The Powell Sertoma Club hopes to meet its goal of helping to provide at least 50 holiday meals to needy families in Delaware County this Christmas.
The meals are sent to local churches, the Andrews House in Delaware, and Delaware schools where volunteers who know the families in need are asked to deliver the meals in order to protect the recipients’ privacy.
Over the last 10 years, the Powell Sertoma Club, with the help of the Olentangy Rotary Club, the Powell Kiwanis Club, the Southern Delaware County Real Estate Association, the Powell Chamber of Commerce and other businesses and individuals, have raised or donated funds to help needy families in Delaware County.
Larry Coolidge, founding member of the Powell Sertoma Club, said that providing holiday meals to needy families is important because “it’s just helping people.”
“Not everyone is as privileged as some people,” he added.
As he put it, “Everyone has their ups and downs and we just hope to help people when they’re in the down period of their lives.”
Coolidge has been involved in supplying holiday meals for local families at Thanksgiving and Christmas for the past 11 years. In that time, he has received many notes of thanks from recipients. He recalled one note that he received from a little boy who had received a Thanksgiving meal. It read: “Thank you very much for the turkey for Thanksgiving; we were going to have pizza.”
He also recalled one volunteer telling him that she had delivered a Thanksgiving meal, and she and the recipient had ended up crying on the front porch for 10 minutes. The recipient then said, “I know there’s a family that needs this more than I do.” Volunteers managed to put together another meal on short notice to give to that family.
Each holiday meal feeds six people and the cost of one meal, prepared by Kroger, is $45. To date, 1,061 holiday dinners have been delivered to needy families with more than $45,000 raised. If you’re interested in donating, donations can be sent to Powell Sertoma Club, 78 W. Olentangy St., Powell OH 43065, or made through PayPal at http://www.powellsertoma.org.
All donations are welcome, he said. Coolidge said donors should keep in mind that donations are tax-deductible and “they all go to needy families,” and that “it’s a feel-good thing.”
