Roadrunners hold annual dinner/dance, toy drive

BY Dawn Rankins

The Canyon Lake Roadrunners Club held its annual Christmas dinner/dance and toy drive Tuesday at the Canyon Lake Lodge. This year’s dinner was extra special as the group also celebrated club member Pat Smith’s 80th birthday.

The long-running club, which holds many dinners throughout the year, makes sure the Christmas dinner tops the list. The event kicked off with a cocktail hour, followed by a short meeting about the upcoming year’s events, including special thanks to four ladies who organized and carried out the party, Helen Carson, Joanie Evarts, Dolores Weinberger and Sandy Beyle.

Dancing and music preceded the dinner.

Pat Smith fans out candles with a napkin, in a COVID-19 safe method at the Roadrunners Club Christmas party Tuesday. Pat celebrated her 80th birthday with the club at the dinner. Photo by Dawn Rankins.

After dinner, the club sang Happy Birthday to Pat as servers Alicia Robb and Tiffany Robb brought out an extra large birthday cake.

The Roadrunners have getaways for 2022 planned and much talk Tuesday was about the upcoming camping trips.

The evening also included a 50/50 raffle along with other raffle prizes.

Guests were encouraged to bring an unwrapped toy to donate to Canyon Lake’s Cal Fire, which had three of its firefighters from Station 60 in attendance to collect the toys. Blanca Mercado, Chris Martin and Cole Rider were on hand to pick up the toys which will be donated to the Spark of Love Toy Drive and Toys for Tots.

Members of the Canyon Lake Cal Fire crew were invited to the Roadrunners Club Christmas dinner Tuesday to collect a truckload of donated toys members brought with them to the event. The toys will be given to Spark of Love Toy Drive and Toys for Tots. Photo by Dawn Rankins.

The three firefighters said they were touched by the club giving them recognition for serving the City of Canyon Lake and said their goodbyes to the firefighters whose Cal Fire is being replaced on Jan. 1 with the city’s new municipal fire department. They wished them all well on their new assignments outside the gates of Canyon Lake.