The Siwik family has been donating time, treasure, and talent to Milestone’s Home Delivered Meals program almost since it’s inception, and the tradition lives on. In 1964, while attending WMU, Joani Siwik and her Sigma Kappa sorority sisters assembled holiday “goodie boxes” for Meals on Wheels clients in Kalamazoo County. Back then that was 50 boxes. Joani enjoyed baking, so the boxes always included homemade cookies. She would solicit donations to include other food items and enclosed a handwritten note.
Sixty years later, the tradition lives on. Joani continued the Christmas Box Project after college and over the years engaged her family and friends to help. In 2003, when Joani passed, her daughters Pamela and Chris carried on the tradition. Pamela said, “It’s been over twenty years since mom’s passing, and I know she would be proud of how we all continue this project that was so dear to her heart!”
The project has grown substantially as our Home Delivered Meals program has grown. Last year, 560 boxes were assembled and delivered. Each box contained a dozen assorted homemade cookies, a banana, a clementine, vanilla wafers, pretzels, raisins, and a candy cane. Each box also included a heartfelt, handwritten note to the recipient. They sometimes get thank you notes back from our clients and have become pen pals with a few.
The Siwik family engage dozens of volunteers including family, friends, and the community to make the Christmas Box Project a success each year. Homemade cookies remain a constant theme – many of their friends and family volunteer to bake for the boxes. When their kids were younger, they would decorate the boxes with crayon drawings; now they are older, children from Plainwell Schools have been recruited for decorating and help with assembly.
The family does a bit of pre-assembly and cookie sorting at home, and then they select a day when the group takes over Milestone’s community room to do the packaging. The boxes are then rolled to our meal delivery area where they await delivery. Pamela said, “It is the highlight of my holiday season working on this project with my family and friends and being able to honor mom, while seeing and feeling the kindness and holiday spirit. We deliver holiday cheer and hopefully brighten the holidays for hundreds of seniors in our community.”
The Siwik family are an amazing example of the generosity of the human spirit. We appreciate their support, and we know our Home Delivered Meals clients do too. In loving memory of Mrs. Joani Siwik and great thanks to Pamela and Chris and their crew of volunteers for all they do to make a positive impact and bring happiness to our clients.
