Spirit of Christmas at church dinner

For the past 27 years, Together in Christ, a group of churches in Newark, has sponsored a Community Shared Christmas Dinner.

It is held on Christmas Day at 1 p.m. at the Methodist Church, S. Main St., Newark.

Said Regina Krolak, "Each year I am filled with the Spirit of Christmas as we prepare for this dinner. The whole community takes part in some way. Gifts, pies, oranges, apples from the Apple Shed, poinsettias from Newark Florist, turkeys from our three local grocery stores, and money from all over, are all donated. But the real spirit is the people who attend and the volunteers who help."

Christmas can be a lonely time of the year for many people and for many reasons. A lost loved one, new in the community, family moved from town, separated, or divorced or financial problems. What ever the reason - "Don't spend Christmas alone."

Christmas carols are sung, volunteers come from all over, young, and old. Some want to give their children the experience of giving of themselves, for some, it is their Christmas each year. One volunteer from Ontario comes with her daughter who lives in Syracuse. They take care of all the pies and prepare the boxes for the usual 30-40 take out dinners that are delivered to shut-ins. Shut-ins receive the same dinner, gift, poinsettia, apple, orange and candy cane as those who attend the dinner. Members of Arcadia Hose Fire Company deliver all the dinners.

"We encourage people to come to the dinner rather than eat a delivered dinner alone, but many people cannot get out and we are glad to bring them their dinners."

Paul Murphy 331.3255 is in charge of transportation. For meals to be delivered call Regina at 331.5933. These services are for Newark and Town of Arcadia only.

The clean up is a big job, because they use dishes and many pot and pans. Said Krolak, "We are all quite tired at the end of the day but it is a good tired, it's fun and we meet nice people."

"I would like to encourage other towns to do this. I would be willing to help any one get started. It is not hard, because the Christmas Spirit of Love, Caring, Sharing is in all who take part!"

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