On Monday evening, Dec. 14, the LaFayette Elks Lodge hosted a holiday party for the consumers of Lookout Mountain Community Services. The consumers, comprised of residents of Volunteers of America and local personal support homes, gathered from 5-8 p.m. to play games, sing holiday songs, and divulge their wishes to Santa.

This is the third such holiday party that the Volunteers of America has hosted in conjunction with Lookout Mountain Community Services.

Tex Robinson, a veteran of VOA’s parties, having attended all prior events, was especially excited to deejay the music selections. He led the other consumers in holiday songs and decided just when to stop the singing in multiple rounds of musical chairs.

Families and friends of the Lookout Mountain Community Services consumers came out to show their support and join in the festivities. Consumer Michael Robinson, 43 years young, has been living with Diane Dover of LaFay-ette for the past four years. Robinson enjoys Volunteers of America’s events and likes to dance, but according to Dover, “he won’t dance when we come with him. He’s independent like that.”

Vikki Entrekin, president of the Arc of Chattooga County, was present with her daughter Christie, who met and fell in love with her boyfriend through Lookout Mountain Community Services. Entrekin will be attending a meet-ing with the deputy director of the Georgia Council on Developmental Disabilities on Jan. 5. She hopes to gain grants and new sources of funding for those with developmental disabilities in northwest Georgia.

Entrekin has big plans to enrich the lives of northwest Georgia’s developmentally disabled in the coming year. In addition to asking for grants, she hopes to raise community funds to support “long-term care at home” by hosting an abilities awareness walk and a fishing rodeo in the spring. She is also rewriting the classic tale “The Three Lit-tle Pigs” to be performed by LMCS consumers sometime in 2010.

It’s easy to see that the evening’s partygoers would be eager to participate in Entrekin’s play. The mood in the Elks Lodge was one of merry solidarity and there was barely a square foot of free space on the dance floor.

Outside of funding, all that the consumers need, Entrekin continues, is a “platform for inclusion into the soci-ety.”

Volunteers of America and Lookout Mountain Community Services’ next planned party will be in honor of Val-entine’s Day. The dates of Arc of Chattooga County’s events have yet to be decided. More information on these non-profits and the needs of the developmentally disabled can be found at the following websites: www.voa.org, www.lmcs.org and thearc.org.