Think again about taking out that roll of TP to decorate random trees tonight.

Reconsider wrapping yourself in Charmin to achieve that classic last-minute mummy look.

Your toilet paper has a higher destiny. It came to Sally Coonc of Puyallup last March.

Sally, who is not one to rush willy-nilly into an unformed plan, was still working on her 2009 New Year’s resolution. She wanted to find a way for people to do small things individually that, put together, would make a big difference.

She was talking with her former sister-in-law, Edna Coonc, when it hit her: She could start a Toilet Paper Club.

It was nothing personal. Sally and Edna are great friends.

Edna volunteers at the Spanaway FISH Food Bank near her home. Sally works on the switchboard at Good Samaritan Mental Health Services in downtown Puyallup.

Edna was saying how hard it is to tell the parent of a family of six or eight that they can have only one roll of toilet paper per visit to the food bank. On top of that, you can’t use food stamps to buy toilet paper, or other paper and feminine hygiene products.

It’s a bad deal, said Julie Wiesen, manager of the Graham-South Hill FISH Food Bank.

“Well, everybody needs it, and it’s something we don’t get donated very often,” she said. “We usually have 1,000 to 1,200 families a month. If we have toilet paper, we try to give them one roll per family, if we can.”

With a 30 percent increase in demand, Weisen said, food bank money has to go for food.

As a person of modest means, Sally understands a bottom line. She also appreciates the pleasure of saying yes, if even in a small way, when asked for help.

When charities send out their donation cards, the boxes to check generally make requests starting in the double digits, she said. That’s an insult to a person whose best gift at the time and in the circumstances might be $1 or $5.

To Sally’s mind, toilet paper is the ideal gift. Every roll is appreciated.

So she organized the club to be lean, and fun.

“We have 38 members,” she said. “There are 36 women, and two men.”

Draw your own conclusions.

Her friend Gloria Medina picks up the TP and drives it to Edna’s home. Edna hauls it to food bank coordinator Gayle Halmo, and then gets to see how happy it makes customers.

Sally is the e-mail cheerleader, tracking the numbers, announcing delivery dates, passing on thank-you letters and setting goals.

Her October e-bulletin ended with the club motto: “Keep it rolling. We have a lot of bottoms depending on us.”

It would be better, she said, if there were more people on whom those bottoms could depend.

She has a vision of easy-to-organize Toilet Paper Clubs hauling two-ply to food banks throughout the county, state and nation – not just the greater Spanaway area.

She encourages people to start their own.

“It could be done all over,” Sally said. “Even students in school could have a Toilet Paper Club. They could have their class bring toilet paper every month.”

It would certainly liven up the yearbook.

An expert motivator, Sally buys small gifts to award at a monthly drawing. They’re fun. They make people happy, just as a properly loaded fresh roll of toilet paper makes people happy.

Now she’d like to go viral.

“I was hoping that maybe through e-mails that people send, that it might catch on,” she said. “I think if it spread, how wonderful that would be. It’s such a little thing, but it’s really a big thing.”

Wiesen agrees.

And she has an inspirational anecdote for young people who’ve been eyeing trees on Halloween.

“One of the kids in a group objected,” she said. “They had gone out and bought some of those really big packs. That kid really thought it was a waste and fought against it, so they donated it, and we showed them how it would help 40 families.”

On top of that, a grateful, TP-free neighborhood rejoiced.

As for that desperation mummy get-up, forget it. Zombies are way cooler. Zombies, and sea monsters.

Kathleen Merryman: 253-597-8677

kathleen.merryman@thenewstribune.com