project Warm-Up partners.

Calder-Cox said she’s proud to have helped so many people in the community in her two decades with the group.

“It’s been a ride,” she said. “I’ve loved every minute of it.”

This story was originally published November 27, 2018 at 6:40 PM.