Santa Bob, Lawrence, left, teases Helen Bringhurst, Lawrence, about her K-State stocking hat at the Lawrence Community Christmas Dinner, at First United Methodist Church, 946 Vermont St. Wednesday. Bringhurst was volunteering and serving pies as Santa Bob made his rounds around the room during the Christmas dinner.

George Paley, left, and his son Dalton, right, serve up meals at the Lawrence Community Christmas Dinner, Wednesday at First United Methodist Church, 946 Vermont St.

John Lingenfelser was among the volunteers who woke up early on Christmas morning to be at the First United Methodist Church by 6 a.m. to start cooking yams.

This is his 11th year volunteering to help coordinate the annual community Christmas dinner. Why does he do it? Because it’s Christmas. “This is what Jesus would do. This is where he would be on a Christmas Day,” Lingenfelser said.

The annual Christmas dinner is organized by the Community Christmas Day Dinner Committee, a group of nine volunteers that meets two or three times each year to plan the event.

Ed Martinko, who has volunteered for the last seven or eight years and today was supervising the serving line, said the dinner brings in about 80 volunteers every year. This year they served 1,160 meals, 648 of which were delivered to the homes of folks who couldn’t make the trip out, he said.

Martinko’s job was to make sure the volunteers all got a chance to dish out food if they wanted to. To do that, organizers divvied the day into half hour shifts at the stations where turkey, ham, coleslaw, green beans, mashed potatoes and other holiday staples were served. His job was also to make sure volunteers didn’t get too generous with the donated food to make sure there was enough left for those who come later in the day.

Generosity, after all, is the draw for volunteers. “If you’re going to be in Lawrence on Christmas, this is a good thing to do,” Martinko said.