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The Rotary of Club of Lehigh Acres continues it tradition to provide a Christmas dinner to the people of Lehigh Acres. Serving at St. Raphaels Church, across from Wal-Mart will begin at 11:30 a.m. and continue to around 2:30 p.m., said chairman Mike Buff today.

“We inviting everyone again to come and enjoy a traditional Christmas dinner with turkey and ham and all the trimmings,“he said.

The Rotary Club cooked Thanksgiving Dinner for the community last month and 536 people showed up, a hundred or so more than Thanksgiving of 2007.

Buff said the reason was more than likely because of the economic hard times in Lehigh Acres.

“We have a lot of people out of work an times are hard for so many people. This is the Rotary Club’s way to provide a nice meal to everyone, no matter their economic situation,” Buff said.

Those who wish to donate may put money in a wishing well at the entrance of the Parish Hall.

“But we want to stress everyone that if you can give, that is fine, but if you find yourselves in hard times, we do not expect anything – just come and enjoy yourselves and have a good time.“

The Rotary Club has been putting on Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners for several years, taking over the task from Lisa Goehle, who was the executive director of the L.A. Social Service Center. It was her idea to serve dinner to anyone with any charge whatsoever and to ask for food from area businesses and friends.

But many people come and want to donate something so a wishing well was put on the counter for those who want to give. The money helps to pay for the food for the next dinner, Buff Said.

“We’ll have all the members of the Rotary participate in some way along with many of their families and we’ll have some of the same volunteers as we did Thanksgiving with new ones as well,” Buff said.

“And we counting on more people than we did last year. I believe we had less than 400 last year, but again because of poor economy, we are expecting more people are we are making sure we cook enough to serve more people,” he said.

Cooking begins on Christmas Eve and continues into the night. Rotarians and volunteers will be at the church to open the doors at 11:30 a.m. St. Raphael Church is providing the Parish Hall at no cost to the community, Buff said.

He also wanted to thank those who did give at Thanksgiving and those who are helping to provide the food.

He said some food items are being provided by the manager of the Publix at The Veranda in East Fort Myers. Buff said the supplier was not able to provide the turkeys so the manager was able to provide them himself with the help of others, including the meat manager.

“We really want to thank them for doing that for us,” Buff said.

He said they will also cook several large hams to go along with 22 turkeys.

Buff said last year that fewer people attended the Christmas dinner because a lot of people had gone out of town to be with family and friends and in many cases, family members were visiting in Lehigh and providing dinner.

But it has become a tradition for many large families to come and eat at the dinners and to donate money for their meals.

Often some even offer to help clean up afterwards, Buff said.

“But for those who can’t donate and have no place to go for Christmas, we want them to be here. This is what the dinner is all about. It’s a Community Christmas Day dinner for the people of Lehigh,” Buff said.