PINE RIVER — Pine River’s Christmas for Kids program has been around for over 20 years, and this year more than 200 children served with Christmas cheer.
The Pine River branch of the program was founded by the Smith family, the same family that was once responsible for the free Thanksgiving dinner.
It has since been taken over by the Pine River-Backus Family Center, where LuAnn Gravelle, office manager and food shelf coordinator, said donors have made the program a success again.
“In terms of donations, we have been very blessed again this year with people in our community and surrounding areas supporting us,” Gravelle said. “That’s so great. We’ve helped over 70 families and over 200 children this year. It’s more than last year.
“With the help of all the donors we have, we’ve been able to give people a really nice Christmas and a good start so hopefully they can fill in the gaps,” she said.
Gravelle said it was immediately apparent that the need was greater this year than last year. There was an increase in applications. The local population cooperated to raise the necessary funds.
“We had some local businesses doing some great employee challenges and bringing gifts and toys to share,” Gravelle said. ‘That was very nice. They’ve been doing that for a few years, or at least since I’ve been here.’
Younger volunteers got involved as students from the Pine River-Backus High School National Honors Society stepped in to help. They helped Gravelle load the bags with gifts.
Travis Grimler is a staff writer for the weekly newspaper Pineandlakes Echo Journal in Pequot Lakes/Pine River. He can be reached at 218-855-5853 or travis.grimler@pineandlakes.com.
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