About Us

A Gift for Special Children was started by Jackie Vaughn-Codiga. Jackie and other volunteers saw a need in the Mason County, Washington community to support families with special needs children and disease when there were no other resources available to the family. Through hard work from many volunteers, A Gift for Special Children received non-profit (501 c3) status in 1991.

A Gift for Special Children started simply with the premise of helping families to ensure the survival of healthy families which leads to a healthy community and ultimately kids!

Over the years A Gift for Special Children has seen increases in the needs of families within our community. In 2009 we supported families with their diverse needs 121 times-referrals for a total of a little over $9000.00. We raise funds through our annual summer raffle, direct donations, and grants. We are a United Way sponsored organization, and we are registered with America’s Charities, Emergency Food and Shelter Program, and Combined Federal Campaigns. We are a registered Washington State charity.

Our overhead is very low as we do not have rent, telephone, utility expenses. We operate out of our homes, with expense costs of tax preparation, web page management, an ink cartridge, and stamps. Often our operating budget is less than 2-3% of our total earnings, which allows us to help families with the rest of the 97-98% of the funds!

Who are we now? Our volunteers have many different backgrounds such as healthcare professionals, waitresses, teachers, childcare advocates, and moms! We are always looking for hard-working volunteers!