Evander Lien capped off a pretty good Christmas – he scored a hoverboard from Santa and some turkey and pumpkin pie Wednesday at the Cortez Community Christmas Dinner.
Evander’s father, Cyrus Lien, said he and his grandfather, Don Lien, got all the Lien men to head over to the Montezuma County Annex on Christmas Day to enjoy the annual dinner.
“He’s a regular here at the Senior Center, and he alway talks about how good the food is, so we all decided to come out,” Cyrus Lien said.
Four generations of Lien men – Don, 82; Brian, 57; Cyrus, 29; and Hoverboard wizard Evander, 7 – were among 400 to 500 people expected for the Christmas Day dinner, which has celebrated the season of giving in Cortez for the past 29 years.
As volunteers opened the doors at 11 a.m., there was no shortage of hungry holiday celebrants prepared to chow down a good, homestyle meal.
Sammie Begay arrived with his son, Janazee, and Andrew Guass and Chris Hormel for Christmas Day meal. They figured the feast would hold everyone until they returned to the family’s ancestral home on the Navajo Nation later this week for the big family celebration.
They intended to have a reunion with Sammie’s older son, Latrell Begay, who is serving with the U.S. Army at Fort Irwin Army Base near Barstow, California.
“We moved to Cortez last year, about this time, the holidays, to try a new place,” Sammie Begay said.
Sharon King, who organizes the community meal, said it is put on every year by a coalition of community groups, including the Piñon Project, Women, Infants and Children of Montezuma County, the Good Samaritan Center food pantry, the Montezuma Food Coalition, the Sharehouse, Southwest Open School, The Bridge shelter and several regional soup kitchens.
Fundraising for the community meal goes on all year, and King said anyone interested in donating to help pay for next year’s feast can write a check to the Onward Foundation and put Community Christmas Dinner in the memo line. Checks may be dropped off at the foundation, 33 N. Chestnut St., or donations may be made online on Onward’s website.
Laurie Hall, director of the Sharehouse, said this is the first year her organization has participated in the Community Christmas Dinner and it is a good match with The Sharehouse’s mission to educate the community about nutrition, cooking, local food and a healthful diet.
“The meal fits right in with what we do,” Hall said. “We are a nonprofit that coordinates food distribution to serve a food-insecure population. We also provide education about food, the food system, local farms and about nutrition, cooking and how we celebrate food in the arts.
“So this is great – serving up a healthy, nutritious meal that is as local as much as possible,” she said.
She said the roasted potatoes were provided by the Good Food Collective, which worked with farmers this year to plant thousands of pounds of spuds, some of which were donated for the community meal.
“We had a potato prep party Monday,” Hall said. “We washed them, peeled them chopped and prepped them and we roasted them Tuesday.”
Samantha King, 17, daughter of Sharon, runs the kitchen for the big event. Cooking started several days ago, she said.
“The hardest thing about cooking for this many people is just keeping your cool,” she said. “You have to be diligent about making things and careful about the amount you make. You want to make sure you stay on top of the amount of food that’s going out.”
This year’s meal included 30 turkeys, 125 pounds of roasted potatoes from locally grown spuds, 400 fresh rolls, 72 pounds of green beans, 2 pounds of cranberry sauce, salads with locally grown greens and homemade and store-bought pies donated the past two days.
Kyle Simp enjoyed the meal with his children, Loloni Simp, 9; and Alana Pinto, 4.
The meal came in handy this year, he said.
“We’re on a budget, and we had things to pay for this year. But we did get the kids toys, and we’re going to deliver presents after the meal,” Kyle Simp said.
Dearle Ricker, who was working the pie line, said a lot of homemade pies came in.
“That’s a form of love, too, homemade pies,” she said. “There’s a lot of love in those pies.”
“Pumpkin pie is the best,” said Evander, whose mind quickly turned back to his hoverboard.
“I can spin fast and faster, and I almost never fall off,” he said.
parmijo@the-journal.com