The Open Door Community Center is benefitting from monetary contributions that have roots in a local Christmas tradition — the Cookie Express at Washington’s First Christian Church.

Open Door Community Center is the organization working to open a shelter for homeless women and children in the greater Washington area.

A portion of the revenues generated by their Cookie Express involvement was donated by two churches to Open Door Community Center. Washington’s First Christian Church, which offers the Cookie Express on a December Saturday before Christmas, donated $2,200. Washington’s St. Peter’s Episcopal Church sold Christmas gift cards from a table at the Cookie Express, donating $995 to Open Door Community Center.

“Each year First Christian church, and this is a total church effort, we raise money for 501(c) organizations (nonprofit) within the county and in other areas as well. … It’s all 501(c) organizations. It’s mostly local,” said Brenda Mitchell, who along with Miriam Roberson organized the 2017 Cookie Express, with assistance from other church members.

The church made other donations with the $6,000 raised by Cookie Express, Mitchell said. “We had Camp Carolina, the wildlife youth program, Rose Haven. The main focus every year for the Cookie Express is to come together and raise money. We have a good time doing it. We just have a wonderful time. It’s a lot of hard work. We have to do a lot of work to decorate and get everything going,” Mitchell said.

The Cookie Express committee meets in January and votes on which organizations and other entities will receive donations from the Cookie Express revenues, she noted. “It’s not a decision by just one or two people,” Mitchell said.

St. Peter’s Episcopal Church spokeswoman Gayle Nadel explained the process behind that church’s donation. “What we did was we began a project called the Christmas Alternative Giving Program, and that started last year. What that is we formed a committee  … and met and decided which agencies — we chose six agencies — to receive the funds we were gong to raise. Open Door Community Center was one of the six,” Nadel said.

“We made Christmas cards that our members could buy and give to anyone that would represent a Christmas gift. So they made a donation to purchase a card. The minimum donation was $5 per card. That could be sent as their Christmas gift to anyone,” Nadel explained. “It’s very popular project that we started.”

St. Peter’s contacted First Christian Church about setting up a table where those cards could be purchased. Mitchell, Nadel, Roberson and Marcia Norwood, spokeswoman for Open Door Community Center, praised that cooperation.

“We do appreciate this support. It shows there is, first of all, a huge need in our area for this shelter for homeless women and children. It shows there is broad-based community support,” Norwood said. “We have had several fundraisers that have been offered to us and that different groups have held for us. We’re very appreciative of that.”

The center is closer to opening the doors of the shelter. Washington’s Board of Adjustment, during its meeting Thursday, approved a special-use permit to allow the nonprofit to operate a temporary shelter for homeless women and children at 1240 Cowell Farm Road. The temporary residence will have a minimum staff of four people, according to a city document.

“We’re very thankful for that. We can start moving ahead now that the property is now available for us to do what we need to do to get this (shelter) going,” Norwood said.

Open Door Community Center received $8,000 from the city this fiscal year as a one-time contribution to get the nonprofit up and running. It requested $10,000.