Third Tuesday Suppers celebrates 5 years in Geneva

Time flies when you are having fun - serving your community.

Volunteers who host the Third Tuesday Suppers at Geneva United Methodist Church know this to be true.

When they get together for the Oct. 21 supper, it will mark five years of providing free meals to those who simply like to get out and see friends or be around other people for dinner.

The suppers started in 2009 as an acknowledgment that a lot of people were out of work or low on money. In addition, organizers said at the time, too many older residents eat alone or don't make themselves nutritious meals.

My mother-in-law fell into that latter category, so I started bringing her to these free suppers. They almost immediately became the highlight of her month for the last four years of her life.

Eventually, the suppers took on new meaning. They were becoming a spot for people to simply have a night out with family or friends and stay away from their own kitchens at little or no expense.

It appears the church intends to keep offering the free meals at which participants can leave donations if they are able.

"When we started, we had no idea how long we would be doing them, and we still don't know," said dinner chairman Beth Kucera, who claims the credit for the "crazy idea" that has made so many people happy should go to co-chair Gayle Taylor.

The numbers say the church has a crazy success story going. "At our first dinner, we prepared 125 meals and served 119," Kucera said. "I hesitate to even say it, but we could be preparing 750 meals for the November Thanksgiving supper this year."

In the next breath, Kucera jokes about her co-chair person. "Don't tell Gayle, she may run and hide."

Because the dinners are an "off-budget" item for the church, meaning they operate solely on donations, Kucera said there is no telling how many more years they will take place.

"How would we tell the wonderful community that comes together for the suppers that we were going to stop them?" Kucera asked. "Caring friendships have developed, and we have added a slogan of 'Where eating alone is never on the menu.' "

Vital part of life

It's called the Active River Project Task Force, a name given to a group of city, park district and other officials in St. Charles to figure out ways to attract more folks to the Fox River for recreational activities.

It reminds me of something I saw years ago when my mother-in-law, who was a lifelong St. Charles resident, was showing old family movies. They were snippets of life in St. Charles in the 1940s through the '60s.

Other than getting a chuckle out of seeing Randall Road as a gravel road "out in the country," another part of the films stood out.

The Fox River looked like a resort area. It was filled with boats, skiers, and people having picnics along the banks or in Pottawatomie Park.

Some of that still goes on to this day, of course. But this had a different look and feel to it, as if it were simply a vital part of life in this area.

If this task force can bring back some of that vibe, St. Charles' stretch of the Fox River will become something special again.

Pinching myself

Even though I have been a journalist for more than 40 years, I still have days in which I pinch myself to make sure this isn't a dream.

A recent Friday was one such day.

I spent the morning and part of the afternoon at the Federal Reserve Bank in Chicago, covering a conference as part of my full-time job for a media company based in New York.

Michael Hayden, a four-star Air Force general and former CIA and NSA director, was a featured speaker. He provided interesting insights into our current situation with terrorists and cyberattacks against our financial institutions.

That night, as I have for the past 12 years, I covered a high-school football game for the Daily Herald.

It's not entirely fun and games, of course, because the people paying me are expecting me to write fairly legible stories about this stuff on pretty tight deadlines.

Still, not many people can say they gained knowledge about world problems and how a defense can stop a wishbone offense on the same day.

A meeting idea

City planners, regardless of which city, often wonder why more residents don't attend open meetings in which officials are seeking input on downtown plans or other projects being contemplated.

These meetings generally take place on a weekday evening, which is the only logical time to do it.

So why don't people show up? First, many of them work longer hours than in the past and some, including my wife and I, work two jobs.

Even if they are free, they are wiped out by the evening and far more inclined to watch a favorite TV show than march off to another meeting.

Second, a significant sector of community residents aren't particularly engaged in anything related to their towns and never will be.

An option? Webcast these meetings with communication capabilities, meaning residents can listen in and then ask questions online from the convenience of their laptops or tablets. The folks conducting the meetings could answer some questions live, but respond via email to those they can't get to.

I do it every week on business-related topics. And we all know the technology is available.

More delays

These are the words many in the Tri-Cities region would not want to hear when trying to muster up the energy to face a new workweek: Patching work on Fabyan Parkway is underway and will continue a couple more weeks at least.

dheun@sbcglobal.net