WORTON — Embracing their inner holiday elf, area Lions Club members and 4-H’ers met the challenges of mid-December snow head-on — adjusting to freezing temperatures and tough driving conditions much like we imagine Santa does routinely.
On Sunday and Monday, Dec. 14 and 15 at the Kent County Community Center, they sorted and then boxed up thousands of pounds of canned goods and other nonperishable food items and enough toys and other gifts for more than 600 youth from newborn to age 18 to fulfill the mission of the annual Christmas Basket program.
But there were fewer helpers.
With as much as 6 inches of snow on the ground in some parts of the county, schools were shuttered and some back roads were not navigable on Dec. 15 when the boxes were packed with goodies.
And the helpers who could get to the community center in Worton on Dec. 15 worked longer hours, some starting their day as early as 8 a.m.
The last truck didn’t pull out until 3:30 p.m., headed to Chestertown where 183 families would receive boxes.
Still, the all-volunteer initiative ensured that hundreds of Kent County families would have a merry Christmas.
“Somehow it always works out,” said longtime Galena Lions Club member Debbie Conner, who has been the program’s chief elf, i.e., the de facto program director, since 2022.
“We have a caring community, thank goodness,” Conner told The Evening Enterprise in a telephone interview on Dec. 22.
She’s been involved with the program for so long she can’t remember when she started.
“It’s rewarding to see how a community like Kent County, that has so many little communities, comes together and makes this awesome … an awesome amount of toys, an awesome amount of food,” Conner said.
The sentiment is shared by Beth Hill, principal agent associate for 4-H youth development in Kent County.
“Our community is incredibly generous in both donations to the cause as well as their dedication of time, energy and resources to support this event,” Hill wrote in an email to The Evening Enterprise.
When Hill’s family was unable to help load up toys at her office this year, a handful of 4-H families stepped up.
“They are so amazing and willing to give! I am the luckiest 4-H educator with just a terrific 4-H family,” Hill wrote in the email.
While the history of the Christmas Basket program is a little fuzzy, it has been going on for decades and the late Rosalie “Roey” Goodall is credited with becoming involved early.
Wife of the then-president of Dixon Valve & Coupling Co., which relocated its headquarters to Chestertown in 1976, Goodall worked tirelessly with the Department of Social Services and area churches to make sure that as many less-fortunate families as possible would have a Christmas dinner and something under their Christmas tree.
Goodall and her anonymous helpers made up the Christmas Basket Committee, and that’s what they delivered. Christmas baskets.
The name stuck, while it’s boxes — with the Dixon logo — that are now delivered.
They are filled identically with nourishing food such as canned ham, cereal, canned vegetables and fruits, pancake mix, pasta, peanut butter and jelly, and desserts.
Plus, there are coupons — bumped up this year to $25 with an extended expiration date of mid-January — that can be redeemed at Sassy River Market in Galena and Bayside Market in Rock Hall.
Since 2000, the program has been led by the Lions clubs in Betterton-Still Pond, Chestertown, Galena, Millington and Rock Hall.
Sixteen years ago, Kent County 4-H’ers came on board. They have their own toy drive but also partner with Jennifer’s School of Dance, the fire companies’ Santa Run and a teddy bear toss at Kent County High School — among others.
Hats, gloves, socks, underwear and some clothing also are given out.
Teenagers receive gift cards to Dunkin’ Donuts, McDonald’s and Dollar General.
Larger families receive Visa, Walmart and Dollar General gift cards.
Initially, weather and road conditions did not seem to be a factor for the 4’H’ers on Sunday, according to Beth Hill. She estimated that 70-some 4-H’ers and their families were able to get to the community center on Dec. 14 to help sort the toys, and they completed their task in about three and a half hours, what Hill described as “record time.”
However, “the freezing temps and closing schools on Monday very much affected us, as we lost the 4-H and non-4-H youth who help from the high school,” Hill said.
Christine Clark, the community schools specialist at Kent County Middle School, had lined up nine members of the National Junior Honor Society to assist Lions Club members with sorting food on Sunday.
But only Clark, eighth grader Ellie Legg and sixth grader Keegan Owens were able to get there.
Coincidentally, Owens and Legg also are 4-H’ers.
Clark proudly pointed out that KCMS students had collected more than 1,000 canned goods in the school system’s food drive.
She said Kent County Middle School students “1,000% understand the meaning and value of their hard work.”
As he was sorting donated canned goods and shelf-stable pantry items, 11-year-old Owens was asked to share his thoughts about the large amount of food that would be distributed through the Christmas Basket program.
“I’m thinking about how fortunate I am,” he said.
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Since this is an annual undertaking, financial contributions are always welcome.
Donations can be mailed to: the Kent County Christmas Basket Committee, c/o Debbie Conner, 31901 Jim Davis Road, Galena, MD 21635.
