By EMILY GARLAND

Reporter Newspapers

For Zandra Jones, volunteering on Christmas Eve is no big deal. It’s like picking up someone’s dropped napkin.

“You do what you do,” she says.

Wednesday night, Jones and her Black Diamond family — sons Ian, 20, and Justin, 27, and fiance Gene Davis — will serve a home-cooked dinner to the 20-some homeless men expected at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in downtown Renton.

Before leaving home, Jones and her family will light the candles of their menorah in celebration of Hanukkah. The Jewish holiday runs from Dec. 22 to 29 this year. If they have time, the family might visit Jones’ sister or brother. Then they’ll make the half-hour drive to the church.

Jones and her sons are Jewish; her fiance is not. The family no longer attends a synagogue, but they observe Jewish holidys like Hanukkah and light the Sabbath candles each Friday night.

This is the second year in a row Jones and her family will serve Christmas Eve dinner to the homeless men of ARISE. Short for Area of Renton Interfaith Shelter Endeavor, ARISE is a shelter for homeless men that moves to a new Renton church each month. St Luke’s is hosting the men this month.

Jones signed her family up for Chrismas Eve dinner last year after a former co-worker told her of the need for volunteers.

Volunteers and members of the 18 to 20 ARISE churches ensure the men receive dinner and breakfast year-round. But Christmas Eve and Christmas Day are “always challenging,” says Bobbie Roney, ARISE site operations chair and vice president of the board.

She calls the service of Jones and her family “a gift to the program.”

“I think it’s just wonderful that they recognize that it’s our Christian holiday. … and they found a way to come forward and be part of serving the community,” Roney says.

Jones has served food to the community on several Christmas eves. Those dinners were for women at a Burien shelter and for various families she and friends adopted for the holiday.

But last Christmas Eve was the first that Jones was accompanied by her sons.

Not that either boy was new to community service. Jones jokes that her youngest, Ian, was introduced to community service in her womb. She was a “pregnant popcorn mom” with him, selling popcorn for a Tahoma school PTA. She volunteered for years in Tahoma School District before taking a job as a paraeducator at Tahoma Junior High.

The boys “grew up volunteering,” Jones says. In Boy Scouts and Camp Fire, and helping various organizations with their parents.

“The boys grew up knowing and learning that it’s an important thing,” Jones says of community service.

Ian and Justin grew up that way because that’s how Jones grew up in Southern California.

“I grew up with a mother who drug me to every volunteer activity in the world,” Jones says. “I just grew up knowing that’s what you do. You grab your little Barbie dolls and go do it.”

Jones’ mom Jackie is now 74. But Jones says she’s still volunteering.

“And God be willing they’ll do it with their children,” Jones says of her boys. “It’s just second nature.”

Jones enlisted her family to help ARISE partly to give a break to the organization’s tireless employees and volunteers, many who may already be cooking Christmas Eve dinners for their families.

“We wanted to do something as a family, not only to help the men in the program, but also the families that every single day make sandwiches and cook meals,” she says.

Last year that “something as a family” was a wonderful experience, Jones says.

“We just had the best time meeting the guys,” she says. “This was a really good feeling to do this, and as young adults, it’s good for them,” she says about her boys.

Serving the men convinced Jones’ eldest, Justin, to resume working with the homeless.

The men were all smiles as they came through last year’s buffet line of turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, salad, green-bean casserole, rolls and pumpkin pies for dessert.

“Every single man was grateful, and made a point of saying it,” Jones says. “They had huge smiles. I just remember walking away and knowing there was so much gratitude in that room, and good feelings.”

Jones planned to cook the same meal for tonight as last year.

“It makes a really nice-smelling kitchen,” she said.

She and her family are eager to serve that meal to the men again tonight.

“I’m really looking forward to it. It’s going to be fun,” Jones said.

She and her family feel good about the service they contribute. But Jones insists that they are by no means a “super family.”

“We’re really just everyday people,” she says.

She encourages other everyday people to follow her family’s service example.

“People can see it’s just that easy,” she says. “To say ‘What can I do to make a difference today?’”