Last Christmas Grove for St. Benedict's Foundation

Intermountain Catholic

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OGDEN — A much-loved holiday tradition in Ogden is coming to an end. After 28 years, the St. Benedict’s Foundation Christmas Grove is illuminating its lights one final time as the sisters of Mount Benedict Monastery prepare to leave Utah.

"This is the foundation’s very last Christmas Grove," said Yvonne Coiner, the foundation’s executive director. "This is our last activity. The Christmas Grove will end the fundraising for the foundation."

The Christmas Grove was among the foundation’s most popular fundraisers. Each holiday season, contributors would send donations along with the name of a person or persons they wanted commemorated. For each name, a light was lit. Also during the ceremony at the monastery where the full-sized crèche for the grove is located, carols were sung, then people moved inside for hot cocoa and visiting.

"We reach a lot of people," said Benedictine Sister Danile Knight, the monastery spokesperson. "A lot of children come. It’s just a very special evening, with all the people coming to the monastery."

Although the foundation will no longer organize the Christmas Grove, "it really belongs to the community, so we are hoping that somebody will take this fundraiser and maybe carry it on next year and beyond to help their program," Coiner said. "If we can find an organization that would like to carry on this tradition, we will give them all the lights that we have, with the sisters’ blessing."

Regardless, for this year’s Christmas Grove, "everything will be the same – the grove, the lights, the manager, everything is the same," Coiner said. "However, all proceeds from this year’s event will go to a program called SHARE, Inc. It is a food program in Weber County that was actually started around the same time the sisters were starting this foundation in the hospital."

SHARE, Inc. is a nonprofit organization run by volunteers who deliver boxes of food to families in crisis, shut-ins and the disabled. It was founded by Presbyterian women; however, many of its current volunteers are Holy Family parishioners, Coiner said.