Although the weather was unusually warm and delightful the excitement of the season was in the air, as the members and friends of Trenton Cyrus Lodge came together to experience the joys of the holiday season. Brunch with Santa, a new tradition, which we hope will continue for years to come was launched by a dedicated crew of brothers.

The lodge dedicated $200 to provide breakfast for all participants in this event. Lead by our Kitchen Guru Brother George Sciarotta and his able head chef RW Chuck Nemeth along with Brothers Bollheimer, Wengryn, Young, Spencer, Topley, Galley, Gene, and PM Shaub the lodge was able to feed 51 people a great breakfast of pancakes, eggs, sausage, and all the extras. Edye Dumhart provided some decorating touches to the day through flower arrangements and other holiday garnishes. Barbara Fernandez brought along her girl scout daughters to help add to the pleasures of the day, while selling cookies the proceeds of which were donated to the cause. Background holiday music added to the magic of the day.

Suddenly at 11:30am there was a clutter in the lodge room - low and behold Santa appeared from the North Pole to visit the children of our lodge. It an effort to teach the lessons of charity, each child was asked to bring a present to give to Santa to share with children who make not be as fortunate as they are. The younger ones didn’t quite understand, but as the ages went up – the joy of sharing with Santa was shown all over the children’s faces. Santa was very happy and glad to donate his time to such a wonderful cause and lesson for the children.

On Monday morning, Brothers Bollheimer, Bozarth and Dumhart delivered to HomeFront, an agency dedicated to providing families that may be homeless or completely down on their luck with the support necessary to become and remain independent – www.homefrontnj.org – 26 presents and $260 in gift cards, a total estimated value of over $900. The staff of HomeFront was elated as these gifts would help them fill in some holes in their present’s distribution – at that point they had already prepared gifts for over 2,500 children of families that were supported by their efforts. It was an over-whelming experience for the brothers seeing how the efforts of the lodge were so warmly received, but that our contribution only began to scratch the surface of making these less fortunate families have a good holiday season.

The members of the lodge should be very proud that by providing this breakfast through their generous support, we were able to quadruple our ability to give back to the community. Many great ideas were shared after the breakfast as to how to make it better next year – look forward to your opportunity to get a great breakfast and make someone else’s Holiday a little happier next year – our goal for next year is $2500 in contributions.

Will you help us make it? Even if you can’t make the breakfast a cash donation will be converted into a gift card for some young person.

Thanks to Brothers Duffy, Harper, Carlisi, Eckel and Oliver for their generous financial support this year. My brothers, who brought their children along with a gift, as you bend down tonight to share their prayers before bedtime, give your children an extra hug from the lodge for their generous contributions.

Author:
Br. Howard Dumhart Jr.
Senior Warden