The gifting season

World Vision, the Federal Way-based international Christian relief and development organization, has its own gift catalog that suggests more than 120 selfless gifts, such as a care kit for a child orphaned by AIDS or a dairy goat for a family in need, that can have a lasting impact on the lives of impoverished children and their families around the world.

The catalog can be found online at www.worldvisiongifts.org. Some gifts cost less than $100. Gifts can be purchased in the name of a friend, family member or business associate, and World Vision will acknowledge the gift with a special card. All gifts are tax deductible.

Holiday helpers

Nearly a decade ago, a local volunteer group known as the Coast Guard Spouses Club started the "Holiday Stockings for Homeless Children" project in the Mercer Island home of one of the volunteers, to provide handmade holiday stockings filled with new toys and other gifts for homeless children. That first year, the group distributed 150 stockings, and the project has grown every year since.

This year, some of those initial volunteers along with a growing band of recruits plan to fill and distribute 2,000 handmade stockings to youngsters up to age 17 living in and out of homeless shelters from Everett to Seattle to Tacoma.

In addition to this year's project, volunteers are already at work on next year's "Holiday Stockings for Homeless Children" project. The nonprofit group accepts donations year-round, including new socks, gloves, hats, toothbrushes, small toys and candy canes.

Volunteers are needed to begin sewing handmade stockings and knitting or crocheting baby items for next year. Information about the project and the sponsoring group is online at www.holidaystockings.org.

Naval ceremony update

Members of the Seattle chapter of the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association and their families will take part in a ceremony commemorating the Dec. 7, 1941, Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor at 10 a.m. today in the Administration Building auditorium at Naval Station Everett. The ceremony is open to anyone with military ID. The date of the ceremony was incorrect in an item in Wednesday's Here & Now.

Human Rights Day honors

Seattle's Office for Civil Rights will announce this year's recipients of the Distinguished Citizen Awards for Human Rights today at the city's Human Rights Day celebration from noon to 1:30 p.m. in the Bertha Landes Room at Seattle City Hall, 600 Fourth Ave., in downtown Seattle. The event is free and open to the public.

Besides the city's Office for Civil Rights, Seattle Human Rights Day is sponsored by the Seattle Human Rights Commission, the Washington State Human Rights Commission and the United Nations Association-Seattle. The event commemorates the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was adopted Dec. 10, 1948.

Getting around

An open house focused on state Department of Transportation plans for a project to improve Interstate 405 between Bellevue and Renton will be held from 4 to 7 p.m. today at the Renton Housing Authority, 2900 N.E. 10th St. in Renton.

The state says the project is intended to improve safety, relieve congestion and speed traffic during rush hours and move freight more efficiently through the corridor.

Traffic watch

Interstate 5/Highway 18 interchange: The southbound I-5 onramp from eastbound Highway 18 will be closed from 9 tonight to 5 a.m. Friday during repairs to southbound I-5 pavement. On Sunday, the southbound I-5 onramp from westbound Highway 18 will be closed from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. Monday for pavement repairs.

Here & Now is compiled by Seattle Times staff reporter Charles E. Brown and news assistant Suesan Whitney Henderson.

To submit an item, e-mail herenow@ seattletimes.com or call 206-464-2226.