Above:
Rodney O’Neill greets friends as he carries on his mother’s legacy with Barb O'Neill's Family and Friends Thanksgiving event. Barb O’Neill started
the meal for family and close friends out of her home in 1969. Eventually, it became a community event.
By
Janine Gates
Rodney O’Neill, 50, suffered a stroke on January 31, but
says nothing could keep him and a whole lot of friends from pulling off the 47th
annual Barb O’Neill’s Family and Friends Thanksgiving community meal. The event was held at First United Methodist Church on Wednesday.
“Without the community support and help of everybody,
we would be sunk,” he said, crediting support from local nonprofits, the Washington
Federation of State Employees Local 443 union, NW Realty and the Van Dorm
family, and many more.
“It slowed me down but it definitely didn’t stop me. I have a purpose. I have been given the right tools to do what I do with knowledge, faith, and a genuine passion to want to help people….” he said, as well wishers and friends constantly caught his attention.
O’Neill estimated that about 150 volunteers turned
out to assist with the meal, including a lot of high school students from Olympia High School
and Timberline High School, who also provided musical entertainment.
Logistically, volunteers started planning on Tuesday
at 8:00 a.m.
“Being prepared and working all day yesterday gave
us an advantage,” he said. O’Neill was prepared to serve about 1,500 meals, but
by 4:30 p.m., only about 550 meals were served. Each meal was deeply appreciated.
An evening dinner rush before 5:00 p.m.
is typical, and volunteers were ready. Robert Johns, who has assisted with the Thanksgiving dinner for four years, wore a festive turkey hat as he stood behind the serving line, ready to replace empty serving food containers with hot, full ones.
The total number of those served was down, perhaps due to the fact that the
event was changed this year from United Churches in downtown Olympia to First United Methodist
Church on Legion Way, in Olympia’s eastside neighborhood.
The new location provides
more room for folks to eat, sit, enjoy musical entertainment on a stage, and make new
friends, or see old friends. O’Neill is confident people will find and get used
to coming to the new location.
“It’s just amazing….Look, there’s no stress on their
faces. They are happy to be here,” O'Neill said of the crowd.
Not only were folks able to eat a
traditional Thanksgiving meal with all the trimmings, a resource room was set up to provide
information about local social services, and a clothing room provided clothes,
blankets, coats, and paper bags filled with soups and soap. The YMCA provided free shower passes to those in need.
Providing enough clothes and warm coats for men is a perpetual need and donations are accepted year round.
Providing enough clothes and warm coats for men is a perpetual need and donations are accepted year round.
Describing how he had worked on the meals by his mother’s side since he was little, O'Neill said that taking over the event was not as easy as he first thought.
“In the last three years of her life, it was like I was in ‘Training Day.’ It was always so intense with everything she was trying to tell me, and I was like, ‘OK, Mom, I got it, I got it,’ but the whole time, I didn’t have it.”
But by the looks of how shifts of volunteers were kept busy and smoothly rotated between stations, and plentiful, hot food, drinks and desserts were
served with smiles, with friendly conversation heard throughout the church’s Great Hall, it would seem Rodney O’Neill has got it.
O’Neill’s Family and Friends will have a Christmas
meal on Saturday, December 17, from 12 – 6:00 p.m. at First United Methodist Church, and provide
toys and gift baskets.
To donate food, gifts, gently used clothing, or supplies such as sleeping bags or coats, or to find out how you can get involved in this event or other community events sponsored by Barb O'Neill's Family and Friends, contact Rodney O'Neill at (360) 485-9931 or barbssoul@yahoo.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment