Isolated seniors in need across Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows will be receiving a special dinner along with gifts and treats for Christmas this year.
Around 250 seniors have registered for the fifth annual seniors’ Christmas dinner, hosted by Community Services, that will be by delivery this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
This year the seniors’ Christmas dinner is being put on with the support of the Maple Ridge Pitt Meadows Katzie Seniors Network, Meadow Ridge Rotary Club and the Salvation Army, Ridge Meadows Ministries.
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The Salvation Army will be cooking the turkey dinners that will feature all the trimmings and they will be packaging them up for delivery. Then drivers, 37 of them, will pick up the meals and deliver them, along with bags of goodies and gifts, to the seniors between 11:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. on Dec. 24.
Eileen Dwillies, who is on the board of the Seniors Network, put out a call to her friends and 12 of them baked three dozen cookies each for the dinner. Cookies included sugar, shortbread and gingerbread.
“They are all in different shapes and they are all decorated,” said Dwillies.
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Then Dwillies used a grant from the City of Maple Ridge to purchase five fruit cakes that she sliced up to add to the goody bags.
Registered seniors will also be receiving presents including stuffed animals, chocolates, watches and note books.
Meadow Ridge Rotary put all the gift bags together.
The final day to register for the dinner was Friday, Dec. 18.
Their aim is to reach seniors most in need, said Heather Treleaven coordinator of the Seniors Network.
cflanagan@mapleridgenews.com
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