HUNTLEY — For close to three decades now, the Fay’s pork chop and chicken BBQ dinner has graced the grounds of the St. John’s United Church of Christ in Huntley.
The annual dinner, held toward summer’s end, is the church’s largest fundraising effort.
St. John’s annual BBQ sold nearly 1,000 tickets. (Photo provided)
“Everyone in the church kind of gets tapped to participate; it’s a whole-church effort,” Carolyn Cuttie, a Sun City resident who joined the church seven years ago, said. “We each have our own specialties, and they just find a way to make it work.”
The picnic is a four-month process from conception to execution. During the planning stages, the Fay’s task force designates a local organization or charity to benefit – such as the Marengo or Hampshire food pantries – by receiving some of the overall profits.
This year was a little different. The church decided to switch gears and aim for a new target group – military families.
“We feel they don’t get enough help when they come back. They’re kind of the forgotten group. They have all these problems from re-living the experience, or not even being able to get a job back here even though they gave their life for the safety of our country. That’s why we wanted to help, to make sure they got some help in some way,” Erika Garbrecht, a member of the task force, said.
Her husband, Jim, served as the task force’s chair and said the decision was one of the best the church ever made, as it saw the highest turnout in recent memory – with approximately 955 tickets sold.
On Sunday, Dec. 2, following the church’s weekly Sunday service, representatives from the Hampshire and Genoa VFW’s were presented with identical checks – $1,068 – which accounted for half of the dinner’s profits.
“It was really heartwarming,” Cuttie, who was in attendance for the service, said. “They were just so thrilled because they knew exactly how and where to share it. It made me happy; it just made me so happy that we were able to pay it forward.”
According to Jim Garbrecht, the Genoa VFW had about four families that may have been able to benefit from the funds raised; Hampshire, he said, has about seven.
“One of the representatives said he knows one family, especially, who had nothing, so this will be such a wonderful surprise for them,” he said.
Nancy Polizzi, a Sun City resident who has been a member of the church for about a year, said the presentation brought tears to her eyes.
Cuttie has a personal connection to the military; her husband and father served in the Air Force during the Vietnam War and the Navy during World War II, respectively.
“I have a strong bias toward military families because, well, I’m a part of one, but we always try to infinity to help out the vets, both the old and the new,” she said.
While preparations for next year’s dinner won’t start for a couple of months, Garbrecht already has a couple of ideas forming. He knows he wants it to be another outreach-type project, but doesn’t know what organization will benefit just yet.
When asked if military families will be considered, seeing how well the church community supported them this time around, he said it’s a possibility.
“We have to get the task force together and get the different ideas from everyone involved, but especially after the emotional presentation on Sunday, I’m sure they might find their way back on that list,” he said.
