Project HOPE Chili Dinner – Open House a Hit

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You take several dozen youngsters, fill them up on bowls of freshly made chili, grated cheese, crackers, apples and brownies and you have some energetic kids. Happy ones too. That was the scene for about 100 parents and students at the HOPE Center’s Chili Supper and Silent Auction/Open House at Lincoln School this past Thursday, October 11.

The Project HOPE Teen Center recently moved in to the former Lincoln Elementary School, painted, cleaned and moved around a lot of classroom furniture to make space for the daily run of around 120 students who use the Teen Center for homework, tutoring and learning some fun and useful talents, ranging from cooking, to music, to yo-yo expertise. Now that the RE-2 District has gone to a four-day school week this year, the Center offers a site where youngsters can get together with supervised activities through the day.

Lori Hammer, Project HOPE director, said the event was a fund-raiser in which all the proceeds from the chili dinner and silent auction will be used by the center. It was announced earlier that all profits would be doubled by the Legacy Bank. Most of the food was donated by Colorado Beef and local grocery stores. Volunteers cooked it all up at the district’s central kitchen and started serving up bowls in the Lincoln School gymnasium as parents and kids took a look at the auction tables and made their bids with items ranging from a mountain bike, Canon camera and weed whacker, to smaller priced items such as caps, tee shirts and candles. The Lamar Chamber of Commerce Honkers stopped by to wish best of luck to the Project HOPE staff in their new location.

By Russ Baldwin