A hometown newspaper with a local office, local owners & lots of local news
A hometown newspaper with a local office, local owners & lots of local news
Raffy Johnson and Paul Buse bring out another tray of meatballs for server Adelle Crotteau, who volunteered to help at the free community Christmas meal in Cloquet with her husband Travis and 13-year-old daughter Lilly.
Wendy Bakke and her daughter Jessica worked both sides of the serving line on Christmas Day at the Cloquet VFW.
Joe Scott loads dessert containers into a bag for Denny Johnson to deliver to Community Memorial Hospital Saturday.
Rosa Johnson greets her grandson, Alex, while her son (and Alex's dad) Raffy squeezes past on a mission to the kitchen. The Johnson family have long been organizing the annual Christmas dinner in Cloquet, which moved from Zion Lutheran Church to the Cloquet VFW.
Volunteers threw a massive dinner party on Christmas Day in Cloquet, for anyone who wanted to attend.
In total, more than 450 people enjoyed ham and meatballs, mashed potatoes, green beans, a roll and dessert Saturday, courtesy of the Carlton County Disabled American Veterans chapter, which organized and cooked the annual community meal this year.
Most of those diners ate at home after picking up meals to go. Volunteers delivered to the Cloquet senior high-rise apartments, workers at Community Memorial Hospital, and a very special World War II veteran and his wife in Esko.
"We had several last-minute call-ins from people who said they tested positive for Covid and wanted to stay away from family," said DAV treasurer and holiday meal organizer Raffy Johnson, explaining that they were happy to add those folks to the delivery list.
Volunteers helped with cooking and packaging the food, bringing orders out to cars in the Cloquet VFW parking lot and delivering as well. The event started with a huge rush right at 11 a.m. "It was nuts, everybody came at the same time," said Wendy Bakke, adding that they had some "huge" orders to fill and lots of running in and out to bring meals to cars waiting outside.
Volunteers came from many places, and many also gave their time for past Thanksgiving or Christmas meals. In addition to the DAV regulars like Johnson, George Wilton, Paul Buse, Denny Johnson, Gary Dahl and others, the bantam boys hockey team was there, along with three Superior brothers - Joe, Terry and Mike Scott - and many others.
Johnson said the numbers on Christmas Day were about half what they were for the Thanksgiving meal the DAV also provided, but that was a record-setting event. They count the buns to figure out how many meals are served, revealed cook George Wilton. There weren't many people dining in, due to the pandemic, Johnson guessed.
Mark Lassila savored a sit-down meal. He's single, and doesn't cook much for himself. He's a regular at the Christmas meals since his sister quit cooking, and he knows Raffy and his wife, he said, and his father was a veteran, so it felt right.
"Plus I knew it was going to be good," said Lassila, who grew up in Esko. "The ham is excellent."
For many of the volunteers, it was a family affair, including mother-and-daughter teams Diandra and Calianah Schroeder and Jenny and Maleah Anderson.
"I thought it was really fun and nice for everyone," said 10-year old Maleah. "It was very caring. And it made me feel happy."
