A festive dining room; a buffet of delicious home-made food; a hot chocolate bar and dozens of trays with tempting home-baked desserts awaited diners on Tuesday, as they poured into the Barn at Herr Ridge Farm in Gettysburg for another free Community Dinner, conceived and brought to fruition by Gettysburg resident Stephanie Auer.
As we had reported in November, Auer had a dream of feeding the less fortunate in our community, and those who had no one to spend time with or a place to go to during the holidays, creating community among local residents. What she had initially planned for just twelve families at Thanksgiving brought out more than 1,060 folks last month. The mission was clear for Auer: There would be community dinners on a regular basis going forward.
But Auer wants to offer more than just meals during holidays. An entertainment artist by trade, she has a bold vision of creating magic for the children. This Christmas dinner featured sleighs filled with presents and rows of tables covered with wrapped gifts. Santa and Mrs. Claus were handing out stockings and posing for pictures with kids and adults; the Grinch greeted guests at each table; and a horse-drawn sleigh ride awaited the guests outside. Holiday music was provided by local musician, Mike Smith, and, undoubtedly, Rumi’s K-Pop performance for the kids was a huge hit. Several notable community figures joined the volunteers, including Congress candidate Beth Farnham, and April Jones (the Grinch), mayor of Arendtsville. ABC News covered the event live. Kids were leaving with bags full of goodies and toys, and huge smiles on their faces.
While this event required pre-registration to ensure adequate space, toys and meals (a lesson learned from the previous event that grew from 300 to over 1,000), the anticipated number of roughly 300+ registrants for three on-site meal seatings, plus a carry-out service, was far outnumbered by dozens of walk-ins during the later afternoon sessions, and many additional meals were being delivered to shelters and shut-ins at the end of the day.
While Auer’s vision of bringing these events to the community is remarkable in itself, it would have been impossible to accomplish without the community’s involvement. Auer’s team of main organizers, headed by Katie Engle, Rose Thornberry, and D. Gardner, along with dozens of volunteers, brought Auer’s vision to life. For several weeks since the last Community Dinner at Thanksgiving, volunteers had been planning, organizing, marketing, soliciting donations, wrapping presents and preparing decorations. Two days before the feast, volunteers flooded the cooking facilities at Camp Nawakwa to bake desserts and cook dozens of hams, stuffing, corn pudding, carrots, and green bean casserole. Local businesses and residents donated food, toys, cash, supplies and services. Steve Wolf from Barn at Herr Ridge donated the venue for the event, with his daughter, Cassandra Selby, remaining on site to help manage the many tasks.
Several of the volunteers had helped with the Thanksgiving event last month and are now devoted to returning for future events. “The first dinner in November was hard, hard work and there were some big learning curves for us all,” says Jackie, one of the volunteers. “But when I saw the difference we made in people’s lives at that event, and the enormous impact it had on families in need, plus the effect of connecting our community, I was hooked. So, I came back again for this one, and it will be my honor to be part of the project going forward.”
Among the many volunteers, it also was a special treat on the day of the event to welcome several young women from the ASSE International Exchange Student organization to the team of servers and greeters. Representing Liberia, Rumania, Lithuania, Mongolia, and Kyrgyzstan, the girls’ enthusiasm was infectious and they, in turn, were grateful for the experience. (Stay tuned for a separate story on these remarkable young women.)
With nary a minute’s time after packing up and hauling away leftover supplies from the event, Auer has already planned out the next Community Dinner to celebrate Easter. The Gettysburg Community Dinners team wishes to extend their sincere gratitude to all who made this event so successful. A list of donors and volunteers can be viewed in the slideshow attached.
The overwhelming response to Auer’s vision demonstrates not only the rising needs within our Gettysburg area communities, but also the emergence of a renewed community spirit, and people’s willingness to step up and support their fellowmen during a time of political divisiveness and economic despair. Meals for “people in need” no longer means just financial need, but a need for human interaction, need for community. “I want people to reconnect as neighbors, eat together, play, talk, and leave the stress of the world outside for a while,” Auer says.
(Photo gallery by Community Dinner team members, depicting scenes from all three meal seatings, including entertainment and a visit from ABC News Live. Featured group photo by Darryl Wheeler.)
This sounds like a great opportunity for myself & Great Granddaughter to get involved in volunteering to help others. I was always taught it is better to give than to receive. So, I would like to pass this lesson on to my granddaughter.