By Jim Newell

Review Editor

Sorting toys and food, packing boxes and bags with the holiday goodies and essentials, then loading them up on the sleighs (aka, automobiles) and delivering to area families – kind of sounds like Santa’s elves hard-at-work.

In actuality it’s the Lake Orion Lions Club, which held their annual Christmas Basket pack on Friday at the CERC Building before delivering the baskets on Saturday.

The beneficiaries of this year’s “nice” list are Orion area families and senior citizens who need a little assistance this Christmas season.

“We’re at 184 families right now. We shopped for 190, and we have 85 seniors, so it’s roughly about 275 households,” said Dave Tucker, chair of the Christmas Basket program this year.

The Lake Orion Lions Club has around 80 members, and with volunteers, approximately 125 people will work to organize, pack and deliver the baskets this holiday season, Tucker said.

The Lions Club gets referrals, mostly from the schools, but also from area churches and groups who identify people in need.

The Lions then assess the families’ needs, collect food, toys, hats and gloves, toiletries and other essentials through donations. What donations don’t cover, the Lions makeup through their Silent Auction Fundraiser at Milosch’s Palace – which nets around $30,000 – or cover through their other fundraising efforts.

Families receive everything from canned and boxed goods, fresh fruits and vegetables, milk, eggs and meat – enough food for a week or two. Kids receive age-appropriate toys, hats and gloves.

Lion Pam Kline, who has helped at the Christmas Basket pack for 20 years, ran the “toy store,” keeping the toys sorted by gender and age and distributing the toys to the shoppers.

“We have over 200 families that we deliver to. We go to Kmart. Ray, the manager there, works with us really well, gives us great discounts on toys. We usually spend around $2,400 on toys,” Kline said. “We get a lot of donations from schools, from people in the community. We give each kid 2-3 presents, plus gloves and hats.”

And while the Lions Club members organize and work at the pack, people from throughout the community volunteer to help pack the Christmas baskets and deliver the boxes to families.

Kline’s neighbor, Mary Jo D’Onofrio, volunteers to help with the sorting and packing.

“When school gets out my granddaughter comes and helps, and her friends, and they’ve been doing this for a few years. So, we get a lot of high schoolers come, too, which I think is pretty cool,” said D’Onofrio. “They see that there really are people in our community that need gifts; that they don’t have what they have.”

“Different people show up and help. A lot of times they read about us in the paper and want their kids to see what other kids don’t have, because most kids I know have way too much,” Kline said. “So, they don’t understand that there’s actually a family out there that, if this didn’t happen, there would be no Christmas. And we get cards and letters afterwards stating that that’s so.”

Korinne Ihrke, an Oxford Middle School student, helped pack Christmas baskets with her mother, Erica, a Lions Club member.

“I think it’s a great idea for her to come and learn how to give back to the community,” said Erica Ihrke, who has been with the Lions for four years.

Korinne, whose grandfather also is a Lion, pushed the shopping cart and helped pack boxes with food and toys.

“I want to help other people,” Korinne said, pointing out that helping others runs in the family. “Some people from my dad’s softball team are coming and helping.”

Senior citizens receive boxes of food and gift cards to Kroger to help with their holiday shopping.