CHIMACUM — They had to split the volunteer shifts in two at the annual free Tri-Area Community Center Christmas Dinner to accommodate the more than 70 people in Jefferson County who wanted to help out.
Candy Drollinger signed up early and drew delivery duty, taking 32 grocery bags full of meals to senior and disabled people at the Admiralty Apartments in downtown Port Townsend.
The load was light compared with Drollinger’s life right now.
“This year has been very difficult,” said the single mother of two adolescent girls.
Drollinger’s partner left her, she’s scrambled for any kind of a job since being laid off as a computer programmer two years ago, and her children are visiting grandparents for the holidays.
“This is the first year in 17 years that I haven’t been with family,” she said.
“I could sit around and have a pity party or give what I have to give.”
Residents trickled down into the vestibule to pick up their meals, and Drollinger delivered a few right to the door.
“We can all survive, but it’s nice to save money,” said Doug Hurlburt with a smile, picking up his meal.
Back at the community center, longtime volunteer Dell Noack matched up driver names with delivery lists as the first people began trickling in for their holiday meal.
There was a greeter outside with a merry bell and a “Merry Christmas” for each arrival and a greeter at the dining room door.
Donna Valaske brought her neighbor Thelma Davis, 79, early to give her a chance to rest before the tables got crowded.
Davis is only a week out of the hospital and still recovering from a torn esophagus.
“We’re just all by ourselves, little orphans,” she said, beaming.
By the time deliveries had been made, the first rush of what coordinator Chris Eagan predicted would be 300 diners had finished, with some lining up for some turkey, dressing and fixings to take home.
The annual Christmas and Thanksgiving dinners at the center in Chimacum are a joint project by the St. Vincent de Paul Society of St. Mary’s Star of the Sea Catholic Church and Olympic Peninsula Community Action Programs, and it’s entirely self-supporting, Eagan said.
Diners, many of whom come as much for the sense of fellowship as need, make donations as they enter, and, miraculously, there’s always enough.
“People have been very, very generous,” Eagan said.
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Julie McCormick is a freelance writer and photographer living in Port Townsend. Phone her at 360-385-4645 or e-mail juliemccormick10@gmail.com.