Tecumseh Service Club offers assistance at Christmas and year-round

TECUMSEH — In an unassuming building on the St. Elizabeth Catholic Church campus in Tecumseh, Christmas is being prepared for several area boys and girls.

Boxes and bags of new, donated toys will be packaged up this week for the 100 or so families participating in the Tecumseh Service Club’s Sponsor-a-Family program.

“Everybody knows us for Christmas,” said club president Colleen Sunderland.

For decades, the club has collected donations of toys and clothing and will distribute those along with boxes of food containing a turkey, fresh fruit and other items to the families who signed up in November. The club’s 18 members will gather to package everything up on Friday, Dec. 15, then the next day the families who have signed up will first stop at the Ashlar banquet hall at the end of Bishop Reed Drive in Tecumseh to get the food, then head next door to the Tecumseh United Methodist Church for the clothing and toys.

Anyone who wants to stop by the Ashlar on the evening of Dec. 15 to help pack is welcome.

The Christmas project and the club’s food pantry and other assistance programs are supported by donations from the community.

“Without the community, we just couldn’t do what we do,” Mike Sunderland said.

Toys for Tots donations in the Tecumseh area go to the Service Club, but individuals and other groups contribute, too.

“We can’t survive without Toys for Tots,” Colleen said.

Another Christmas community partnership is the Tecumseh District Library’s Gift of Reading program.

“People drop off brand new books, and they give them to us so our families, every child, gets at least one new book,” Colleen said.

Hopscotch Kids in downtown Tecumseh has a tree with gift ideas for kids, and Musgrove and Co. coffee shop helps out, too. The Tecumseh schools collect food and have a “Coins for Cans” drive. The voting in Tecumseh’s Merry and Bright Christmas lights contest this weekend is done with donations of food items to the Service Club.

While it is too late to sponsor a family this year, people who want to help out for Christmas can still purchase a new book and drop it off at Tecumseh District Library for the Gift of Reading program, choose a gift tag to donate a toy from the tree at Hopscotch Kids, put a new toy in any Toys for Tots box, drop off wrapping paper at the Living in Lenawee Realty office at 108 W. Chicago Blvd. in Tecumseh, or mail a financial donation to Tecumseh Service Club, P.O. Box 375, Tecumseh, MI 49286. Donations can also be made online through PayPal at tecumsehserviceclub.com/donate.

The club does more than the Christmas program. For winter, the club receives donations of knitted hats and scarves, and the Knights of Columbus donates four dozen winter coats every year. There were so many toys donated for last Christmas that there were enough left over to have a Christmas in July program. They gave away winter coats then, too.

They gave away more coats in November when families signed up for the Christmas program.

Throughout the year, a variety of organizations contribute food to the club’s pantry.

“Everybody just helps out,” Colleen said.

If the pantry starts to run low on items, she said, “we just put the word out that, OK, we’re short of these things, and it shows up here.”

For this year’s Christmas family assistance program, the club had families download a form from its website, which was set up with the help of Tecumseh-based book publishing company DiggyPod. Colleen said that eased the sign-up process, where the families are interviewed. They have to provide financial information to show need. The club helps families whose household income is up to 150% of the federal poverty level and who have lived in the area for at least three months. The form also asks for information about the children, such as age, clothing size and preferences for clothing style and other gifts.

Jennifer Shearer coordinates the family sponsorships. Individuals or organizations interested in sponsoring a family next year can call Shearer at 517-423-7662 or email TecumsehServiceClub2020@gmail.com.

The club also works with Associated Charities of Lenawee County to coordinate donations and refer families to each other. The Tecumseh Service Club helps families in the northeast Lenawee County area, from Valley Road north to the Washtenaw County line, from M-52 east to the Monroe County line and the Tipton area that’s in the Tecumseh and Clinton school districts.

The former nuns’ residence and Montessori school at St. Elizabeth contains the food pantry and storage for the clothing and toys. Along with food, they also provide baby, personal hygiene and housekeeping products.

“We’re blessed with having a place to use,” Mike said.

The busiest time of the year for the club is from September to January, but it provides assistance throughout the year. People can make appointments to visit the food pantry by emailing the club or calling Spencer Ruffner at 517-215-9292. One of the club’s investigators will verify if the person or family qualifies. If someone has signed up for the Christmas program, the club already knows if they qualify.

There may be situations where someone’s household income is too high for them to ordinarily be considered, but if they can show a financial hardship, such as medical bills, then the club will help them.

“We look at each case individually,” Colleen said.

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They have a list of what food and other items are available, so the individual can choose what they want, then one of the club’s volunteers will pack it up for them and meet them at the building at St. Elizabeth.

The club is a beneficiary of the Lenawee Community Foundation’s Hunters Helping Lenawee program, which lets hunters donate venison to various food pantries and meal programs in the county. The Knights of Columbus also helps the club buy beef.

The club also helps out with other needs, including utility bills, rent or mortgage payments, gasoline and other vehicle costs, and seniors’ prescriptions or groceries. Proceeds from the club's main fundraiser each year, Harv’s Golf Outing, and donations from the community and the community foundation support that year-round assistance.

The golf outing is in memory of Jim Harvey, who was involved in many Tecumseh-area activities and groups.

The club was started as the Tecumseh Welfare Service in 1932 by a group of women who wanted to help others in the community. Some of those early members included Opal Dickinson, Jean Colgrove, Ruth Thompson, Elizabeth Hayden, Jessie Sluyter, Dorothy Purkey, Josephine Roe and Jeanette Gilles, according to a history of the club. In 1950, the name changed to the Tecumseh Service Club and became an official nonprofit organization. In 1985, some of the founders and later members decided to retire and turned the club’s operations over to the Tecumseh Ministerial Association and other service groups. That evolved into its current organization.

In September, October, November and January, the club meets at 7 p.m. on the third Monday of the month at the Tecumseh United Methodist Church, 605 Bishop Reed Drive. The club doesn't meet in December because its busy preparing the Christmas distribution. During the rest of the year, the members volunteer time to check if people seeking assistance qualify and with coordinating donations. Anyone interested in joining can stop by a meeting or email TecumsehServiceClub2020@gmail.com.

— Contact reporter David Panian at dpanian@lenconnect.com or follow him on X, formerly Twitter: @lenaweepanian.

This article originally appeared on The Daily Telegram: Tecumseh Service Club offers assistance at Christmas and year-round