Moose Lodge spreads Christmas cheer

By INGRID CANTERBURY / Staff Reporter for the Southern Standard

Volunteers Jackie Howard and Tony Howard load boxes full of food at the Moose Lodge early Friday morning. The boxes were delivered to families in need just in time for Christmas dinner. (Ingrid Canterbury photo)

The McMinnville Moose Lodge delivered Christmas dinner just in the St. Nick of time to 93 families this year.

Volunteers met at the lodge Thursday before Christmas and packed 93 boxes with ham, potatoes, fruit and canned goods for families in need to be delivered in the early morning hours of Christmas eve.

“This is one of the community service projects that we look forward to each year,” said Don Turner, lodge governor. “This year we were able to put out 93 Christmas boxes.” The lodge provides the bulk of the money for the contents of the boxes, with some help from local businesses.

Some donations arrived late, after boxes were delivered, but that did not prevent the members of the lodge from distributing them.

“We owe thanks to Rev. Billy E. Crook, pastor of Old Free Will Baptist Church in Blue Springs, who donated to us 30 hams, which, in addition to the boxes, we passed out to people in need, including Families in Crisis,” said Turner.

Lodge members recommend the recipients of the boxes and shopping for the contents is done by John and Lil Hillis, who have been the driving force behind the project for many years. The lodge has distributed Christmas boxes for a long time, according to Turner.

“It goes back many, many years, far beyond me,” Turner said.