About 22 years ago, an accident that left Tiffanie Rosier enduring multiple reconstructive surgeries and physical therapy sessions provided the spark for a community service project that continues this weekend.

Rosier and her parents, Eugene and Kay Rosier, organized the first year of the project as a way to honor family and friends who helped after Tiffanie’s accident. When she was 19 years old, her foot was crushed by a forklift, and she required physical therapy just to learn how to walk again after her foot was pieced back together.

“Sometimes, when a tragic situation happens, you have a lot of people who are there and supportive,” Tiffanie Rosier said this week. She said people would cook for her family or tell her parents to sleep in while they spent mornings in the hospital with Tiffanie.

“Because people were just so generous with their time and what they did for us, at Christmas we were trying to figure out what we could do to kind of give back.”

They hit upon the idea of throwing a party for those who had helped them, asking them only to bring nonperishable food as well as new or gently used clothing, housewares and other goods to distribute to foodbanks, shelters, transitional programs and other nonprofits.

Over the years, the event has become open to the public. This year, it will be held this Sunday, Dec. 7, at the Comfort Suites at 5409 Plummer Blvd., Suffolk, from 3 to 7 p.m.

“Every year, there’s new people that my parents meet or I meet that we invite,” Rosier said.

In recent years, about 200 pounds of food alone — not to mention the other goods — has been donated each year, Rosier said.

It’s a floating event, and people can come and go as they please, Rosier said.

She said Legacy Limousine & Luxury Coaches will donate a limousine for guests to “load the limo” with donations, which also makes transportation after the event a snap, Rosier said.

Lasting Memories Photography Services and AllStar Photobooth also have donated their services to create lasting memories of the event, Rosier said. The hotel also has donated the space.

“It kind of started with a not-so-positive situation but then turned into a positive one,” she said.

For more information on the event, call 513-5731.