Girlfriends' effort generates Thanksgiving smiles

About 20 years ago, Shirley Wagner of Puyallup helped a co-worker at the Tacoma Sheraton Hotel buy Thanksgiving dinner.

It didn’t surprise her close circle of friends that the woman they describe as generous and soft of heart would offer a helping hand – or take it a step further the following year.

She requested that instead of organizing a party for her birthday on Dec. 4, they help her prepare Thanksgiving baskets for families in need.

A dozen of her friends from the Class of 1959 at St. Leo’s Catholic High School joined about 12 of her hotel co-workers to prepare several baskets that first year.

Since then, the group has gathered on the Monday before the holiday to prepare and decorate a growing number of baskets. As time has passed, children and grandchildren have joined the tradition.

“They are all like blood,” said Patty Osborn, a high school friend. “It’s going to make me cry, it’s so wonderful.”

With Wagner’s 70th birthday approaching, about 50 people gathered this week at the Hotel Murano, the former Sheraton, to put together 55 baskets, the most yet.

The hotel, where Wagner has worked as a server for 26 years, has been the center for these preparations for more than a decade.

Managers donate the ballroom space and, this year, contributed $500 and 50 pounds of coffee for the baskets. The group hands out the baskets to schools and organizations that help needy families.

“It gets better and better,” Wagner said.

The group buys packages with turkeys and hams and other tradition fixings from Summit Trading Co. in Puyallup, and then each person signs up to purchase one additional item for the baskets.

The baskets contain a traditional Thanksgiving dinner with stuffing, cranberries, yams, mashed potatoes, vegetables and pie. They’re each lovingly decorated before they head out the door, per Wagner’s orders.

“It wasn’t enough to do the boxes,” said Mary Vlahovich, another high school friend. “They need to have wrapping and ribbons.”

This circle of friends has remained close through the years, traveling together, talking regularly and sharing in the travails of life. They’ve planned their daughters’ wedding showers and become godparents to each other’s children.

“We’re our own support group,” said Shareen Michlitsch, another high school friend.

The basket preparations begin at 9 a.m. and can last several hours, “depending on how much we talk and hug,” Wagner said. As the day’s work was wrapping up Monday, the friends gathered to give Wagner her birthday gifts.

The first was a bottle of Juicy Couture perfume, and the friends were in stitches, recalling how Wagner had to surrender the same perfume from her carry-on luggage to a TSA agent during a trip to Mexico in 2007.

The second gift was a warm blanket. Wagner draped the gift over her shoulders and showed it off with a flourish to more gales of laughter.

The women say they’re happy to be able to do their part to help the community.

“You know you did something really good for someone in need,” said Muriel Slater, another high school friend.

Shawna Harrison of Puyallup didn’t know a group of old friends prepared the bountiful Thanksgiving dinner she picked up from Fruitland Elementary School, where her 7-year-old daughter, Karisma, attends.

But Harrision said it’s special that they took the time to donate a dinner that she and her family might not otherwise afford. Harrison has a job, but money is tight as a single parent and she lives with her mother and stepfather to make ends meets.

“It’s really cool they do that,” Harrison said. “They make it really nice. They put time and effort into it.”

Wagner said the group has received its highest number of basket requests this year, and this high-energy group of friends has no intention of slowing down.

“As long as there’s a need,” Wagner said, “we’ll be there to fill it.”

Christian Hill: 253-274-7390
christian.hill@thenewstribune.com
Twitter: @TNTchill