Hundreds Participate in Annual Lion’s Club Holiday Dinner

by David Croyle

The dog may not have been sitting at their feet waiting for a morsel of food to fall from their plate, but everything else resembled a holiday meal with family in a really big dining room of the St. Mary Parish Hall.

This was the 41^st year for the Kittanning Lion’s Club to serve up large helpings of turkey, stuffing, potatoes, a vegetable, and, of course, dessert.

Delores Croyle, an East Franklin Township resident and Secretary for the Club, recalled the humble beginnings of the festive event.

“They started it because of when they first built the highrises, they said there were senior citizens who either had lost their spouse or their family had moved away and they would not bother preparing a holiday meal. So, we thought that we would give them a free dinner between Thanksgiving and Christmas so that they would at least have one nice meal. And, then it just expanded to everybody.”

Prior to the meal on Sunday, December 11, there were 475 reservations. However, despite a snowy day, the final count was more than 380 meals packaged for take-out and 120 people dining in the hall.

As the event has grown throughout the years, so has the budget. Delores praised various merchants and organizations for their support.

“We’ve been getting donations from different people. Wal-Mart is a big donor towards this event. We received donations from Rosebud Mining; from Dr. Frank Genovese -who is one of our associate members; and from Representative Jeff Pyle. Because of all the donations people give, it really doesn’t cost our Lion’s Club all that much, usually about $300-$400 total to feed a turkey dinner to 500 people.”

It takes quite a few helpers – from meal preparation through the actual serving of the meal.

“Other than getting the orders by individual members ahead of time, we spent 4 hours (Saturday). There were 16 of us here getting things ready (Sunday morning),” Delores estimated. “Sprankles cooked the turkeys for us and brought them over like 7 yesterday morning and then our members deboned them and we make everything ahead. We bought the buns from Sprankles. We got other things from Shop-n-Save and Sam’s Club - all the supplies for the meal. We have the Armstrong River Hawks Leo Club and the Lenape Vo-Tech Leo Club helping. Without them, we probably could not be serving all these people. We’ve probably got 20-25 people helping today from 7 in morning and til 3PM.”

Alice Kammerdeiner lives at Garden Towers in Kittanning. She normally spends Thanksgiving and Christmas with her daughter on Hazel Street, but this is a special time for them. She was grateful for the hard work of the volunteers.

“It’s delicious! The food is very, very good,” she said. “I’ve been here before.”

Delores said the outreach by the Lion’s Club has special meaning to her.

“I know my mother used to like getting this dinner because she was one that wouldn’t be preparing a dinner at this time. I’ve got relatives who’ve come in and they are enjoying the dinner. I like watching the people. They make it a social event. There are several that get together with their friends. I take the reservations and I’ll see like 6 people all signed up at once. And, they come in, and they sit, and they talk, and socialize. They spend longer than it takes just to eat a meal. The people enjoy themselves and then they stay with coffee afterwards and just talk. It’s a nice socialization type of little party before Christmas.”

Delores said the Kittanning club has members from different areas.

“Our members are out in Adrian; we have some down Freeport; but basically Kittanning. We have some from Ford City even though there is a Ford City club. The Manor Club closed and so we have some from that area and out towards Kittanning Township. Rural Valley has its own Club and Worthington has its own Club. So, we’ll take anyone in between. We’d like to have members from Templeton too, but no one from that direction has asked to join us. We’re always looking for new members.”

Persons who are considering joining the Lion’s Club can contact a member for an application. Annual dues are $55.

 

 

 

 

 

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