HANCOCK - Thanksgiving dinner is one of the biggest events of the year for Little Brothers Friends of the Elderly, with the help of 350 volunteers.
The organization is seeking that volume of volunteers again this year.
Volunteering for Little Brothers is as simple as making a phone call and becoming available to help the organization for the holidays, said Cathy Aten, volunteer program director with LBFE.
"We can let them know what our needs are and we have lots of needs yet," she said.
Little Brothers seeks volunteers during the holidays to help with food preparation in the morning, serve and clean up at a dinner, deliver hot meals or drive elderly guests to and from the dinners and also bake pies for dessert.
"We do need lots of help," Aten said.
For Thanksgiving to run successfully every year, the organization seeks a minimum of 350 volunteers.
"Four hundred makes it run very smoothly," she said. "We have 11 different sites and those sites vary in what they need."
Some sites still need help with food preparations and some sites have volunteers on board already, she said. An individual can be any age to help out.
"Depending on the age, what they would do on the day would vary by age and be age appropriate," she said.
Aten said the organization is hoping to round up most of the volunteers by the end of the week to get a good head count for Thanksgiving help.
"We at least want to know the bulk of who is helping and then we use that last week to fill in any loose ends, but it's really helpful if people call us as soon as possible if they want to help and then we can work with them," she said.
The organization also seeks Christmas help to prepare about 200 Christmas food boxes, filled with a specific assortment of non-perishable food wrapped in Christmas wrapping paper.
"We will do that on Thursday evening, Dec. 3," she said. "Once they are ready, we need volunteers to deliver them between then and Christmas Day."
Also, the volunteers are asked to take some time and visit with people they deliver boxes to, she said.
"The visit, to us, is just as important as giving the box out and they love that," she said. "Think about all of us and how important it is for us to be with other people during the holiday season and for elderly people who have been used to that throughout their lives and now may be alone, for some of them, this may be the only visit they get during the holiday season."
In addition to food gift boxes, LBFE also puts together about 100 personalized gifts. For Christmas Day help, the organization seeks the help of 350 volunteers which tends to be more difficult than Thanksgiving, Aten said.
Also in need this holiday season, The Salvation Army continuously looks for volunteers to help ring the bell at various donation kettle sites.
To volunteer this holiday season, contact Little Brothers Friends of the Elderly at 482-6944 or The Salvation Army at 482-3420.
Stacey Kukkonen can be reached at skukkonen@mininggazette.com.