Denver Rescue Mission Welcomes More For Banquet In New Facility
DENVER (CBS4)- Hundreds of people celebrated the holiday with a warm meal and a gift of essentials at the Denver Rescue Mission's annual Christmas banquet on Wednesday.
This year the mission is celebrating a new, expanded facility that is able to accommodate more people in need.
"Guaranty Bank has been a strong supporter of the Denver Rescue Mission for a lot of years," said Guaranty Bank and Trust CCO Cathy Goss. "This is just one of those events that I wouldn't miss."
Guaranty Bank sponsored the banquet this year.
Guests were served a hearty Christmas meal including roasted turkey with gravy, garlic mashed potatoes, French-style green bean casserole, baked macaroni and cheese, corn bread pudding, butter rolls, homemade cranberry sauce, salad, mixed fruit salad and homemade apple pie.
"Next door we could only have about 75 people be able to eat a meal and here we can have more than 300 folks," said President/CEO of the Denver Rescue Mission Brad Meuli. "So it's terrific, it's going really well and we're very excited to serve a Christmas banquet like this."
"The facilities we were in, in the old shelter in previous years, were very limited in the terms of the number of people we could serve and we had to shuffle them out kind of quickly so we could make room for the next group but here people could stay and relax and enjoy it and it's more of a family style, more intimate and friendly," said Goss.
About 50 volunteers helped serve hundreds of guests who have come to call the facility home.
"We're trying to get some of the people who have been outside on the streets and didn't have a place to go, this is a place, really, where you can come, it's about human dignity, you can go to the restroom here, you can take a shower, you can of course have a great meal. We're hoping to get people who are out on the street in and that's the exciting thing for us," said Meuli.
They also got some gifts that included a warm blanket and new socks.
"This is for the folks who come through here, this is their Christmas, this is their holiday and we're their family and that's what we're really trying to accomplish," said Meuli.