Eagles Christmas events on for 2021

This holiday season the Havre Eagles Club will be holding its Christmas Toy Drive as well as a more traditional Christmas Dinner and are looking for volunteers for the latter.

Eagles Auxiliary President Candace Dess said this year’s Christmas Dinner will be more normal than last year when the club was operating exclusively by delivery due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dess said it will be held from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Christmas Day, but they are still doing deliveries and allowing people to take food home and anyone who wants to do so can call the North Central Senior Citizens Center at 406-265-5464 between Dec. 1 and Dec. 23 to register.

She said the dinner has been growing every year since it began and she expects that will continue in 2021, especially since last year went so smoothly despite the drastic changes they needed to make.

However, she said, the dinner will be short its long-time organizer and Eagles Club Member Tom Farnham who passed away earlier this year.

She said Farnham ran the dinner with funds from anonymous donors, and since his passing the club has lost access to many of these donors and contacts that the rest of the club was not privy to.

Dess said because of this the club, and the committee now running the dinner, are reaching out to the community for donations.

One thing the club is also looking for is volunteers for the dinner, she said, and anyone interested can call 406-265-9551.

She said volunteers will have one very busy day and the club will take all the help they can get.

Dess said the Eagles are also setting up their Toy Drive which accepts donations of new, unwrapped gifts for children in need between the ages of 1 and 14.

This year, though, they will be collecting hats and gloves for the children as well, she said.

“We’re really excited about the toy drive,” she said. “It helps so many kids in our community and it’s a really good way to give back, and it’s getting more successful every year.”

She said donation boxes will be set up at Walmart, North 40 Outfitters, Gary & Leo’s Fresh Foods, BenFranklin Crafts, Floren’s Hill County Printing and the Eagles Club Nov. 22.

The toys will be distributed to children the week of Christmas, and monetary donations will go toward getting more gifts for the older children, who often don’t see as many donated toys aimed at their age group, as well as household necessities and food boxes for the families.

Dess said the club is also reaching out to community members and local businesses to adopt families this year and they can call 406-262-0498 to sign up.

She said the last two years of the toy drive have been very successful, even with the COVID-19, which required gift recipients to make appointments to pick up their donations.

She said given the fact that the pandemic is still ongoing they will likely do something similar this year.