By Marie Kennedy, The Mountain Times
The Mount Hood Lions Club members have outdone themselves again. The community showed up in large numbers for the Christmas Toy Drive dinner. Upwards of 170 tickets were sold, and word has it that they ran out of food this year, which is to say, they had just enough to feed everyone. The annual dinner in support of the Christmas Basket program is one of the Lions Club’s most popular events.
The food was amazing, ham and baron of beef with all the trimmings, served buffet style. Attendees were allowed to grab a to-go box instead of a plate if they wanted to eat their supper later.
Carol Norgard is the acting Lions Club president and talked a bit about decorating the clubhouse for the evening. She said, “There were about 8 or 10 of us over the course of a month that put those decorations together.” She added, “And then we’re there Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday morning to do the decorating during the week of. I missed Saturday morning so I was excited to see how it turned out.”
The Lions Club decorating elf team was led by Sarah O’Dowd, who, according to Norgard, specializes in such things. Large candy-like twists were hung from the ceiling, colorful garland and streamers and other handmade decorations filled the hall. Behind the food table sat huge candy canes and cupcake decorations that looked almost good enough to eat. Tables of donated gifts and food were set out on display along two walls in the room, with more late arrivals being dropped off.
After the meal, attendees holding raffle tickets waited for the drawing. Sarah O’Dowd and the Grinch pulled the tickets and handed out prizes that had been donated by local businesses. Rumor has it that the Grinch was actually husband Brennan O’Dowd, so the two of them made a winning team.
The event supports the Hoodland Community Christmas Basket program that has been collecting goods for the community since 1987. When Norgard worked for the Fire Department, she was asked to help out with the Christmas Baskets. Since then, she’s been managing the working parts, including collecting the family names, collecting the goods (and storing them) and getting them out to the community.
While the end goal hasn’t changed much, the method for getting the presents and food out to community families in need has matured, thankfully. As the donations and the community needs grew, new processes were created. “They used to do a lot of it in the elementary school. They would collect all of this and store it in people’s garages and spare rooms,” Norgard said, “I started doing some things to make it more functional, like tracking with a spreadsheet.” And they have their own storage these days which helps.
It’s the volunteers for the Christmas Basket program, the Mount Hood Lions, and the community itself who came out to support the evening that made it such a success. The Mount Hood Lions Club created another delightful event, and The Hoodland Community Christmas Basket program helped local families celebrate the holidays in style.