While many spent Christmas morning opening presents and spending time with loved ones, volunteers in Scranton spent theirs spreading Christmas cheer.<\/p>\n
SCRANTON, Pa. \u2014 In the midst of the holiday hustle and bustle, a special gathering is taking place in downtown Scranton. Inside Backyard Ale House on Linden Street, some kindness and holiday cheer are being shared with those in need.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For the sixth year in a row, the restaurant has opened its doors to the community on Christmas Day, providing a hot meal, shelf-stable food to take home, as well as clothes, toys, and gifts for children. It’s not just a meal and presents but a reminder of the community’s spirit of giving.<\/p>\n
“Everybody is welcome. There’s been hundreds of people here, and if we can make a little bit of joy in someone’s life, that’s what it’s all about,” said Eric Miller, Backyard Ale House co-owner.<\/p>\n
Among the volunteers helping to serve breakfast is Lily Kennedy, who, for the last three years, has spent her Christmas here.<\/p>\n
“It makes me feel really nice because knowing that I’m able to help people in need on Christmas, especially,” said Kennedy.<\/p>\n
In the spirit of Christmas, Willie Smith and his wife are not here for themselves. They’re here to pick out toys for their neighbors in need. “My neighbor, because she’s not able to come down, and she’s got three little girls, so I wanted to pick up a few things for her. My wife came down with me to grab a few toys for other people in the community,” he said.<\/p>\n
Eryn Petrovsky lives in a van. Traveling through Scranton, she had no idea where she’d find a warm meal on Christmas Day.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For her, this breakfast at Backyard Ale House provides a flicker of hope. “It’s nice to see communities doing this when they can, especially a restaurant. That’s kind of crazy. I’m used to like churches holding this kind of thing, so it’s like having an egg and cheese and some donuts is kind of crazy right now,” she said.<\/p>\n
Organizers say they would not be able to do any of this without the community’s giving spirit. Area businesses, schools, and residents donate everything from food to toys, making the holidays possible for those may who feel alone or need a little bit of help, making sure everyone can celebrate with warmth and hope.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While many spent Christmas morning opening presents and spending time with loved ones, volunteers in Scranton spent theirs…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":70698,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[178,180,179],"class_list":{"0":"post-70697","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-scranton","8":"tag-scranton","9":"tag-scranton-headlines","10":"tag-scranton-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70697"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70697\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}