Goodfellas Sandwich Shop in Bellevue are doing their part to make sure this Christmas is an enjoyable time for everyone, especially those who might not wake up to a pile of gifts under their Christmas tree.

You can open your heart and help them out.

The Sanelli family, which runs Goodfellas, have put up a giving tree in their deli.

They’ve picked up tags from the Issaquah Food Bank, each of which described a family or family member and their holiday wish, and hung them on the tree.

Steve Sanelli hoped the people of the local community would pitch in and donate a few gifts, food items, and clothing to these families that would be struggling this winter season.

“The response was incredible”, Steve Sanelli said.

“It has been great to see people coming in and taking a tag off the tree, and then making generous donations to the those families.”

As a reward for these acts of generosity, Goodfellas replies with a free sandwich for the good samaritans.

“We started with over 100 hundred holiday wish tags, for you pick up a tag and bring back a wrapped present,” Steve said.

“We’ve raised over $1,600, and now we have only 30 tags left.

“We’ve had amazing donations of $500, $200… people are really digging deep for the cause, and for me it is the best gift I could give myself, to be able to watch this happen.”

But the Sanellis want to make sure that all the tags are taken care of before Christmas time, and so are urging anyone who hasn’t come in to the Sandwich Shop to do so soon and make it a great holiday for all.

You can donate food and clothing, including dry and canned goods, toiletries, frozen food, clean clothing and accessories, small household appliances in good working order, linens, baby furniture, toys and books.

Volunteers are always needed, and cash donations are welcome.

For those of you not able to get over the Bellevue you can mail items straight to the Issaquah Food Bank, P.O. Box 652, Issaquah, WA 98027.