A Better Christmas from The Redmen

Twenty-two years ago it came to the attention of the Redmen Lodge in Fruitland Md. that there were 4 local families in need of help for Christmas. They answered the call and it became a tradition to reach out to families in need every year since. This year the Lodge was able to assist more than 90 families with food and toys to make Christmas a reality for them.




Here Don & Dot Braithwaite of the Redmens Lodge along with many other members gathered this Sunday to wrap the toys that were to be delivered on Christmas Eve. As the toys were
wrapped and sorted for the families they
were bagged, tagged and stored in an adjacent room to the Lodge hall. I didn't get an exact count on toys but as you can see there were plenty to be delivered on Christmas Eve.

As some of the members wrapped toys other worked to fill boxes with food. Here Tony Johnson works with the dry goods that had been collected. Boxed foods like cereals, Macaroni & Cheese, loaves of bread and the like were boxed and labeled for each family. Perishable items such as milk, eggs, & meats were kept in the coolers until the morning of December 24 and were placed with each box for delivery at that time

Many members of the Lodge donated their

time and vehicles to make the deliveries

as well as members of the Eastern Shore Chapter

of the Antique Truck Club of America. Much of the food was donated and purchased from the Fruitland Food Lion store. Many of the canned goods were collected by students at the Wicomico County Applied Technology Center on College ave here in Salisbury. The Redmen also received some private donations for this annual project and money donated by the Shuffleboard League and Dart League at the Lodge was also earmarked for the the Christmas delivery.

Seen at right is Mrs. Pat Stevenson, the coordinator for the project. Pat has been with this event since it's inception 22 years ago and ensures that all runs as smoothly as possible on Delivery Day.

Thanks to the Lodge and it's members more than 90 families have a Christmas this year they may not have had otherwise. Thank you Redmen Tribe #149 and Pocahontas Council # 61.

UPDATE: I was also asked to include that in addition to this program the Redmen also donated $2000.00 to the Bless Our Children Campaign @ WBOC-TV