Trending
Participants at this Saturday's Dragon Boat Festival in Celoron will have an opportunity to enjoy a nourishing breakfast while helping provide home-delivered meals to hundreds of local senior citizens served by Jamestown Meals on Wheels.
For the fourth time, Jamestown Meals on Wheels will be partnering with the Chautauqua Lake Dragon Boat Festival. The festival is a fun-for-all-ages community event that aims to bring awareness and raise funds to support Chautauqua Lake.
Jamestown Meals on Wheels will have breakfast available from 7:30-10:30 a.m. in the Celoron Park pavilion. Pancakes, sausage, home fries and more will be available at a price of $7 per adult, or $5 for a child under age 12. Beverage and pastry will be available for $3. Coffee or bottled water will be available for $1.
LECOM is once again the breakfast event's Corporate Leadership Sponsor for Jamestown Meals on Wheels.
"We're fortunate that we've been able to continue this great connection with LECOM," said Barrie Yochim, executive director of Jamestown Meals on Wheels. "LECOM's effort in serving senior individuals is very similar to what Jamestown Meals on Wheels accomplishes each and every day."
Local businesses have donated goods to be sold at the breakfast.
"This breakfast is now our largest fundraising event," Yochim said. "We are thrilled that we will be back for a fourth year, because the previous three events have gone so well."
The all-day event itself consists of dragon boat racing where teams each race multiple times to advance to the afternoon race finals. Dragon boats originated in China more than 2,000 years ago, and dragon boat racing is currently the fastest growing sport in the world.
Money raised from the Meals on Wheels breakfast go to help pay for meal delivery to senior citizens in southern and central Chautauqua County who cannot pay for their meals, or who can pay only a small amount. That helps keep our area's seniors at home, where they can remain safe, happy and healthy, Yochim said.
He thanks all the organizers of the dragon boat event for including Meals on Wheels again this year, he said. The Chautauqua Lake Association and Village of Celoron have been important in linking Meals on Wheels with the dragon boat festival.
Jamestown Meals on Wheels relies on fund-raising events like this pancake breakfast to raise essential funds to get meals into the hands of area senior citizens. Meals on Wheels also receives funding from Chautauqua County Office For Aging Services, as well as other individual contributors. Meals on Wheels is a United Way Community Partner.
Meals on Wheels of the Jamestown Area provides heatable and cold home-delivered meals five days a week in half of Chautauqua County. The suggested cost for home delivery of one heatable meal and one cold meal is $13 per day. For either a heatable or cold meal, the suggested cost is $9 per day. Meals on Wheels can also provide ready-to-heat frozen meals for use on weekends.
UPMC Chautauqua prepares meals for Meals on Wheels recipients in southern Chautauqua County from the hospital's Jones Memorial Health Center kitchen.
Meals are delivered by a combination of paid drivers and volunteers from the community. Some Meals on Wheels volunteers are from the Retired and Senior Volunteer Program.
Any Chautauqua County senior citizen can receive home meal delivery, if eligible for the program.
For more information about Meals on Wheels, call 488-9119.