ST. GEORGE — The organizers had as many volunteers as they could handle Saturday morning as the 2016 St. George Basket Brigade went to work organizing Thanksgiving baskets for needy residents.
Lead organizer Jeremy Larkin said the volunteers filled 222 baskets with food that will benefit over 1200 people. All food was from donations, either in kind or monetary.
“There are tons and tons of folks who, you would not think so, but they’re not going to have a Thanksgiving feast like most of us do,” Larkin said. “We’ve had community members and businesses and individuals nominate well over 200 families to receive Thanksgiving delivered to their door.
“We’re already receiving calls of thanks from people who figured out the baskets were from us,” Larkin said. “At one apartment complex we had two women in tears of thanks.”
Over 200 volunteers signed up on a website earlier to help with the filling of the baskets. All but 4 baskets were delivered by 1 p.m. Saturday.
“This is an event that we were inspired to do from Tony Robbins’ group about seven years ago,” original organizer Brent Palmer said. “We initiated it here in the southern Utah area and lucky for us, the Larkin Group took it over this year and just knocked it out of the park.”
A new item this year was a Gratitude Wall. Larkin said the wall was an amazing feature this year, as volunteers wrote on the wall what they are grateful for.
“We knock on the door, we say, ‘Someone who loves you wanted you to have this gift for Thanksgiving,'” Larkin said. “It’s a whole Thanksgiving meal to cook in their home … There’s a psychological benefit to having food that you cook at your house, and it’s going to take care of a lot of people who are not only in financial crisis, but many of them have some other family deal going that we don’t know about that makes them a really great candidate for just a ‘shot of love.'”
St. George News Reporter Ric Wayman contributed to this report.
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Volunteers pack baskets at the St. George Basket Brigade. St. George, Utah, Nov. 19, 2016 | Photo by Sheldon Demke, St. George News Volunteers pack baskets at the St. George Basket Brigade. St. George, Utah, Nov. 19, 2016 | Photo by Sheldon Demke, St. George News Volunteers pack baskets at the St. George Basket Brigade. St. George, Utah, Nov. 19, 2016 | Photo by Sheldon Demke, St. George News A young volunteer at the St. George Basket Brigade. St. George, Utah, Nov. 19, 2016 | Photo by Sheldon Demke, St. George News Volunteers pack baskets at the St. George Basket Brigade. St. George, Utah, Nov. 19, 2016 | Photo by Sheldon Demke, St. George News Volunteers pack baskets at the St. George Basket Brigade. St. George, Utah, Nov. 19, 2016 | Photo by Sheldon Demke, St. George News Young volunteers at the St. George Basket Brigade. St. George, Utah, Nov. 19, 2016 | Photo by Sheldon Demke, St. George News A young volunteer at the St. George Basket Brigade. St. George, Utah, Nov. 19, 2016 | Photo by Sheldon Demke, St. George News Voluntters for the 2016 Basket Brigade await the start of the organizing effort. St. George, Utah, Nov. 19, 2016 | Photo by Sheldon Demke, St. George News Basket Brigade organizer Jeremy Larkin, standing in blue shirt, addresses volunteers before the Basket Brigade starts assembling food baskets. St. George, Utah, Nov. 19, 2016 | Photo by Sheldon Demke, St. George News The Gratitude Wall, displayed at the Basket Brigade. St. George, Utah, Nov. 19, 2016 | Photo by Sheldon Demke, St. George News
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I always enjoy volunteering and supporting programs like this. we are so blessed to live in this wonderful community. I want to thank everyone that was involved in making this possible. …Praise the Lord
Oh please LOL. You don’t have time to volunteer, Dot.
only in his own mind he volunteered, the pills and all, hahah
Awwwwww poor little cry baby Dumbob got his feelings hurt whaaaaaaaaa whaaaaaaaaa… heres an idea cry baby Dumbob.why don’t you write a letter to your reelected Governor Herbert I’m sure he cares what you think. LOL !
This is one of my favorite community projects
LOL ! it seems Bob is trying to hurt my feelings. Ha ha ha ha ha ! get some help Dumbob and get off the dope it’s already done made you stupid ! but at least you’re free entertainment. ..keep’em coming