Thursday, Dec. 5, 2024
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Making Christmas bright Sharing Christmas looking for elves to help deliver meals Christina Jolliffe The Community Guide
Sharing Christmas needs volunteers to help, well, share Christmas. Donna McKinney, chairwoman of Sharing Christmas, said she has only has 37 of the 250 volunteers needed to deliver meals to people all over Lorain County on Christmas Day. Drivers are given two to three addresses, typically close to one another, to make deliveries. Those wishing to make more deliveries are able to do so as well. People can also volunteer to cook or clean up but delivery drivers are what’s really needed. Last year, 719 meals were delivered. “Whoever calls gets a meal,” McKinney said. “If someone lives alone and they have a caretaker with them that day, we will absolutely give them two meals. We don’t cater family dinners, but if someone says they are going to be alone, we encourage them to invite a neighbor or family member to share a meal with them, and we will provide both meals.” “We don’t just give food. We give hope. We don’t want anyone to be alone that day.” Sharing Christmas reaches out to individuals through the Meals on Wheels program, the Lorain Metropolitan Housing Authority and other groups that work with people on low incomes. Sharing Christmas started with the Salvation Army in Elyria. When they were no longer able to do it, St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church took over. McKinney began volunteering with Sharing Christmas 35 years ago and when St. Vincent de Paul stopped providing the program, she talked to her minister who told her Fields United Methodist on Lorain Road in North Ridgeville could be its new home base. Tom’s Country Place in Avon is providing the meat this year. Volunteers cook in two-hour shifts assembling meals of potatoes, dressing, two vegetables, rolls, butter and desserts. Cooking starts at 8 a.m. at Fields United Methodist Church deliveries begin at noon with the last meal dropped off around 3:30 p.m. Volunteers then clean up after the cooking is all done. The cost of Sharing Christmas is about $4,000, depending on how many people sign up. Thanks to several generous donors, this year’s meals are paid for, and there is even some carry over for next year. “We all get caught up in the lights, Santa Claus, the Christmas trees,” McKinney said. “Trust me, I’m a big Christmas nut. But that feeling that you’ve done something for a person in need, there are just no words to explain that gratification. We really do what we can to make someone else’s holiday wonderful.”
STEVE MANHEIM / COMMUNITY GUIDE
Santa with Mrs. Claus and elves arrive with Capt. Ray Mason on the Vermilion River on Saturday. The red boat named “Scarlet” docked near McGarvey’s Landing so Santa could visit kids at the Santa House at East Exchange Park. Santa will return to the Santa House from 5-7 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Dec. 14. Find out what’s going on for Christmas in other towns on the Bulletin Board on A7.
Wreaths honor fallen heroes The Community Guide
The lives of Lorain County individuals who died while serving in the United States military during the War on Terror and the Vietnam War will be remembered during a ceremony Saturday at the Gold Star Families Memorial Monument at the old Lorain County Courthouse in Elyria. It will immediately follow the Elyria Council of Veterans Pearl Harbor Remembrance Ceremony that will take place at the Washington Street Bridge at 1 p.m. The wreaths will be placed either at the Gold Star Families Memorial Monument or in cemeteries throughout Lorain and nearby counties. The ceremony will be led by Kimberly Hazelgrove, a member of the Gold Star Family. In 2004, Hazelgrove’s husband, Brian, died in action in Iraq. Gold Star Family members should contact Kathryn Kennedy at honorwreaths@gmail. com or (513) 659-4951 for more information. On A2, the list of those to be honored with wreaths.
BRUCE BISHOP / COMMUNITY GUIDE
Honor Wreaths
Volunteer Joe Burns of Amherst helps assemble wreaths for the Honor Wreaths program run by Wreaths Across America, a national nonprofit whose mission is also to remember fallen soldiers. Honor Wreaths For Veterans was organized to place wreaths on graves of U.S. veterans; maintain U.S. veteran cemetery plots; and provide other veteran charitable needs. The Lorain County Civil Air Patrol teamed up with Wreaths Across America to fill Brookdale Cemetery with wreaths on Dec. 14 at noon. The community is encouraged to attend the ceremony and help place wreaths or sponsor a wreath to be placed on a veteran’s grave for $22. They can be purchased at wreathsacrossamerica.org.
Contact Christina Jollliffe at ctnews@chroniclet.com.
INSIDE THIS WEEK Doggone great!
Wellington
Christmas British style
Pound hounds get Thanksgiving feast. A4
Police blotter. A5
‘Oh, Christmas Tea’ playing around area. A5
SPORTS A6 • CROSSWORD A7 • SUDOKU A7 • KID SCOOP A8