Auxiliary post prepares meal baskets for families in need
Karen Bandzi, president of R.W. Fritzinger VFW Post 7215 Auxiliary in Walnutport, boxes food alongside her senior vice president, Michele Minnich. DANIELLE DERRICKSON/TIMES NEWS
With Thanksgiving just days away, members of the R.W. Fritzinger VFW Post 7215 Auxiliary in Walnutport put the finishing touches on the meals baskets it prepped for families in need.
The post supplied six families in Lehighton, Slatington and Walnutport with turkeys, hams, pies and other holiday fixings on Tuesday during its 15th annual giveaway.
Karen Bandzi, auxiliary president, and Michele Minnich, senior vice president, stood outside markets in Northampton and Palmerton to raise donations, which Bandzi said is always the hardest part.
“The sitting out, we hate, because it’s cold,” she joked.
Dance with Kim, a Lehighton-based studio, also donated six pies for the event.
When asked why the auxiliary puts on the outreach each year, Bandzi gave a simple answer: “To help the community out. It is part of the auxiliary to be there for veterans and (for) everybody,” she said.
