Letters to the Editor
We welcome your letters and opinions. We will edit when necessary. Include your name, address and phone number for verification. Mail them to Bay Weekly, P.O. Box 358, Deale, MD 20751 • E-mail them to us at [email protected].
Give More than Thanks
Dear Bay Weekly:
Look around us. What a year this has been! We have a lot to be thankful for as we enter the holidays seasons.
The economy appears to be turning around. Housing starts and sales are better than they have been in years. Interest rates are at their lowest in 40 years or so and unemployment seems to be on the decline. Life is good. Or is it?
Next time we wing our way off to a warm, sunny vacation spot or look out over the Chesapeake Bay, Delaware Bay or Atlantic Ocean, look elsewhere.
Whether it is Maryland, the District of Columbia, Delaware or Virginia’s Eastern Shore, there are problems. People are in need, whether it is from low pay, lack of food or your basic shelter, thousands of people need help.
These aren’t the ones who work at Civil Service jobs in D.C., Annapolis, Richmond or Dover. These are the warehouse workers, poultry-plant workers, retail workers and people who, many times, have to work two jobs just to make ends meet.
They are the “working poor”, who make just enough to disqualify them from social services help in buying food, getting heat or electric or living in subsidized housing.
They are the reservists who’ve been called up to serve their country, fighting a war that must be won but is likely to become very unpopular as time and dollars drag on.
As the holiday season and New Year come along, take the time to give thanks for what many of us in the Chesapeake region have. We are truly among the blessed. We have natural beauty, pretty fair prosperity and the ability to help others.
Take a moment during the holidays to think about that. It will give you more riches than the best paying job, the greatest inheritance or most successful business investment the world can provide.
Then think further. For about $100, you can make sure a family has a decent holiday meal, a couple of warm coats or that their house stays warm for a month.
— David Bonar, Dover, Delaware
Plan Ahead for Leftovers
Dear Bay Weekly:
I just loved “Thanksgiving Secrets Your Mother Never Told You” [Vol. XI, No. 45: Nov. 6]. So upbeat, so clever, so worry-free. I’ll surely keep it for reference should the task of preparing Thanksgiving dinner ever fall to me.
My mother always made soup with the leftover turkey carcass. Her wonderful fragrant, clear broth with carrots and peas and wide egg noodles was a favorite in our family. My sister-in-law always makes turkey enchiladas with her leftovers — turkey wrapped in flour tortillas and baked with a cheese sauce with scallions — a dish that would have astonished my mother. But that’s what holiday traditions are all about: to each her own, and never the twain shall meet at Thanksgiving.
— M.L. Faunce, Churchton
Small Church Gives Big Thanks
Dear Bay Weekly:
On Nov. 15, Randle Cliff Community Church had its annual Thanksgiving Food Pantry. We were able to serve 40 families this year, almost twice last year’s number. This is quite an accomplishment for us as we are a very small church with about 20 members.
Our church food pantry is open the third Saturday of every month. We operate on donations from the U.S. Department of Agriculture distributed through the Southern Maryland Tri-County Community Action, the Boy Scouts and Safeway in Dunkirk as well as occasional donations from citizens and our parishioners.
I would like to thank the following people for making our pantry such a success:
- My family for their untiring devotion to this ministry.
- The Boy Scouts of troops 262 and 463 for collecting and delivering food to our pantry from their annual Scouting for Food project.
- Our neighbors who put the food in bags so that we would be able to redistribute it where it’s needed most in our community.
- Dick Christopher, store manager, and Darryl, meat manager, at the Food Rite in Deale, who allowed us to purchase the 40 turkeys for 49 cents per pound, which was 30 cents per pound cheaper than anyone else would sell them to us. What a blessing that was!
- Safeway in Dunkirk, which generously donates bread and bakery items every month.
- Our pastor for releasing funds to buy the turkeys.
- Our parishioners and my family who donated money and time to pick up food, sort food, put away food and purchase items to complete our Thanksgiving meal bags.
God bless all of your for your support.
Christmas is right around the corner, if you would like to help with our Christmas pantry.
— Karen Paquette, Chesapeake Beach: Food Pantry Volunteer Coordinator (410/257-0342).
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