BlackburnNews.com file photo of The WISH Centre sign in Chatham. (Photo by Mike James)BlackburnNews.com file photo of The WISH Centre sign in Chatham. (Photo by Mike James)
Chatham

Christmas Dinner Feeds Over 600

A decade of Community Cares Christmas Dinners in Chatham is in the books.

Organizer Brent Ripley says they had a big turnout yesterday's at the WISH Centre.

"After everything was all said and done and we counted all the tickets we came up with over 444 tickets," says Ripley. "And we figured we fed all the volunteers too so probably another 80 volunteers got fed, and we sent out almost 90 take-outs." Leftovers were given to local soup kitchens.

In addition to the dinner, Santa Claus made an appearance with gifts for the kids.

Ripley says numbers were up from last year, but figures the milder weather helped draw bigger numbers. He estimates the cost of the event likely totaled around $5,000.

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The Toronto Blue Jays dropped their third in a row Thursday, 6-5 to the visiting Texas Rangers, and the Detroit Tigers suffered a 2-1 loss to Houston.