By MARY LEIDIG

Special to The Hays Daily News

This year, the annual Christmas Day dinner took place where it started 10 years ago at the Bison Methodist Church in Bison.

This year, more of everything was prepared trying to avoid running out of food like last year. All the supplies had been delivered the previous day. Without a grocery store in town, I had to be especially careful about getting everything I needed as I could not just run down to the store.

The weather was questionable during the week. I was without electricity in the early morning hours of Christmas Eve. While the church had a large gas cooking stove, I still needed electricity. At 5:30 in the morning, I was on the phone calling Dennis Elder, who handles church repairs and maintenance, to see if Bison had electricity. Yes, they did. Whenever the dinner is at Bison Methodist Church, Elder always is ready to help out making sure everything is working properly.

Due to the weather and other circumstances, I was about two hours behind schedule cooking. Jewel and Jackson Dinsmore, La Crosse, spent the day helping prepare food. Shirley Smith, Great Bend, helped with making more than 100 dinner rolls.

Jolene Dinsmore supplied lunch as she did at Thanksgiving, which was appreciated.

Christmas Day was cold and windy. About 60 meals were delivered to homes. Carry-outs were about 15. Fifty to 60 people enjoyed the Christmas Day sit-down meal. Another 20 enjoyed leftovers.

Approximately eight turkeys, 5 to 6 gallons of gravy, four pans of dressing, 50 pounds of potatoes, 6 gallons of green beans, more than eight dozen rolls, more than 4 gallons of salad, 13 pumpkin pies, two apple pies, and two pecan pies were served along with homemade hot spiced apple cider and coffee.

Along with some new volunteers, there were those who have helped in the past. One worth honorable mention is Vic Pechanec, Timken, who started delivering meals with my daughter that first Christmas and has shown up every year since. I have just terrific volunteers. This year, my daughter, Margaret, was in Texas, so David Coltrain took over her duties of coordinating all the boxing of meals for delivery. It sounds easy enough, but there always are last-minute changes, which means recalculating and changing. Coltrain did a marvelous job.

Just as every volunteer is important, whether it is one dinner or a dozen dinners, so are the sponsors whose help makes the meals possible. There are three sponsors who have been on board this project since its inception.

This year's great sponsors: Bison Methodist Church, Bison State Bank, John and Joyce Cornwell Family, Bison; CKMC Dietary Department, Eagle Communications, Great Bend Tribune, Great Bend; Baconrind Appraising LLC, Carrico Implement, The Hays Daily News, Walmart associates, Hays; ASM Wood Works, Casey's General Store, David and Elaine Coltrain, Mike and Jolene Dinsmore and family, Enslinger Lumber, Farmers Bank and Trust, Flame Engineering, Four Corners Restaurant, Great Plains Chiropractic, Genita and Tim Hertel, Dr. Barry Paige, Petrick Auction and Realty, Rick's Food Store, Rush County Extension office, Rush County Health Department, Rush County Insurance, Rush County News, Salvation Army, St. Michael Parish, Second Chance, State Farm Insurance, La Crosse; West Wind LLC, Otis; Golden Belt Telephone Co., Rush Center; and Timken Hill Bar and Grill, Timken.