ST. GEORGE, Utah — St. George community members continued a decade-long tradition at Elk Lodge to celebrate Christmas with those less fortunate.
For Marshall Monserret, providing a catered meal and gifts to anyone who comes is all it takes to bring a smile to his face.
“Things have happened in this last little while, but I just refuse to let it ruin my day,” said Marshall Monserret. “I usually always have a smile on it's pretty rare to not see me smiling.”
Monserret came with his friend Michelle Lassig.
“I'm just glad I'm here,” Lassig said. “It's because he signed me up.”
Monserret jokingly kneeled before her when a shortcut from the streets they live on proved to be a faster way to the lodge, where the less fortunate received a free midday Christmas dinner and gift handout.
It was a blessing to Monserret, who’s just getting back on his feet.
“I was born and raised in Salt Lake City, Utah. I’ve struggled with an addiction for a lot of years of my life. I have 18 months clean now,” he said.
But there were no frowns like those on both the giving and receiving end Wednesday.
“I think you could say that this is the most purest form of love, what is going on here. These people take their time to donate their Christmas to come and give to people that are maybe less unfortunate,” Monserret said. “I think it's truly the purest form of love there is.”
It wasn’t just the gift of a good meal to the more than 200 adults and children in need who came. Music was in the air along with Santa himself.
Despite a hard night’s work, he and more than 100 volunteers provided free toys for the young and hats, gloves, scarves, blankets, and toiletries at no charge for the not-so-young.
Crystal Littlejohn, who came with her mom Linda and her autistic daughter Trinity, repeated what many said: It was important on Christmas to have the camaraderie of family and others.
“Christmas means family time,” Littlejohn said, motioning to her daughter. “Just spending time with her, seeing her smile.”
Donna MacBean is the chief organizer of the event. Dubbed the "Mother Theresa of Southern Utah" last year by Utah Business magazine, she started it 10 years ago after her husband passed away.
“You're seeing all these people less fortunate than yourself. And at the end of the day, I thought, ‘I've made it through Christmas, my first Christmas alone,'” MacBean said. “And I wasn't alone. And it was a wonderful feeling.”
MacBean’s day job is running the local Neighborhood Connection nonprofit that provides free meals to 800 local elementary students every Friday afternoon.
She said it takes the whole community to put on the Christmas event with Switchpoint helping to transport those without it and Katering Koncepts providing all the food without charge to the organizers.
But two weeks ago, there was a problem.
“We hardly had any toys,” MacBean said. “And we kind of put the word out that we were having trouble this year getting enough toys. And you saw what happened,” MacBean added. “We're blessed.”
