"A really good thing to do:" Volunteers deliver Christmas dinner to people's homes in Waukesha County
WAUKESHA (WITI) -- Not everyone has somewhere to go for Christmas, but each year, a group of Waukesha volunteers works to bring some holiday cheer to people's front doors!
For 21 years, Marcia Slowinski has worked to keep people from spending Christmas alone. She was back at it Christmas morning, at Saint William Catholic Church in Waukesha.
"There`s a number of people in the county who are alone or that are homebound who can`t get out or, just because of hard times, might have to go without a Christmas dinner," Slowinski said.
Slowinski joins about 60 volunteers to put together more than 320 boxed dinners for people who won't be leaving their house on Christmas.
"The information goes out through Interfaith of Waukesha, it goes out through the Department of Aging through Waukesha County, through the Salvation Army, through the Hope Center in Waukeska," Slowinski said.
Some of the volunteers say they can relate to the recipients of these meals.
"I spent many Christmases alone and I think this is a really good thing to do because it`s a tough time of year for a lot of people," volunteer LaRita Schmidt said.
Volunteers worked to stack the meals and another group of helpers loaded the dinners into their vehicles and started out on a delivery route. Each stop offers its own reward.
"It makes the rest of the day so much more enjoyable because you actually are able to realize how grateful you should be for what you have," volunteer Wanda Roth said.
These volunteers say they're happy to help others have a good Christmas, but they say they're never satisfied.
"Surprisingly enough, both myself and a lot of the volunteers sit back and say `this is what we can do better next year,' so we`re already getting ready for 2015," Slowinski said.
In order to put together those 320+ meals, it takes a combined 200+ pounds of turkey and ham, 85 pounds of potatoes and another 75 pounds of carrots. Obviously, that`s not cheap and Slowinski says the main donors who buy all that food are the same people donating their time on Christmas Day.