Reindeer games resume at the Longboat Island Chapel

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas at the Longboat Island Chapel as members prepare and reprepare for Christmas in the Garden, starting Nov. 27. 

Setup takes more than two weeks and was underway when Hurricane Nicole prompted an interruption of their work. Last week, though, volunteers were on ladders hanging wreaths and wrapping ribbon around trees. But no one touched the lights because that is Rev. Brock Patterson’s job. 

“It’s my therapy,” he said, and adding he plans on stringing even more lights on the front of the chapel this year. 

While the garden was filled with busy bees, the dining hall was filled with fun and games. The chapel’s consignment shop, The Lord’s Warehouse, was welcoming back volunteers and honoring Joyce and Bob Mazurek for going above and beyond. 

“They work constantly at the warehouse; they’re there all the time,” Karen Pashkow said. 

The Mazureks also find higher prices for specialty donations like jewelry, antiques and first edition books. Those items are always easily identifiable, which is not always the case at the warehouse.

So that’s the name of the game: What is that? For two years in a row, volunteers have collected odd, unidentified objects and turned them into a guessing game. Pashkow spent hours on Google and Amazon identifying them. The thing that looks like a tiny TV antenna; it holds plastic baggies.