Volunteers at the heart of Friendship dinner

WASILLA — If you are looking for a way to help make Christmas special for Mat-Su Valley residents, the Christmas Friendship Dinner may be for you.

The dinner and celebration is on Christmas Day at the Menard Sports Complex in Wasilla from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and is expected to host more than 1,000 guests, provide more than 200 home-delivered meals, have Santa and his elves giving gifts to children, and provide live holiday music.

Volunteers and donations are what make this celebration, in its 18th year, special, said Sharon Patchett, volunteer coordinator for the event.

“We are 100 percent all volunteer and donation-oriented,” she said. “We ask for no money and we accept no meals except for desserts on Christmas Day.”

Patchett said it is hard to estimate just how many people help from the community, as multiple schools, churches and business contribute each year.

“If I had to guess, I would say anywhere between 500 and a 1,000 people help. But you have schools doing fundraisers and churches that do charity drives, so it really is a community wide effort,” she said.

As this year’s celebration is expected to be the largest ever, the dinner was relocated from Wasilla High School to the Menard center to handle a larger crowd.

“We had over 1,000 people attend last year at the high school and this year we think we will pass that mark,” Patchett said.

With the additional participants expected there is greater need for volunteers and donations, she said. Although Patchett said organizers already have two-thirds of the volunteer spots filled, “We also never turn anyone away who wants to help. You just never know where you will need an extra hand or body to help out.”

The effort to make the dinner a success started last Saturday with decorations being put up. But the real work starts Dec. 23 and continues through Christmas, Patchett said.

“We have people putting up decorations, setting up tables and chairs, people cooking and just getting ready for the dinner,” she said. “The dinner is open to everyone and some people just need to have a good meal or just comfort of the surroundings.”

Anyone interested in attending the dinner or volunteering can contact Patchett at 373-6477.

Contact Lanier Hutcheson at lanier.hutcheson@frontiersman.com or 352-2265.