Meals on Wheels East Texas celebrates summer party to showcase its mission to community
Jul. 24—Children's laughter and feel-good music filled the air Saturday afternoon as family and friends united at Meals on Wheels East Texas' summer party.
The party is something the nonprofit looks forward to every year, but with COVID-19 guidelines and safety procedures, the event was postponed until this year.
Volunteers and Tyler residents were happy to be reunited and celebrate summertime with fun activities, such as a bouncy house, a cotton candy machine, ice cream, hamburgers, hotdogs and face painting.
Wheels on Meals East Texas Executive Director Trudy Williams said the event is an effort of community outreach as they hope to spread the word about Meals on Wheels' mission in the East Texas area.
"This party is open for our community, it's open for anyone in Tyler and the surrounding areas to come and find out more about Meals on Wheels Ministry," Williams said.
Meals on Wheels East Texas provides meal services to people who are 60 years of age or older. At the event, attendees had the opportunity to learn how to receive such services, how to become volunteers, how to make donations and how to work for the organization.
"We just wanted to hold a party, so people can come out, ask any question they want to ask, have lunch on us, ice cream on us and actually have some fun because we have some things here that are appealing to kids, such as the bounce house, face painting and cotton candy," Williams said.
Williams said a last-minute generous donor gave Meals on Wheels Ministry a Yeti cooler, which was being raffled at the event.
The raffle begins at 2:30 p.m. Saturday and tickets are $5 each. The last-minute addition was unexpected, Williams said.
"We really weren't expecting to do any fundraising today. We really just wanted this to be a community outreach event so we can educate the community on what we do and how we do it," Williams said.
Not only does Williams hope to educate the community of the nonprofit, but she wanted the community to know Meals on Wheels East Texas is here.
"Know that we are ready to serve seniors and disabled people who do not have enough food and who are experiencing food insecurity and will feel free to pick up the phone, contact us and get us started to help anyone that they identify is in need," she said.
To give a donation or apply to work for the nonprofit organization, visit their website at mealsonwheelsetx.org.
The summer party will be going on at 3001 Robertson Road in Tyler until 3 p.m. Saturday.
