A history of Alpha, Thanksgiving and service to community
The Brothers of Alpha have been supporting the community at Thanksgiving for over thirty years. In the early years each brother would bring a Turkey to the chapter meeting. At the conclusion of the meeting the brothers would make delivery of the turkeys to families within the community. In the late 1970’s it was brought to our attention that many people celebrated lonely Thanksgivings alone in nursing homes or alone at home. We wanted to reach this group. We changed our format and began preparing full Thanksgiving meals. This was a huge undertaking because it involved a lot more brother involvement. We had the support of the community facilities and people to help us get this done. The lead help was from the “Mother” of our chapter Ms. Victory Miller mother of Robert MacAlpine and grandmother of Thomas MacAlpine. She was assisted by the father in-law of Brother Ronn Johnson. The two of them were the head chefs and the Brothers provided all the kitchen help and serving. What was special about this was the meals were served on Thanksgiving Day. We usually had the meal around noon, which gave the brother amply time to clean up and be home for Thanksgiving with their families. Our first facility was the Martin Luther Presbyterian church on Concord Terrance, Springfield. We moved to Wesley Methodist Church, State Street, and Springfield after the first few years because Wesley had wheelchair access, which the former had none and the kitchen was in the basement. Carrying our guest up and down a staircase was just a bit too risky and required muscle and coordination. Our idea of cooking meals far predated the current groups who now provide this much needed service to our community. A combination of factors led us to stopping the serving of Thanksgiving meals. Largely it was the liability of transporting our guest to and from the facility. A largest number of our guest cam from the now closed Springfield Municipal hospital i.e. nursing type home for those on the lower economics scale. Also it was hard to determine the number of guest we should prepare. If the weather was not cooperative and the guest many times just would not want to go after having signed up to attend. The combinations of these two factors sometimes left us short our guest list. Of course any left over food was always welcomed by several shelters in the area. It was a great experience but over time had run it course.
The brothers then decided we would revert back to home delivers, but augmented the turkey with all the fixings to make a complete meal. We continue to use this method to this day. Again we get community support with a facility to use as our command center on the night of the deliveries. The deliveries typically occur on the Monday before Thanksgiving. The names are provided from multiple schools or agencies within the community. The night of delivery is always very special because the children of the Brothers are always an integral part of the delivery. Some of the stories from the mouths of these children about their experience are enough to make the brothers want to repeat the process over and over. The menu and all the shopping for the basket has been through the time and effort of Mary Shurn, wife of Brother Arthur Shurn.
To date we have made over 500 delivers which represents over 2000 persons served. This has proven to be a successful event and well received by all.