Duane Hicks
Christmas Day is no time to be alone or hungry.
Thanks to a team of volunteers, no one has to be.
The 28th-annual community Christmas dinner is slated for this Friday (Dec. 25) from noon-2 p.m. at Knox United Church here.
Over the past couple of months, Sandra Lange of the Fort Frances Volunteer Bureau has been working with her committee (Diane Maxey, June Caul, Gaby Hanzuk, and Judy and Gary Kielczewski) to gather donations, recruit volunteers, and make plans to provide the dinner.
“It’s been some work but I’ve had great people helping me,” noted Lange, who not only is new to the Volunteer Bureau this year but will be attending the dinner for the first time.
“They’ve done it other years so they’re a big help,” she added.
“Otherwise, I’d be lost.”
The event once again has been supported by food and cash donations either directly from local businesses or individuals, or through events like the sixth-annual “Stuff-a-Cruiser” held here Dec. 12.
These donations make it possible to provide a hot turkey dinner with all the fixings.
Organizers plan to feed as many as 250 people, with the Kielczewskis running the kitchen for the dinner.
Any leftover food will be given to the local soup kitchen.
But such an event also needs people to donate time, and more than 20 volunteers will be working to make the dinner happen—whether they’re helping with set-up, cooking the food, serving the food and refreshments, delivering meals, setting tables, or helping clean up afterwards.
After all the preparation, Lange said she’s looking forward to the dinner finally happening on Christmas Day.
“It’s exciting,” she enthused.
The community Christmas dinner is free and open to everybody.
A wide variety of people attend the meal. Some do not have family living here to share the holiday with while others simply want to socialize with their fellow citizens and embrace the spirit of fellowship.
Some people come individually or in couples while some entire families attend.
Thanks to recent renovations, Knox United Church now is fully-accessible—opening up the Christmas dinner to more people than before at that location.
Those that can’t attend the dinner in person, for whatever reason, can have a Christmas meal delivered to them via “Meals on Wheels.”
The event also will feature some live music courtesy of the Fort Frances Choraliers (led by Maxey) at 1 p.m.
Maxey, who has volunteered at the dinner for many years, said she keeps doing it because “it’s so rewarding.”
“It’s a time of celebration,” she remarked. “The camaraderie that we feel when people come in.”
Maxey stressed the dinner is for everyone, not just those who have no other place to go.
“It’s a place for fellowship, for people to come in and enjoy some companionship for a couple of hours,” she noted.
She added it’s not uncommon to run into people you haven’t seen in months.
“It’s such a blessing to hear the chatter, and watch the people and the smiles,” said Maxey.
“It’s a beautiful, beautiful feeling you get when you’re in that room.”
She noted that volunteering at the dinner is a way for her to “give something back” to the community.
“We have so many blessings that we’re blessed with all through the year and to be able to give at Christmas—well, that’s what volunteerism is all about,” Maxey reasoned.
“When I look around that room [during the dinner], I get the shivers because it really is a special, special time,” she remarked.
