This holiday season more than ever families across the country are struggling to make ends meet. Big personnel layoffs are happening with alarming regularity across the board to blue-collar and white-collar workers alike, and the more people there are out of work the fewer donations are made to food banks, which makes for a vicious cycle of hunger for those hit hardest by our down-falling economy.
In times like these, not enough good can be said about Tacomans like Jon Sybert and the volunteers that work for the non-profit he heads up called Friends of the Holidays. Twice a year the organization puts on benefits to help families in need, like the one scheduled for Dec. 7 at The Swiss. This annual event has become a much-anticipated December night out for music lovers in the area who enjoy seeing a line-up of awesome bands and giving to a great cause at the same time.
“It’s a big party is what it is,” Sybert said.
The benefit music show, 2-11 p.m., includes eight local bands playing mostly blues, along with some rock and jazz (see sidebar for schedule). Familiar faces return and new ones show up as well to help the all-volunteer Friends do their blessed work, which started 10 years ago when a local restaurant called Casa Garcia’s moved to smaller quarters and could no longer feed the lines of homeless people as it did for so long.
“A couple of friends and myself came up with the idea to take it over,” Sybert explained, “and that first year we gave to 35 families.” Over the years that number grew. In the organization’s nine years of service, it has provided support to more than 2,800 families. Last year Friends helped out 525 local families with a complete turkey dinner to cook at home. Everything is included - the turkey and stuffing, salad greens, apples and oranges, vegetables, cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes and even the little marshmallows that go on top of them.
The food is boxed up and kept in warehouses thanks to Chuckals Office Products, then loaded onto trucks and delivered to very grateful families. Sybert noted how returning performer Randy Oxford comes back year after year to help out, even pitching in to help deliver the food.
Funds are raised through the $10 admission ticket price and a silent auction and raffle held the night of the show. Raffle tickets are sold for $1 each, offering prizes like lunches and dinners, movie passes, CDs, T-shirts, hand-made wind chimes and ornaments. The silent auction features enticing items such as an autographed Steve Largent jersey and Edgar Martinez baseball bat, gift baskets filled with all kinds of products, lots of jewelry, original art, and rounds of golf courtesy of local golf courses.
Artist Tweed Meyer will be there, too, painting the bands as they play, then she donates the finished portraits for the auction. “She’s been a part of us ever since we started,” Sybert remarked, noting that her sister, and others, make pottery for the auction as well.
“For more than 10 years it’s been known that this is the place to pick up Christmas items for friends and family,” according to Sybert.
Friends of the Holidays continues to seek donations from the community for raffle and auction items. Raffle items (such as gift certificates and small personal items or services) should have an approximate value of up to $50. Auction items (like artwork and sports memorabilia) should have a value greater than $50. Pickup services can be coordinated for any items donated. Call Sybert at (253) 307-2817.
