Archive: Around Town

Mary Searles

When the Lansing Food Pantry got “it” all together for the annual Christmas Party last Monday night, they proved beyond the shadow of a doubt that they do know how to throw a party! As with any other party, there had been advance planning, organizing and coordinating by lots of warm bodies before the doors opened.

This has been happening on an annual basis at least since Mary Searles became director of the Lansing Food Pantry over 11 years ago. Mary was dressed for the occasion in custom-made red reindeer antlers as over 218 Lansing residents enjoyed the cookies, punch, and presents along with the regular food distribution.

“This is a huge project and it takes months of work by many, many people,” according to Searles, who was drafting thank you letters to those people when interviewed by Lansing Star Online for this article.

Charlotte Wilson

Diane Skroback

Paul Southard

A party would just not be a party without refreshments and, once again, The Tuesday Quilters provided those. Several were also on hand to serve punch, coffee, milk, homemade cookies and other treats. A fanciful candy cane created from cup cakes was such a work of art that no one would eat it! We can report that all the other delicacies were plentiful and delicious,

Diane Skroback, wearing her own version of Santa’s red cap, handed out the sacks of presents to the youngsters and did the final book work that she and fellow volunteer Margaret Haring started back at the October Food Pantry when the children first signed up to receive gifts. After the final sign up at the November Food Pantry, Diane and Margaret divide the lists. They make a tag for each requested gift and make those available within their respective congregations (All Saints Catholic and Lansing United Methodist) to parishioners who will buy the presents, gift wrap them and bring them to the churches at least a week before the party so they can be sorted and packed.

The current system was in place and working well when Diane and Margaret started working together, so they have kept it going. In addition to asking the children what they’d like to have, distributing the tags to prospective buyers, and collecting the presents, there is the checking them in, packing into individually “coded” sacks and, on the night of the party, making sure each sack gets to the right child. The two always make sure each child gets at least two presents, an article of clothing and a toy. The generosity of the community was evident in the number of colorfully wrapped presents awaiting delivery.

Charlotte Wilson and her sister staffed a table handing out another gift from the community for each Food Pantry client: cheerful tote bags in green or red stripes, with Christmas motif fabric pockets and multi colored handles, filled with personal care products.

Lansing High School teacher Kim Smith organized the food drive in the Lansing School System that collected over two tons of food to add to that ordinarily distributed. Mary Searles said the students worked so hard, even “decorating the boxes that carried the food here to the distribution point.” That food, by the way, was loaded onto trucks by the school custodians, hauled up the hill to the church and then unloaded by them.

Nancy B. Myers

Nancy B. Myers, attired in a Christmas red blazer, had put in “too many hours to count” prior to Monday, getting every detail perfectly meshed for this party. She spent most of the evening circulating, “just to make sure it’s all coming together”.

Such a turnout meant the Fellowship Hall was filled to capacity with tables full of food, hungry people to receive it, children eager for a peek at their presents as they enjoyed the extra treats from the Tuesday Quilters, and the volunteers who made it all happen.

In the midst of the party, though, there were moments of sadness whenever the recent death of long-time Food Pantry volunteer Loren Montague was mentioned. As Mary Searles explained his immense role, “He was my right hand, my left hand and my around-the-middle hand!”

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