JOY TO THE VALLEY

WASILLA — There’s nothing like a little heavy metal music to bolster the holiday spirit on Christmas.

With the low and mellow tones of Tuba Christmas bouncing off the walls of the Curtis D. Menard Memorial Sports Center during Saturday’s Christmas Friendship Dinner, hundreds of hungry families enjoyed eating all the turkey, ham and mashed potatoes they could hold. Catching up with old friends and making new ones, Valley residents and volunteers filed into the center for the 19th annual community feed.

Even Santa Claus had a little extra pep in his step after his longest night of the year.

“It went pretty good last night,” he said. “I even got done early.”

Which meant more time at the Christmas Friendship Dinner. Santa said he enjoys making Wasilla his last stop before retiring to the North Pole for a much-needed nap.

“This is so much fun, I wouldn’t miss it,” he said. “It’s all the good food and warm atmosphere.”

And he had plenty of room for the food, he said, whispering a little secret that he didn’t eat all the cookies children left out for him. “Well, I gave them to the reindeer.”

Shortly after the doors opened at 11 a.m., Jeff and Wendy Moreiko were sitting down with loaded plates. It was just a short break for the Moreikos, who brought their three grown children from Colorado to the sports center at 5 a.m. to help prepare the food. Later, Jeff, a bus driver for First Student, would spend time shuttling people from the far reaches of the parking lot to the front doors.

“This is our third time doing this,” Wendy said about volunteering. “Generally, we do Christmas on Christmas Eve and we told the kids they have no choice, this is our new Christmas tradition.”

“We just like to give back, help out a little bit,” Jeff added. “It really does feel good.”

For Jeffrey Seligmann of Wasilla, the friendship dinner makes his Christmas. Without it, “this would just be a normal, regular day — nothing special,” he said. “This makes it special.”

Four-year-old CJ Warner had plenty of energy to focus on his meal. After a visit with Santa, who gave him a ball-throwing toy, he cleaned his plate — well, almost. He left the mashed potatoes. Asked what he liked best, he points to every item except the potatoes.

“I like this, this and this and this,” running clockwise around the plate: turkey, ham, olives and a roll.

Saturday was the first time Jacob Berg brought his family to the dinner, which he described as “pretty cool. I’m really surprised. I didn’t know what to expect, but I wasn’t expecting all this. I thought it was just a meal and that was it.”

For Bob Bowers, who founded the dinner with wife Judy 19 years ago, the event has exploded from that first event where the couple fed 25 people at their restaurant, Country Kitchen. Last year, the dinner fed 1,700 and by mid-afternoon on Saturday they were well on their way to feeding more than 2,000.

Bob arrived at 5 a.m. to begin the final push on the cooking to find a dozen volunteers waiting, and the support grew from there.

“I showed up this morning and, before I knew it, I had 12 people at 5 a.m.,” he said. “At 6 o’clock I had 17 and by 7 o’clock I had 30 volunteers, so by 10 a.m. we were all done.”

The message is fellowship, said friendship dinner committee chair Elsie O’Bryan, which came through loud and clear for Outside holiday visitors. Judy Smith is visiting her daughter, Sue Whitworth, for the holidays from Frederick, Md., and said she doesn’t have an event like the dinner there.

“I’m so impressed with the number of people and I’m just taken aback,” she said. “I’m really impressed with the community involvement.”

For her daughter, the dinner is a nice way to spend Christmas now that her children are grown.

“We changed everything (with family schedules). We don’t see them on Christmas Day so we can do this,” Whitworth said. “It’s the most wonderful place to be at Christmas.”

She recalled a story that exemplifies the meaning of the gathering for some who otherwise wouldn’t have a Christmas.

“Last year we had a man who took his kids over to see Santa, and they got the only presents they got that Christmas,” she said. “And the dad just cried.”

That something as simple as a home-cooked meal can make Christmas special for someone is what keeps Kent Kluever coming back to volunteer. For the past three years, he’s coordinated delivery of meals to the homebound, about 140 this year.

“I got a call late last night from a gal, she was actually in tears saying that she lived Outside and her father lived out on Knik and didn’t have anybody,” Kluever said. “She was begging for us to deliver to him. I said, ‘Of course we will.’ She just broke down and said we don’t know how much this means to them.”

There are myriad reasons the Christmas Friendship Dinner continues to grow, and the most basic wasn’t lost on 93-year-old Mary Hall, who not only enjoyed the food, but helped volunteer at the welcome table. She attended the dinner last year and came back for the best reason of all.

“Because we were hungry.”

Contact Greg Johnson at greg.johnson@frontiersman.com or 352-2269.