Hospitality served here

Teens happy to pitch in at senior luncheon

By:Mary Ellen Zangara
   On Saturday afternoon, 125 senior citizens from the community were treated to a special luncheon in their honor at the Emmanuel Baptist Church hall on South Third Avenue, courtesy of the parishioners.
   Pastor Jack Darida welcomed the group to a dinner where, as he noted, "We can thank you for what you do in the community."
   After his welcome, he acknowledged all the veterans present and the group sang "God Bless America" and saluted the flag.
   The seniors luncheons started about five or six years ago, according to Pastor Darida.
   "We just decided that we wanted to do something to honor and appreciate the senior citizens in town since the town has many of them, and to invite them to have a free dinner," he said. "We have done this once a year since then, except for the year of Hurricane Floyd, we did it for the flood victims rather than the senior citizens.
   "It’s been the same idea every year. It gives our kids and some of our adults an opportunity to learn about serving the community too. It gives them a chance to serve and honor the senior citizens," he said.
   Parishioners Florence Maruca handles all the tickets and the door prizes donated from local businesses. The tickets are given out at a senior citizen club meeting on a first-come, first-serve basis.
   Betty Bartol and her kitchen crew cooked the meal and the younger parishioners help serve the senior guests with a homestyle dinner of chicken, potatoes, vegetables and more.
   Some of the girls came from college to help out at this year’s event — Kari Lubansky just came home from college in Pennsylvania and was able to help as she has in the past.
   Sara Perrotti and Emily Tambs say helping out at the luncheon is a good service for the community.
   "It’s a tradition that we’ve been doing," Emily said, adding they enjoy coming out to help serve the seniors.
   Dottie Bradley, a parishioner, was glad to see the girls come out to help. "These girls are always here every time we need help. I think it’s real exciting to see our young folks out doing community service," she said.
   The seniors enjoyed the dinner very much and were glad to have been invited to such an event. All of them thought the dinner was delicious and had a good time and the volunteers did a good job.
   "I’d come anytime they have this," Mary Adams said. "The food was wonderful, and we love it."
   Marie Woods came to the dinner for the second time and she was also pleased.
   "It was very delicious and it was very nice I really enjoyed myself," she said.
   This was the first time that Alberta Knight attended the dinner and she said, "I am enjoying myself very much, and everything is wonderful, the service the girls everything."
   Afterwards, Pastor Darida said he was pleased with the outcome of the dinner.
   "They seem to enjoy it, the crowd comes back every year. I recognize a lot of the faces and we’re glad to provide this service. It’s a good thing we do, and we enjoy doing it," he said.