A community activist is to bring Christmas spirit to Court Street this year with a Boxing Day dinner served in the Jamaican Grill parking lot.

Regina Peniston said she still needed support to help make the dinner a success. She explained: “The preparation work is going slowly. I have had a few calls, but I still need more assistance.

“I’m just asking people to help towards the cause. It’s a great cause, and it’s very rewarding. It brings me a lot of joy to do it every year.

“I just hope more people come out, give, and find out what it feels like to give right from the heart.”

It is the twelfth time Ms Peniston has organised the festive meal.

She said she began the tradition because she herself had struggled.

She said: “I remember Christmases past, 20, 25 years ago, where I didn’t have any food to eat.

“I had gone to Christmas meals on Court Street several times when Fern Wade did them, and I vowed that if I was able to pull myself together I would give back. It’s been 11 years and counting. Now people see me on the street and ask about Boxing Day.”

She added: “Sometimes we have as many as 150 people. It makes them happy, very happy, but it makes me happier.”

Ms Peniston said some volunteers and donors willing to help provide food had come forward, but more were needed to feed the more than 100 people expected to attend the event.

She added she also hoped to be able to offer warm winter clothes this year to those who need them.

Ms Peniston said anyone interested in helping with the dinner should phone her at 704-0976 or e-mail regina.red12@outlook.com.