Food sorting taking place at the Rural Food Project shed in Middletown, Calif., on Tuesday, December 14, 2010. Courtesy photo.

MIDDLETOWN, Calif. – Spirit of the Season reported that it is once again grateful for the community's generosity during the holiday season.

“Spirit of the Season is thrilled that we have received so many gifts from our Wish Tree program participants as well as gifts being given by the general public to make this Christmas the best ever,” said Hedy Montoya, coordinator for the holiday program.

The food and gifts will be distributed from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 18, from the Little Red School House in Cobb and from St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Middletown.

All those who registered have received their postcards to come to the annual event.

To make the season even brighter, the group received some 5,000 or 6,000 pounds of food from Twin Pine Casino, Montoya said.

“Working with Donna Crofoot at Twin Pine, their staff and the public at large who brought cans of food for a promotion they held, we worked ourselves silly trying to sort and prepare for the food distribution this Saturday,” Montoya said.

Food and monetary gifts were given to Spirit of the Season recently by the HVL Garden Club, as well as anonymous donors, the First Baptist Church, as well as the United Methodist Church, to name but a few.

“We have so many people to thank,” said Montoya. “We’ve had tremendous response from our volunteers, food has come to us from many sources this year and it feels as though it is raining food!”

She said she will send a notice to the community in January to publicly thank all concerned, but she wanted to give mention Mary Jo Gawley, Mary Rose Pott, Christine Bougas, Phyllis Kelsey, Sandy Tucker, Bonnie Thompson, Kathleen and Kelly Connors, Cindy Weber and the students of Loconoma High School, Bryan Ridste and most especially Stephen Hebert for their hardworking efforts to make Spirit of the Season 2010 a success.

Many more volunteers working with them this year are not mentioned here, but Montoya said she will be acknowledging them in the New Year.

The donations for the year have been $6,000 to date.

If anyone wishes to make a tax-deductible gift to assist with SOS, please send a check to Spirit of the Season, P. O. Box 1468, Middletown, CA 95461.

Montoya can be reached at 707-987-8139.