Meadow Vista Friendly Neighbors Club begins Holiday Basket, Toy program

Since 1944, the Meadow Vista Friendly Neighbors club has been providing comfort and assistance to those in our community who need a helping hand, and we have supported other organizations as they serve our community in so many ways. A few of our current activities include: At BBQ & Brew, the annual fundraiser for the Placer Hills Educational Foundation, the Meadow Vista Friendly Neighbors served a great meal prepared by the Meadow Vista Lions Club. This was a fun event as great music kept everyone's toes tapping while the generous crowd enjoyed a dessert raffle that raised a wonderful sum of money to benefit the educational works of PHEF. We also participated in Meadow Vista's annual Oktoberfest and served traditional Oktoberfest food prepared by the Lions who, as usual, outdid themselves offering great brats and "dogs" along with all the "fixins." There was lively music to top off the fun festivities. This community event is hosted each year by Fred Eichenhofer and his staff at Sierra Pacific Real Estate with all proceeds supporting the Meadow Vista Community Center. Meadow Vista owes a huge debt of gratitude to Fred and his crew for making this a great event benefiting a wonderful cause. Our most important project of the year – the Holiday Basket Food and Toy program – is in full swing. This program provides a basket of healthy, nutritious food to those in our community (Meadow Vista, Christian Valley, Clipper Gap, Applegate and Weimar) who are hungry and need a helping hand. Toy collection for the children begins in November. Each child in a family receiving a food basket will also receive a toy provided by members of our community. We will be collecting the toys in front of the Meadow Vista Community Center each Saturday in November (Nov. 1, 8, 15, 22 and 29) from noon to 4 p.m. If you can provide a new, unwrapped toy, please bring it to the Meadow Vista Community Center on one of these Saturdays. New, unwrapped toys can also be dropped off at the following Meadow Vista merchants in November: Meadow Vista Ace Hardware, Meadow Vista Veterinary Clinic, The Local Café and Meadow Vista Bottle Store. We are very grateful to these merchants for making space for the toys. And, we are especially grateful to the members of our community who provide a toy so each child's holiday is special. Our annual requests for monetary gifts to support the Holiday Basket Food and Toy program are in the mail. Many of you have been very generous in responding to our fundraising efforts over the years. You have our sincere thanks. If you have not sent in a financial gift (no matter the size) this year to help us support this program, please take the time to do it today. We are a non-profit 501c3 organization and every penny we receive is devoted to helping our friends and neighbors in need. Your gift can be mailed to Meadow Vista Friendly Neighbors, P.O. Box 764, Meadow Vista, CA 95722; or, you can donate online at www.meadowvistafriendlyneighbors.com. Our entire membership thanks this community for helping us help others. Community members interested in learning more about the worthy work we do are invited to attend our meetings. We enthusiastically welcome each of you to join us as we serve our wonderful community. If you would like to participate in the many projects we sponsor but are not able to attend all (or any) of our weekday meetings, you are still very welcome to become a member and lend a hand when you can. Please visit our website at www.meadowvistafriendlyneighbors.com for more information and let us know if we can send you a membership invitation. We would love to have you join us.