By Sarah Wallace

Community gears up for annual Christmas Dinner

Dec 11, 2015 | 5:33 AM

For a 14th year community members in Prince Albert are helping to put together the 2015 Community Christmas Dinner.

This year the dinner will be held at Parkland Hall on Christmas Day from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m.

“Everyone needs someone on Christmas Day,” said coordinator Isabelle Impey.

She said the dinner is open to everyone, from the less fortunate to those who are away from family and friends over the holiday.

 “For us it’s wonderful that people can [come to the dinner] and not be alone,” Impey said.

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Last year, between takeout meals and those who attended the event, Impey said they fed around 2500 people.

“That’s a lot of groceries. It’s always difficult to actually be precise in terms of how much groceries to get because we don’t know who will come. Everyone is welcome and it’s no cost. People who need to be there we want them there. We sort of do a guess and so far so good,” she said.

This year they will not only have full turkeys but they will also be doing turkey rolls.

Impey said they are also preparing to peel hundreds of potatoes.

“It’s just incredible the volunteers that come and do the prep, people have been so wonderful about coming in. They come the day before Christmas and do all the prep. Then Christmas Day we have people come and do the cooking, we do start very early in the morning, like 5 a.m.,” she said.

There is also some prep done on Dec. 23.

Impey said they are always looking for volunteers to come and help out.

“One of the things we also do is we ask the volunteers to prepare gifts for the kids and they do treat bags. [Volunteers] help make sure kids all get something before they leave.”

They also need volunteers to be drivers to deliver meals to people with reduced mobility or who can’t leave their house for whatever reason.

Impey said they have a lot of deliveries to make Christmas Day so any help is welcome.

“We’ve had a really good response of volunteers and I’m hoping this year it will be the same. We have the ones I called ‘old faithful’s’ that come back every year, they don’t bother calling they just show up, they are so wonderful,” she said.

Anyone looking to volunteer can call Impey at (306) 980-7794 and (306) 922-3071.

“If there’s someone out there with an extra turkey or stovetop stuffing or something we can use, we certainly would accept any kind of donation,” said Impey.

The dinner has a number of sponsors who helped put it together, The First Nations Forum, Bernice Sayese Center, St. Vincent Du Paul, Jubilation and Kateri House.

swallace@panow.com

On Twitter: @sarahthesquid