Thanksgiving Day dinner for sailors on the bubble

A four-year Thanksgiving Day tradition in which more than 150 sailors descend on the Cary Country Club for turkey and all the trimmings is now up in the air.

A club official confirmed Tuesday that authorities are not renewing the lease for the Club House restaurant that prepares the dinners, as the restaurant's owner has fallen behind on her rent.

As a result, the Club House, in business for 12 years, will not reopen after its lease expires Dec. 31, said Ken Swoboda, the club's general manager and a member of its board.

A new eatery will take its place once the club reopens in March. As customary, the country club will remain closed throughout January and February, Swoboda said.

Where that leaves the annual Thanksgiving Day dinner this week is the big question.

Swoboda says board members will consider keeping the dinner at the club, but have not yet made a decision on its fate.

“The Cary Country Club has been doing this for a long time,” Swoboda said of the dinners. “It's the country club that provides the building, the gas, the electric all that stuff.”

But restaurant owner JoAnn Miara plans on keeping the dinners alive at the new eatery she hopes to open in Fox River Grove.

Miara, a Wauconda resident, also said she's “brokenhearted” about having to relocate.

“It's not about the money, it's about the customers and it always has been,” she said as turkeys simmered in the oven. “I have great customers they've been here forever and ever.”

Miara coordinates the dinners with Fox River Grove resident David Dufern, who runs the Sue H. Dufern Memorial Servicemen's Fund.

Miara charges Dufern between 25 and 30 percent of what the dinners actually cost, secures the food at discounted rates from her vendors and then rounds up more than 100 volunteers to staff the dinners.

The sailors primarily come from Great Lakes Naval Training Center and the dinners are their home away from home, Dufern said.

“The thing that truly is nice about it is taking these kids they're getting off base for the first time and having an atmosphere that's warm and welcoming and in a country setting like that,” Dufern said.

After sitting down to a hearty Thanksgiving Day meal, the sailors send holiday wishes to family and friends on donated mobile phones and laptops. They also have opportunities to win calling cards and plane tickets to visit family.

Miara and the fund, named after Dufern's wife who died in 2007 of lung cancer, help make the dinner possible. The dinners started in 2006.

But unless he can secure a similar discount on the event from the future vendor, Dufern is not sure whether he can keep the dinners going.

“I don't know if they would be able to accommodate us with the financial arrangement,” Dufern said, adding that donations to his fund are down about 40 percent this year. “We're pretty much breaking even right now.”