Rotarians, Happy Thanksgiving!
I hope you will be sharing the day with friends and family and perhaps reflecting on this quotation from Henry David Thoreau: “I am grateful for what I am and have. My thanksgiving is perpetual.”
(No meeting this week.)
I am extremely grateful for our club’s generosity and the help we were able to provide 30 families of active duty military and veterans.
On Friday we had Rotarians from our club and from the North Colorado Springs Rotary Club shopping for food at Costco in Colorado Springs. From our club we had Ed (the program's champion, who had scouted the store and compiled a detailed shopping list), Bob B., Josh, Bruce, Don and me. Imagine 30 turkeys on a flatbed cart. 30 hams. 60 loaves of bread. It was crazy shopping! We ran up about $3,800 in groceries for Thanksgiving Day and the weekend.
There were dressing mixes, pumpkin, green beans and corn, peanut butter, Cheerios, ketchup and mustard, cocoa mix, cookies, and more.
Then we loaded all that food into a pickup truck and three SUVs and took it back to the home of Chris and Molly, Ed’s son and daughter-in-law. The next task was to create 30 lines of food, assuring that every family received every item. And then the lines of food were loaded into delivery boxes. It was a big day for Alleve!
The garage already was piled high with the gifts club members had bought for the 30 families. Bicycles, toys, clothes. . . . . Our shoppers were Ed, Molly, Chris, Josh, Diane, Gary, Vee, Bob B. and me. (I hope I’m not leaving someone out. . . . If so, let me know.)
And all this was made possible by our member contributions that were matched by the district, giving us a $7,000 fund. Shoppers also tended to go over their “budgets” for their families, spending additional money out of their own pockets. We have reserved about $1,000 of project money for financial crises that might arise for active military and veterans between now and the end of the Rotary year, June 30.
On Saturday, the task was to deliver the food and gifts. Our volunteers were Ed, Josh, Bruce and Don. Again, we had support – six -- from the North Colorado Springs Rotary.
Chip Ecks, the club president, expressed appreciation for our (Ed's) invitation for them to participate. All their volunteers were ex-military, and wives helped, too.
We are hopeful that their club will contribute money next year, as well. The consensus seemed to be that the need is so great (we had to turn down families) that we will shoot for doubling our effort next year.
A group of mostly First Sergeants known as the Shriever (AFB) Diamond Council was instrumental in delivering many of the gifts. They were overwhelmed with the volume of the food and gifts and promised to provide a gymnasium next year for the staging of gifts and food.
I have two important things to say in closing. First, we are deeply grateful that Ed came forward with this project and learned how to write a Rotary grant and did all the planning and coordination. It was a huge amount of work. Applause, please.
Then, finally, I want to share about a phone call I received Saturday afternoon. The caller said she was a recipient of our gifts. She was choked up and could barely get the words out. She said how much she appreciated our support. It had been such a hard year for the family. And, by this time, she was sobbing. She added, maybe when they get back on their feet she could help US next year.
I told her the history of our program and how Ed had championed this idea. And, of course, I wished her Happy Thanksgiving.
Rotarians, we made a big difference in the lives of 30 families. -- Patty
