McHenry Moose Lodge expands Thanksgiving guest list

For 13 years, McHenry Loyal Order of Moose Lodge 691 has expanded its Thanksgiving guest list to include U.S. Navy recruits at Great Lakes Naval Station and also Mooseheart students and family teachers.

For Thanksgiving this year the McHenry Moose provided dinner for more than 50 service personnel and another 40 students and family teachers, and that meant the lodge was full of thankful people.

"We have a good group of people here," Lodge 691 Governor Rick Diamond said. "Some of us have been here since noon yesterday cooking around the clock and others have been here nearly nonstop. The team we have at this Lodge is incredible and I can't say enough about what they have done."

Seaman Recruit Dustin Parker from West Plains, Missouri, said Thanksgiving was a chance to do more than have a good meal away from Great Lakes.

"It means a lot," Parker said. "Boot camp's not always fun. It feels really good to relax and let loose a little bit. There are a lot of good people here and like a lot of people have been saying, it's good to smile."

Parker's Great Lakes training has encompassed seven weeks, and he said he has two weeks left before graduating to the next phase, which also takes place at Great Lakes.

"I'm really close to my family," Parker said. "It is kind of tough. But I wanted to do this, to be in the Navy. I volunteered to do it."

A member of Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks West Plains, Missouri, Lodge 2418, Parker had some idea of the sort of welcome he would receive at the McHenry Moose Lodge.

"I kind of figured it would be the same," Parker said. "I'd never heard of Moose, but it kind of registered for me. I haven't been anywhere where people said 'thank you' and wanted to talk to me just because I was in the Navy. That's been good."

The McHenry Moose made sure the Great Lakes recruits had more than a meal and a chance to relax. Laptop computers were connected to the Internet and cellphones were available so sailors could connect with friends and family.

"This is the first time they have been able to contact their parents," Diamond said. "They're all taking turns and that helps to make it a wonderful day."

As connected as the McHenry Moose are with the recruits from Great Lakes, the connection is even stronger with the Mooseheart children. The Moose Fraternity exists to provide for the care of children in-need at Mooseheart as well as senior Moose members at Moosehaven in Orange Park, Florida.

"It brings a tear to my heart every time we have the children here," Diamond said. "It tops it all when the kids come here and they interact with the sailors. And I can't say enough how much we care about their house parents too."

One of those family teachers is Lindsey Davis, who works in Washington-Northern Idaho Residence Home, which is home to elementary school-aged girls. This year was Davis' fourth trip as a family teacher to the McHenry Moose Lodge. Some Mooseheart students return home to their guardians at Thanksgiving, and Davis and her fellow family teachers had eight of 24 girls from three residence homes in McHenry.

"Almost all of the girls we have here today are from Florida, so they were not going to be able to get home for Thanksgiving," Davis said. "They were worried about 'what are we going to do?' I was able to hype up going to this lodge. They love the games, seeing the sailors and, of course, the food."

A Wheaton native, Davis said she and her family still get together, just not on Thanksgiving.

"I love coming to Moose Lodges and meeting the members," Davis said. "Every lodge party I go to, I take a moment to think about all the lodges across the U.S. and Canada and all they do to support the kids. I miss being with my family at the holidays, but they understand."

Another group of family teachers was responsible for a group of high school-aged Mooseheart boys. One of those students was junior Ramiro Sanchez, who has been at Mooseheart since July 2011.

"This is pretty good," Sanchez said. "Back home, I probably wouldn't be celebrating. Sometimes, we wouldn't have money for it. So it's good to be with this big family here and to have them feed us."

As a student with thoughts of a military career, Sanchez said he enjoyed the chance to interact with the Great Lakes recruits.

"I'm not sure I want to go into the Navy, but I want to go into the service," Sanchez said. "So it's good to get to eat with them. I've talked with some of them about what it might be like and how it's worth it."