Fire Hall hosts Christmas dinner

For some 80 folks in Sisters, the Sisters Fire Hall was the center of celebration for the Christmas holiday.

Volunteers served a complete Christmas dinner with all the trimmings on Christmas Day. Hosted by the Sisters-Camp Sherman Firefighters Association, the meal included turkeys and hams provided by local churches, served with mashed potatoes and gravy, yams, dressing, salad, rolls and dessert prepared by volunteers.

Preparations started at 6 a.m. on Christmas Day with Chief Tay Robertson, Gail Butler, Les Schell, Dave Moyer, Sr. and Dave Moyer Jr. cooking the turkeys, hams, dressing and mashed potatoes and gravy using the kitchen provided by The Gallery Restaurant, which was closed for the holiday. The day before, volunteers had decorated the conference room with Christmas decorations. Other department volunteers and local residents appeared to prepare salads, heat rolls, and cook the yams.

The first guests arrived over an hour before food was to be served to enjoy visiting with friends over a cup of coffee. By the time dinner was served at 1 p.m., the room was filled with young families, single adults and seniors.

Chief Robertson welcomed the guests and recognized fire department volunteer Rita Hodge, who was completing her last year as coordinator for the dinner. She will be replaced next year by Denise Wheeler, another fire department volunteer, who was Rita’s understudy this year.

In an hour-and-a-half, everyone had eaten and some headed home with a “doggie bag” of food for another meal. Other guests stayed to enjoy visiting and to watch young children select Christmas toys from a table at the end of the room.

“I believe we had around 85 people here last year,” Chief Robertson said, “so we’re still seeing this as a popular event.”

The annual Christmas dinner was started by a local JayCee organization back in 1973, according to retired fire chief Don Rowe.

“At first, we gave out vouchers for a Christmas meal at the former Forest Café here in town,” Rowe explained. “Then, we moved the dinner to the former middle school where we used their kitchen to cook the meal ourselves.”

When the JayCee organization disbanded, a number of fire department volunteers in the club took over the event and it became their function, he added.