The Community Cares Neighbors Helping Neighbors Annual Christmas Dinner will take place on Christmas Day from 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm. This free event will be held inside the Jennifer Leavitt Student Center on the campus of USU-Eastern. Castle Country Radio sat down with Event Coordinator, Brenda Deeter to discuss all the details.
The event is in its eighth year, it should have been its ninth but because of the COVID pandemic, they took a year off like most events in the area. It all started with just an idea and word of mouth. “Well I worked at the Food Bank for a few years and the day before Thanksgiving our Price City Mayor Kourianos was over the Regional Missionaries. They stopped in at the Food Bank and wanted something to do on Thanksgiving Day, you know like 18 missionaries he was bringing in. I had no idea where to send them, you know we don’t have a Soup Kitchen or anything nowhere. So we talked for a while, before he left he said, we’ll be back Christmas time and want something to do. So people were dropping off their turkeys that day and I happen to mention it to two different guys, I didn’t know them and they were not together, little did I know that they both worked for the college. Next thing I know people called me, we had a meeting, our first meeting Dec. 8 and we did our first dinner that Christmas,” explained Deeter. This has been a long-standing tradition for those who volunteer and for those who attend the dinner.
Event organizers serve up a delicious Christmas dinner with all the traditional trimmings for folks to enjoy. “We have the usual fare, we have turkey, we have ham, we have mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, pies, stuffing, gravy. You know two, three, four different kinds of drinks. We have a few different kinds of pies. People come in, this is what we use the missionaries for and other volunteers for because we still get missionaries that come in. They’ll seat them at their table, they’ll serve them at their table, everything, and they clean up after them,” said Deeter. This is a free dinner for all ages to attend. There will be live musical entertainment to enjoy throughout the dinner. Activities for the children to enjoy after dinner and there will also be a shuttle service available to and from the event if you do not have transportation.
This event is to make sure that no one is alone on Christmas day while getting a nutritious meal. If you would like to volunteer, arrange a ride to the event, have a meal delivered, make a monetary donation towards the cause or have any other questions about the Community Cares Neighbors Helping Neighbors Annual Christmas Dinner please call (435) 820-8140 or (435) 820-6631 or (435) 820-6628.