Tom Fasnacht's boyhood wish was to become a priest.

After earning a bachelor's degree, Fasnacht began seminary studies. But he chafed at the strict seminary environment, and after a couple months he took time off to reassess his plans.

He never went back.

Today, even though he doesn't wear a priest's collar, Fasnacht is still serving others.

The 43-year-old bank executive has presided for the last decade over the mass of people at Lancaster County Project for the Needy's annual Christmas Eve food giveaway. "It has always been a passion of mine to be involved in the community and help those less fortunate," Fasnacht said.

This year, hundreds of volunteers at Clipper Magazine Stadium distributed 1,200 food boxes containing turkey dinners.

As chairman of the group formed to oversee the food giveaway, Fasnacht helps line up food donations and monetary contributions for the event while helping to coordinate the volunteers.

The Lancaster County native lives in Manheim Township with his wife and two teenage children and is a senior vice president in the loan department at Fulton Financial Corp., where he first began working 19 years ago.

"For those people who maybe haven't been as fortunate, I do what I can to make things a little bit brighter for them," he said.

Fasnacht, who attends St. James Catholic Church in Lititz, is active in several church and community charities throughout the year. But on Christmas Eve, he takes on one of his biggest volunteer roles.

In the weeks leading to the event, Fasnacht said, his phone was "ringing off the hook" with inquiries, including many from potential volunteers.

Fasnacht tells them to just show up — and that they did.

This year, a record 500-plus volunteers helped with the massive operation, forming an efficient box-filling assembly line along the stadium's third-base concourse and ferrying boxes to the cars of recipients.

"I don't really have to do much once it gets going," Fasnacht said Wednesday morning as the event was winding down.

In June, the board for the Lititz-based Lancaster County Project for the Needy will meet to discuss how things went. In September, they'll begin asking for new donations.

In 2007, the group brought in just over $33,000 in contributions, with gifts from about 300 donors. In the midst of a weakening economy, Fasnacht said he was bracing for a slowdown this time around.

"I was blown away at how strong the donations came in this year. … With everything that is going on, I would not have been surprised to see donations go down," he said.

In 1989, a couple years after Fasnacht graduated from Shippensburg University with a degree in finance, he first volunteered during the Christmas Eve food giveaway. Back then the event was just a couple years old, and only about 150 turkeys were handed out.

"The thing that amazed me the first year that I got involved was to see 200 volunteers coming out the day before Christmas. … It made a huge impression," Fasnacht said.

By that time, Fasnacht had officially abandoned his plans to be a priest. In his break from Mount St. Mary's University in Maryland, he got a job in Gettysburg at Hoffman Homes for Youth, a residential treatment program for children.

While in Gettysburg, he met his future wife at a church function. On their second date — on Valentine's Day — he asked Lynn to marry him, shocking some of his family members and confirming that his life of service would be conducted outside the priesthood.

Now, the Fasnachts have made volunteering part of their family's Christmas tradition. They typically work at a soup kitchen or shelter on Christmas morning before opening their presents at home.

"We've always tried to instill in our children the importance of not receiving on Christmas but giving," Fasnacht said.

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