The Becker Community Holiday Fund hosted its seventh annual Community Christmas Dinner at the Becker Community Center on Christmas Day.

 

The event featured a complete dinner provided to all attendees free of charge from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., along with the chance to visit with friends and neighbors and even an opportunity to meet Santa and Mrs. Claus.

 

The event is made possible by donations and volunteer time given by area businesses and residents.  The dinner was originally organized to provide a place for people in the community to gather together and visit and enjoy Christmas Day. Many find it hard to prepare big meals and some avoid the traffic jams and sloppy weather conditions to spend the holiday closer to home. 

 

The 2018 dinner featured 175 attendees and loads of generous souls volunteering to set up, tear down and serve.  Approximately 15 Hubbard family members arrived early to do the set-up which included placing tables and chairs throughout the gym, decorating the tables and prepping the kitchen.

 

Jan’s Tree Farm donated trees again this year.

 

At clean–up time, at least 35 people helped including many of the guests who enjoyed the meal. As soon as the door prizes were handed out and an announcement was broadcast about the event being over, many jumped up and pitched in to help clean up and tear down.

 

“We have a good community, everyone pitched in to help,” said John Reibel.

 

 The Becker Community Center continues to prove to be the perfect site, since it has a kitchen facility and has hosted many dinners and breakfast functions in the past.  A worker with the BCC was there to open the doors at 11 a.m., then a  a staffer (Jon Crowley) was on-hand for the  two-hour function to ensure everything ran smooth. Another worker showed up a little after 1 p.m. to lock the building up.

 

Among the volunteers on hand at the dinner were cooks and servers in the kitchen and youngsters helping guests carry their plates and glasses to their tables and fetching them coffee and drinks.  

 

Mr. & Mrs. Santa Claus (the Bigalkes) wandered through the crowds and visited with people and families at their tables. They also spent some time out front meeting and greeting the people as they arrived, then shaking their hands and wishing them a “Merry Christmas” as they left.

 

The Becker Community Holiday Fund accepts donations year-round in preparation for the annual dinner, and for other programs that help community residents in need.  Preparations are already underway to secure the BCC for the 2019 Community Christmas Dinner, as organizers  say it “just makes sense to have a community dinner at the center of the community.”

 

“Everyone was in good spirits,” said Reibel.

 

Those attending the dinner certainly appeared to be having a good time, with a great deal of “table hopping” going on as people took the opportunity to spend some time visiting with each other throughout the event.  Having Santa and Mrs. Claus and the vivacious Lippy Lu Schuette as greeters at the door also helped set a festive tone for the event, which was definitely “family friendly.”