On November 30th, Indian Creek Foundation hosted our annual Holiday Friendship Dinner. To continue to protect our program members and residents, this year’s event was virtual. As much as we miss our big group dinners from past years, we’ve really gotten the concept of group fun over Zoom down to a science to make sure it’s as close to the real thing as we can get.
After months of planning, the dinner finally kicked off on Wednesday afternoon when our chef, Christopher Lutz, arrived at Franconia Mennonite Church in Telford to get to work with his small but mighty team. Dinner this year was stuffed chicken caprese served with smashed potatoes. On the side we had mixed vegetables, salad, and rolls, with tasty cookies for dessert. The dinners were packaged carefully and ready to serve hot for our volunteer pickups.
Holiday Dinner Deliveries Rely on Volunteers
From staff, to Board members, to Indian Creek family members, the holiday dinner is an all hands on deck volunteer event. We rely on the generosity of so many faithful supporters of our mission to make sure hot meals get delivered to our Day Program members as well as residents in our Residential Care Program, Unlicensed Residential Program, and Lifesharing Program.
Along with their meals, holiday dinner participants received a package of dining supplies for easy cleanup and a lovely poinsettia as a centerpiece for their tables. As Chef Christopher and his team packaged our meals on Wednesday, we greeted a steady stream of volunteers arriving to take their precious cargo out into the community. Indian Creek Foundation has 24 residential homes in the area staffed by licensed caregivers, as well as many individuals living independently or with friends or family who benefit from our care services. Volunteers headed out with hot meals to deliver to Souderton, Telford, Harleysville, Quakertown, Doylestown, and beyond.
Celebrating the Season with Friends and Live Music
All meals were delivered by 5:30 so that our friends could enjoy dinner together around their tables in each of their homes. The next segment of our evening got underway at 6:30 on Zoom. Since many of our participants haven’t seen each other in person for a while, these Zoom events are a great opportunity for reconnection across the miles. We always have a fun time of greeting and catching up when we get together virtually.
This year, we welcomed Maureen Stanko in her first year as our holiday dinner entertainer. Maureen is a mom, teacher, and musician who launched the So Much to Give initiative through Pillars of Light and Love. As the mom of Nicholas, who has Autism, Maureen saw the need for more opportunities in the community for teens and young adults with disabilities. Maureen shared with us about the So Much to Give Café in Skippack and invited us all to come visit!
Maureen presented a fun mix of live performance and pre-recorded videos of many great holiday music favorites. She led the singing and played guitar while encouraging lots of audience participation. Everyone joined in the singing, and even brought their own instruments to the Zoom session to play along!
As we wrapped up the hour, we did our signature “Big Goodbye” to make sure everyone had a chance to connect with long-time friends. Whether our annual Holiday Friendship Dinner will continue over Zoom or gather us together in person once again next year, we are all certainly looking forward to celebrating again.
Thank you to the Sponsors of our Holiday Friendship Dinner
We are so thankful to each of our Holiday Friendship Dinner sponsors who make this event possible each year. We appreciate the generous support of many family and friend sponsors who donated their time and money to make our meal special.
We would also like to thank:
- Franconia Mennonite Church for the use of their kitchen and building for meal distribution
- Avient/Fiberline as the main dinner sponsor
- Home Depot in Hilltown for donating poinsettias
- Lowe’s in Hatfield for donating poinsettias
Indian Creek Foundation serves adults with disabilities throughout the community with Day and Residential programs. For more information about Residential and Community Based Services, call 267-203-1500 ext. 153. For more information on our Day Services Program, call 267-203-1500 ext. 132.