December 23, 2008
Christmas is coming for Meals recipients
Community rallies to get seniors gifts and trees
By KATHY GRAY
of The Chronicle
Some local senior citizens will have a better Christmas this year thanks to generous local residents.
A letter published in The Chronicle yielded more than $2,000 in donations for gifts to Meals on Wheels recipients.
“The folks this year are really going to get treated right,” said Denise Patton of Meals on Wheels.
Ashley Lauterbach, a new employee at Meals on Wheels, coordinated the project and did all the shopping, which yielded gifts including warm clothing for the cold winter months such as sweats, socks, slippers, robes and blankets, as well as convenient pantry food including oatmeal, cereal and fruit cups.
“One lady just wanted food for her cat,” Patton noted.
Getting the gifts to the meal delivery recipients is another story, Patton noted.
“It’s going to be a challenge, but we’re going to try,” she said.
On Monday, drivers delivered two frozen meals, a hot meal, a dessert sack and a little Christmas tree at each house.
Today they will receive another hot meal, a frozen meal and 60 recipients will get stockings put together by The Dalles Area Chamber of Commerce.
That still leaves the gifts themselves, which present a special challenge.
“Some of them are really big packages, so some drivers may have a difficult time,” Patton said.
Meals on Wheels has been closed at Mid-Columbia Senior Center, but has continued to deliver meals through the snowy weather. The extra frozen meals are for Christmas day and as insurance in the event the drivers can’t deliver due to weather on other days.
“Our drivers are just fantastic,” Patton said, noting that some are 80 and older.
They also understand the real need for the meals after seeing the conditions in which some seniors live.
“One driver came back crying,” Patton said. “One of the other drivers said sometimes she complains about her house, but after seeing what some people are living in she won’t anymore.”
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