Kissing booth, king and queen event at nutrition center on Valentine's Day

Pucker up all you hot lips! The Tri-City Senior Citizen's Nutrition Center will be crowning a King and Queen of Valentines this Valentine's Day. Plus, rumor has it -- there will be a kissing booth on site that day.

"I have two people picked out for the kissing booth, a man and a woman," said April Johnson, volunteer contributions coordinator. "They don't know about it yet," Johnson said with a mischievous chuckle.

Valentine fun and the usual nutritious home-cooked meal will be available on Wednesday the fourteenth, Valentine's Day.

"All of our meals are homemade," Johnson said.

"And you don't have to be 60 years old to come here and eat," chirped in Victoria Slinkard, center administrator. "Anyone of any age is welcome to come and get a good meal ... anyone, any race, religion, size, shape -- all are welcome. We're here to help our neighbors."

Here is how the kissing booth game will be played: For 75 cents, a person can be put into the kissing booth. The person must sit in the kissing booth for 15 minutes and dole out the smackers. But, if the person doesn't want to be smooched, he or she may pay a dollar to escape duty. Plus, that person can then choose someone else to take his or her place in the booth.

To select a King and Queen of Valentines Day, it will cost one dollar per vote. The king and queen will sit at a special Valentine's table, wear crowns, rings, and of course, dine on the center's food.

"We're raising the money to get a new van, and we're expanding our delivery area further into Bollinger County," Johnson said. "We're hoping to have enough funds raised by the end of the year.

"We're calling it the 'Helping Hands Van,'" continued Johnson. "We also want to keep emergency supplies in the van and be able to help during emergency situations."

The Tri-City Senior Citizen's Nutrition Center is comprised of dedicated volunteers who donate their services and resources to prepare, cook and deliver meals to shut-ins throughout Bollinger County.

"All our drivers are volunteers and use their own cars and gas to deliver meals," Johnson explained. "Currently, the center has four meal delivery routes.

"We're hoping that one of the auto dealers will go in half with us for the van," Johnson said. "It's tax deductible."

"Bollinger County is one of the smallest counties per capita in Missouri," Slinkard said. "We could do a lot more if we had more money and more volunteers. We've got plenty of food.

"We've had people that came here and they were down. But once they joined us here at the center, they began to feel alive again," Slinkard said. "Our dream is to expand our services and reach every shut-in in Bollinger County."