Rotary Club, Trickster Gallery team up for veterans feast
A holiday dinner with all the trimmings, a visit from Santa and lively interaction with community volunteers and high school students. Those ingredients added up to a holiday feast for area veterans on Dec. 14 at the Trickster Art Gallery in Schaumburg.
Approximately 200 veterans and their families attended the event, set right in the multicultural gallery.
The dinner opened with a flag ceremony, led by Native American veterans carrying an Eagle Staff, recognized as the first flag of these lands, as well as the American flag. Color guard members included Native vets, as well as members of VFW posts 2202 in Schaumburg and 5150 in Streamwood.
"It was such a fantastic community event," said Sarah Billmeyer, group sales manager for the Hyatt Regency Schaumburg, who helped to coordinate the feast.
Billmeyer is a member of the Rotary Club of Schaumburg-Hoffman Estates, which partnered with the gallery to throw the event. For the second year, the Rotarians were able to enlist Chandler's Chophouse - where they meet every week - to sponsor the meal.
Consequently, families helped themselves to a feast that included turkey, dressing, gravy, mixed vegetables, mashed potatoes and dinner rolls. Desserts were donated by Deerfield's Bakery in Schaumburg.
More groups combined to make the event a memorable one for area veterans, including students from Elk Grove, Hoffman Estates and Schaumburg high schools, as well as the Kenneth Young Center, which donated materials, and the Chicago Blackhawks, who donated 200 caps.
"This was a real collaboration between people in the community who wanted to make something special happen," says Eileen Higginbotham, director of community service for the Rotary Club.
The idea for the dinner began last year when Joe Podlasek, CEO of Trickster Art Gallery, approached the Rotarians with the idea of providing a dinner for veterans who might not have families in the area or a holiday gathering to attend.
Increasingly, Trickster has become aware of veterans' needs since becoming the new location for VFW Post 2202 meetings in Schaumburg.
While the gallery strives to support Native American veterans in the area, it also looks for ways to reach out to a wider network of veterans.
The holiday dinner drew a cross section of veterans, from those in their 80s from the Korean conflict to those who served in Vietnam, as well as the newest veterans who deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan.
"We hope this type of connection sparks conversation among vets," Podlasek said, "and reunites people who served together."
Trickster Art Gallery opened in 2005 in Schaumburg with its mission to heighten cultural awareness and create a unique, contemporary view of Native arts.
Guests at the dinner were surrounded by its collection, as well as a traveling exhibit from the Smithsonian, "Roots of Wisdom," Its 20 banners explore ways indigenous communities have contributed to Western science.