By Emily Younker
eyounker@joplinglobe.com
Wynona Dugan has looked forward to the Christmas lunch at First Community Church in Joplin for the past 35 years.
So when Dugan — a 49-year member of the church — found her yard blanketed in snow Friday, she was worried.
“When we got up this morning and saw it looked so bad, we were just sick,” she said. “But I got up and dressed, just in case.”
Dugan was one of many volunteers who turned out Friday — despite the snow — to help with Christmas lunches offered free to the community at local churches and shelters.
“It’s frustrating when you get all this stuff together and you might have to cancel,” Dugan said. “I would’ve felt bad. I think we would’ve all felt bad.”
David Mason, who organized the meal at First Community Church, said the decision not to cancel the lunch because of snow was a no-brainer.
“A lot of these people today, they’re depending on us,” he said, his eyes brimming with tears. “It’s kind of weird to cry about it, but if we don’t do it, they don’t have a Christmas.”
But the weather did put a damper on the crowd. Mason said he planned to feed 800 people Friday, given that last year the church served 750 and ran out of food.
Instead, about 120 people received meals, and church members delivered another 130 meals, Mason said.
“We didn’t have the turnout that we would have liked to have had, but it’s understandable given the weather,” Mason said. “Mother Nature got us this year, but we were still able to help that many people, so we were happy about that.”
Barbara Stephens, of Joplin, said she was leery of the road conditions when she and her husband, Joe, attempted to make the trip to the church for lunch.
“It’s hard for us to get out, but we put forth the effort to get here today and I’m glad we did,” she said. “I just said to Joe, ‘We wouldn’t have this (type of meal) if we were at home.’”
The weather also dwindled the lunch crowd at the Carthage Crisis Center, operations director Marilyn Bisbee said.
Instead of holding it at First United Methodist Church of Carthage, which has been the case for several years, the center held it at its own building, Bisbee said.
“We looked outside and saw the condition of our parking lot and determined that was the best thing to do,” she said. “We didn’t want to put people at risk coming out.”
The center also fed about half the number of people it usually does during its Christmas lunch, Bisbee said.
“The weather obviously has kept some people home, unfortunately,” she said. “We just felt like we had to modify things because of the weather.”
Bisbee said that despite having to use Plan B, the lunch went well.
“There is (disappointment) in the sense that a lot of people count on us this time of year,” she said. “At the same time, I’m sure a lot of people are just trying to stay in out of the weather rather than get out and risk accidents. And it’s turning out OK.”
The snow might have had a positive impact on meals served at the Salvation Army and Souls Harbor.
Mary Johnson, of the Salvation Army, said she expected to feed about 300 people Friday.
“We’ve got a pretty good crowd up here today,” she said. “A lot of them come in to get in out of the cold. It’s cold out there.”
‘Good time’
Jan Burres, Souls Harbor shelter manager, said the shelter fed 86 people at its Christmas brunch and delivered another 15 breakfasts on Friday.
“It (the weather) didn’t seem to hold them back much,” she said of the turnout. “We just had a really good time.”
