The Marshfield Elks #665 were busy spreading Christmas cheer this season by putting together and delivering 166 baskets of food items to families in Marshfield and surrounding areas.
The decades-long tradition brings together Elks members and their families to pack enough food for a few good meals, including treats for the kids, fresh fruit, and ham.
“It is an opportunity for us to help some of the families in the community during the holidays,” said Nick McCauley, Christmas Basket Chairman. “We internally raise the money needed, work with local schools and agencies for names of families in need, organize all logistics, pack the baskets and deliver them.”
Festival Foods welcomes the volunteers to its back room to put together the baskets the Thursday before delivery. With many hands to make light work, everything was wrapped up in just 1.5 hours.
“Festival is a great help with the program. We put in our large order with them and they allow us to package them on site. This makes everything very efficient,” McCauley said.
Delivery took place Dec. 15 by Elks members, a process which takes around 4 hours with the help of up to 60 volunteers.
The program is made possible through plenty of volunteers and the efforts of Elks members to raise monetary donations to cover food costs.
“The Elks are always looking for new members that are interested in volunteerism and giving back and being involved in the community,” said member Josh Kilty, PER. “The Christmas basket program is only a portion of what we actually do throughout the community, and we are always looking for more ways as an organization to give back.”
Anyone interested in an Elks membership can reach out to Kilty at [email protected] or 715-305-5629.
