Trio of Valley non-profits share Christmas with thousands

MAT-SU — There’s a hat trick of kindness that’s happened in the Mat-Su Borough every Christmas for the past 10 years.

And again this year, hundreds of volunteers donated their time, talent and treasure in support of the Christmas Friendship Dinner, Santa Cop and Heroes program and Mat-Su Special Santa. Whether you are young or old, there is a caring local volunteer program to help extend the spirit of Christmas to as many Valley residents as possible.

Between the three groups, Mat-Su volunteers shared Christmas gifts, food and conversation with hundreds of seniors, toys and winter gear with 3,200 Valley children, and served 3,700 meals to community members from all walks of life on Christmas Day.

Organizers said more meals than ever were served at the Friendship Dinner, but one shouldn’t assume that means need is up, said Elsie O’Bryan, who chairs the Christmas Friendship Dinner Steering Committee.

One of her favorite parts of the 20 years she’s helped to plan and execute the dinner is the mix of people who attend.

“I love seeing business owners, community leaders sitting at the same table with people who might not have a hot meal otherwise,” O’Bryan said. “I see people I haven’t seen since last Christmas.”

Between 300 and 400 volunteers cut and peeled 700 pounds of locally grown potatoes and carrots, prepared 60 gallons of gravy, 725 pounds of turkey, 600 pounds of ham and 510 pounds of prime rib in preparation for the Christmas Day feast.

Reached by phone, O’Bryan was resting Thursday afternoon after spending the morning taking down decorations and cleaning up from the Friendship Dinner.

“So pretty yesterday and now it’s just soccer fields again,” she said. “It’s an amazing transformation.”

O’Bryan said volunteers will meet in January to review this year’s event and consider improvements for next year. After a final meeting in March, volunteers take a few months off before beginning meetings in September to plan the next year’s feast, O’Bryan said.

“Then along about the middle of November, we say ‘what in the world are we doing?’” she said about the daunting task of gathering donations and cooking food to feed as many as 4,000 guests.

The food that wasn’t used during the event was shared with local senior centers and other groups with food programs, she said. Food scrapes and peelings were donated to local pig farmers, O’Bryan said.

She said the annual effort is about more than feeding hungry people.

“Christmas and this time of year is not a happy time of year for a lot of people,” O’Bryan said. “We watch for people struggling who need someone to talk to, an extra shoulder. We try to feed the body, the soul and the emotions all at the same time.”

For former Palmer Police officer Donna Anthony, what started as an effort to share with seniors on Christmas Day has expanded to a year-round effort. The idea behind her Santa Cop and Heroes program is to send uniformed police and firefighters to seniors’ houses to deliver a gift and spend time with them on Christmas Day. Anthony said the two nonprofits work together and seniors who sign up can have a hot meal delivered from the Friendship Dinner, too.

“It went very smoothly,” she said of this year’s effort.

Anthony said the gifts tend to be useful things like slippers or a blanket. But she’s also received a grant that will pay to install working CO and smoke detectors in seniors’ homes. She said firefighters will return and install the detectors for free and seniors’ homes identified through the program.

To be eligible, people have to be 60 years old and alone.

Anthony said the effort saw more seniors struggling this year to make ends meet. She said more seniors seem to be facing rough choices, like “Do you pay for medicine or utilities?”

Anthony said the non-profit, which operates under the Palmer Senior Center, is unique for its mission to serve seniors. She said the goal is to make sure everyone is taken care of on Christmas.

“There is no other program for seniors. This is it,” Anthony said.

She said the effort has expanded beyond Christmas and now serves seniors year-round. Like the woman with cancer and a leaking roof, Santa Cop found funding and volunteers to make temporary repairs for her. Or, the veteran on the verge of homelessness because he was paying out of pocket for expensive injections for treatment for exposure to Agent Orange while waiting for Veterans Administration payments to kick in.

Anthony said the group also pairs seniors with care coordinators who follow up to see if there are more resources that can be brought to bare on the senior’s behalf.

“We can offer some emergency help and then we try to connect them with long-term help to continue afterward,” she said.

As O’Bryan points out, many people struggle with the “merry” part of the Christmas season. For some seniors alone on Christmas, Anthony said the visit itself is a treasured gift.

The program is a blessing for the volunteers, too, she said.

Anthony shared an email from Richard Boothby at the Wasilla Fire Department sharing one senior’s story.

“We have many touching stories to share with all of you, but one has been in my mind all day,” Boothby wrote. “The ambulance crew delivered to a nice lady whose husband past away three months ago and her son the day before Christmas.”

He said the woman was convinced that God had sent the crew to her because he knew she could not make it through Christmas on her own.

“Our crews were deeply impacted by her and found it a great privilege to be there with her and to spend an hour of their day with her,” he wrote.

Mat-Su Special Santa chief elf organizer Mari Jo Parks said the non-profit served 500 fewer children this year than last.

She said the non-profit received plenty of donations and volunteer support, but that they had fewer applications to the program this year.

“There were lots of families just totally touched by the generosity of the community again this year,” Parks said. “One family has a need and another family says let’s help. It’s such an amazing thing to watch.”

Contact Heather A. Resz at 352-2268 or heather.resz@frontiersman.com.