by Dennis Dalman
editor@thenewsleaders.com
Area families combined fun with good works at a pot-luck get-together Nov. 17 when they collected items to be sent to military personnel far from home.
The event is one of the annual community-service projects by consultants for Scentsy, a candle-warmer company based in Meridian, Idaho. Consultants sell scented wax tablets that are used in candle-warmers to produce inviting scents throughout homes, decks, patios and gardens.
Scenty’s mission statement is “to give more than we take,” said Ann Goenner-Scott, Sauk Rapids, who is the Scentsy director for Minnesota. The core values of Scentsy consultants, she added, are “generosity, simplicity and authenticity.”
Goenner-Scott and about a dozen other women from the area (Sartell, Sauk Rapids and St. Cloud), along with their families, met at Love of Christ Church in Sartell Nov. 17 to collect foods and to make craft-like greetings for the soldiers.
The children made paper gingerbread men and snowflakes on which they wrote thank-you messages and holiday greetings to the soldiers serving overseas. The parents also wrote thank-you notes with holiday messages on them. Everybody worked as a team to collect all the items that will be delivered to Becky Carlson of Rice, also a Scentsy consultant, so that she can pack up to 200 boxes that will be mailed in plenty of time before Christmas. Among the items collected Nov. 17 were granola bars, hard candy and beef jerky. Carlson will also add other non-food comfort items collected separately.
“There are people I know in the military such as a cousin in Special Forces, and we never know where he is,” Goenner-Scott said. “It is a hard time for them so we want to help make things a little lighter and happier for them.”
A table inside Love of Christ Lutheran Church is lined with gifts that include snacks, puzzles, playing cards, Scentsy items and more, along with homemade ornaments adorned with words of thanks and encouragement, all for deployed soldiers.
Local Scentsy consultants gathered with their families Nov. 17 at Love of Christ Lutheran Church to craft cards and ornaments and package gifts of food and other items for deployed U.S. soldiers. From left to right are Kiera Ryan, 6; Ann Goenner-Scott; Harlow Scott, 2; Stacie Bartels, Avon; Mary Lynne Goenner, Clear Lake; Kaila Ryan, 10; Matt Ryan; Braeden Ryan, 4; Tony Scott; Lucas Ryan, 9; and Nelli Ryan. The Scott family resides in Sauk Rapids and the Ryans live in St. Cloud.
