POULSBO — It’s not very often that North Kitsap Fishline receives a special delivery like it did on Dec. 13.

As part of Martha & Mary Childcare Center’s holiday festivities, children learned about sharing and the joy of helping others, said Jeanie Bell, director of the Poulsbo center.

“For several weeks, we’ve been learning about helping our families, and the children have loved it,” Bell said.

As part of providing a hands-on learning experience, the children and their families were encouraged to bring donations for the Poulsbo food bank, she said.

“For the past two weeks, they have been dropping things off. They’ve brought everything from baby food to diapers,” she said.

Once all of the items were collected, the next challenge was finding a way to deliver them to Fishline’s 3rd Avenue location.

“We were going to do this regardless of the weather,” Bell said as a convoy of wagons filled with food accompanied by 30 toddlers and preschoolers, along with six adult leaders, departed from the child care center Dec. 13. “We weren’t going to let it rain on our parade.”

As many motorists looked on with wide-eyed amazement, the convoy made its way down Iverson Street to Jensen Way past the post office and onto city hall.

At city hall, the group turned up Moe Street, steadily overcoming the steep incline to the food bank, where Fishline Executive Director Margie Addington greeted them with a heartfelt “thank you.”

As the donations were unloaded and weighed before they were added to the food bank’s shelves, the tally read: more than 200 pounds.

“That’s pretty good,” Bell said with a smile.

While many groups have food drives to benefit Fishline, this one pulled at Addington’s heartstrings.

“It really touches you to see them giving at this age,” she said.

But the children weren’t done helping as they sang a holiday song to brighten everyone’s day.

“We wish you a merry Christmas, we wish you a merry Christmas,” they sang as hurried down the street.