Dream Center serves up Christmas dinner, caring in Carson City

At the end of Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol," Ebenezer Scrooge surprises the humble Cratchit family with a prize turkey for Christmas dinner. Although that story is fiction, the Northern Nevada Dream Center's (NNDC) annual Dream Christmas dinner event in Carson City is not.

For the second straight year, the NNDC will host a full dinner for 500 guests, said NNDC Director Susan Sorenson. This year's Dream Christmas dinner will be held Saturday, Dec. 17 at 6 p.m. at the NNDC, located at 1600 Snyder Avenue in Carson City.

"We invite everyone we serve through our monthly outreaches back to the Dream Center for Christmas Dinner," she said. "A lot of the people attending are from motels here in Carson City, or they live alone and may not have a home cooked Christmas dinner."

But the event is about much more than a meal, she said.

Santa Claus will be in attendance to bring Christmas cheer to families and children, who can also engage in a holiday craft activity during the event.

"We try to make it feel comfortable and like home," she said. "We have 135 volunteers, a lot of them just available to hang out with people and love on them."

The organization's clothing closet will also give away 3,000 articles, Sorenson said, and all guests leave with a gift bag and a bag of groceries with either a ham or turkey inside.

Sorenson and a group of friends have been helping to meet the needs of people in Carson City since 2010, she said, eventually launching the NNDC in 2014.

"Our hearts were touched by the teenagers our own children knew who struggled with addiction and self worth, the lonely and poor living in motels just one weekly payment away from being on the streets and the homeless we saw in our city," Sorenson said. "We were and still are driven by a passion to change lives, to lift people up and out of their circumstances and bring them to a new life filled with hope and joy."

Their community work grew over the years from monthly small projects daily meeting needs through to the Dream Center, Sorenson said, an organization run solely by more than 60 volunteers.

Over the past four years, she said, the NNDC has distributed more than 3,500 bags full of toiletries, snacks and winter clothing to the homeless in Northern Nevada.

The NNDC today serves more than 1,100 individuals each month in a number of ways, she said. Basic needs are met through the organization's on-site food pantry and clothing closet, while a workplace training program called "DC Hire" helps individuals improve their employability.

Sorenson said NNDC is the only place in town an individual can receive training in Microsoft Office, learn basic computer skills, and take High School Equivalency courses all for free.

On-site programs are only part of the NNDC, she said, which also features mobile outreach that brings services to people where they live.

Mobile food trucks deliver groceries, fresh produce and meats three times a month in neighborhoods throughout Carson City, she said.

"We love to serve and we are changing lives every day we step out and love the people who live here," Sorenson said. "We have an amazing group of volunteers driven by the same passion and vision poured into our hearts years ago. We love our city."

This commitment to community shows through its programs and services, she said, including a mentoring program for teenaged girls called "Mirror Mirror," Dream Kids, the Rescue Bag Project, and Saturday Supper, which delivers more than 200 hot meals, clothing, toiletries and other essentials to needy people all over Carson City.

"Saturday Supper is perhaps our most impactful program," she said, "reaching individuals and families living in motels."

NNDC volunteers pack up the food, clothing and essentials, then head out to seven different motels to spend time serving, chatting, hugging and loving people in need, Sorenson said.

"These are some really sweet people who just need to know that someone cares," she said.

The Saturday Supper program started about two and half years ago, Sorenson said, helping dozens overcome their circumstances and moved into their own homes by providing both encouragement and resources, such as furniture, clothing, food and rental deposits.

A recent addition to the program is a free community dinner on site at the Dream Center, she said.

The annual Christmas dinner is a special holiday extension of that meal service.

"So many of the people we meet are either alone for Christmas, can’t afford a dinner or live in a motel and can’t cook a Christmas dinner, so we invited them all back to our place for dinner," Sorenson said.

The Dream Christmas dinner is prepared by "Catering for Causes," which donates its time and talent to cook for NNDC guests, she said.

The second annual event requires the efforts of 130 volunteers over a three-day period to accomplish, Sorenson said.

NNDC is still looking for boys and girls coat donations this Christmas, she said.

With the new year around the corner, Sorenson said NNDC is anticipating growth and expansion of its services and programs throughout the region.

"Our food truck program will be adding a new site in Gardnerville at a veteran’s apartment complex," she said. "We hope to expand our DC Hire classes, and we will be launching our Adopt A Block program in 2017."

Sorenson said she is hopeful that the expansion and growth of NNDC will eventually lead to a larger facility that can be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week to serve those the needy with a long-term rehabilitation program and facilities to house homeless families.

The NNDC is part of a global network of Dream Centers worldwide, Sorenson said, the original having started in Los Angeles 22 years ago.

"We are an independent organization, though," she said, "funded solely by donations specific to our Dream Center, no funding from the network."

For more information about the NNDC and its outreach, visit it online here or like it on Facebook here.